Class of 2021 Merit Scholarships

Hi,

I have been keeping track of posts in this particular thread because I am growing increasingly concerned with my merit scholarship information. I have a 33 ACT, a 4.31 GPA, many AP and honors classes. I was hoping to get a decent amount of aid as I am out of state. Does my intended major influence merit at all? I’m just hoping to get an understanding of how the process works so I can feel less anxious while waiting for my letter. Any information on how this all works and when I may receive a letter would be fantastic.

Thanks!

@continuous_student
H2P says scholarship notifications are going out through March.

What is your intended major?

I believe so far there has been a 33 (or maybe a few?) who reported they got $10,000 per year. Hang in there…waiting is so hard!

I plan to go into psychology. I’m really hoping to get in state tuition even though I know it seems a little unlikely. I really want to go to Pitt, but financial aid is crucial! I know they go out until March, but you’re right, the waiting is so hard!

In reading through the threads I found only one student (from OOS) with a 33 ACT who received merit aid ($10,000). I have to believe that others with a 33 ACT (the bare minimum threshold level that Pitt website says is needed for merit aid consideration) and high gpa/rigorous high school program (with honors APs), including my daughter, all of whom are OOS,will hear back in the next few waves. With Pitt being a school with over 3 billion endowment I am surprised at how little merit aid they give out. Perhaps like other elite state schools (Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State) they just don’t need to anymore, in order to get their quota of the highest stat students to attend.

I agree…if my daughter does not receiver a merit scholarship from Pitt, she will not attend. She has a 33 ACT and many APs and extracurriculars. It seems that maybe they had such an influx of 34 and above ACT scores that they are not concerned that the lower scoring students might not attend.

Very sad. Pitt has been where I wanted to go forever. I’m from Va and if I don’t get offered something I know my parents are going to say no way. We have great schools in state. I have been offered a great deal from an OOS school that I don’t like nearly as much. I also have a 33 ACT, lots of great EC and high rank in a big class. I applied super early ( early Sept) and heard right back. Was SO excited…But have not heard anything about merit

I have a 1430 on New SAT, 3/200 class rank, 96.7 unweighted GPA. For EC I am an Eagle Scout, 4 year volleyball letterman, National Honor Society President. Is there any chance I get a merit scholarship from Pitt? I applied back in August. It seems crazy to me how high the bar is set for merit awards from Pitt. Maybe it’s because of the large amount of Pitt applicants who have above average stats.

I’ve also taken every AP course my school offers if that makes any difference.

If it helps any of you out, I know my best friend just got merit with a 1310 – 10k to swanson. In state. It looks like they’re going below the thresholds this year.

@outtahere2017 Thx! Do you know when your friend was notified?

@outahere —hmmm that sounds ridiculously high for that score. Are you sure that was their final score? Maybe they had a higher ACT score?

And was that merit offered THIS admissions season?

In the Pitt 2015/16 common data set it mentions that over 40% of freshman students had an ACT of 30-36, and over 70% of them had a GPA of at or above 3.75

It also says that Pitt paid out in 2014/15 institutional non-need based aid to 235 freshmen, average amount of $10,312. And total non-need based aid of $22,388,730.

Penn State paid out in 2014/15 non-need based aid of average $4,540 to 652 freshmen and total non-need based aid of $15,856,792.

And Michigan paid out average non-need based aid of $5,720 to 1,221 freshmen and total non-need based aid of $50,138,035 in the same year.

^it is not clear how much of these amounts were for instate or OOS students.

I am certain there have to be other 33’s out there that have just not posted although I was pretty sure I had read of other 33s before my son even applied. Many of you have posted very impressive stats/ ECs. I’ll provide more details in case it is in anyway helpful:

33 ACT

School does not rank and does not calculate GPA so no self-reported GPA was provided. All final grades for 9 - 11 are provided on the app so an AOs can easily calculate it out with a quick glance. His GPA is a 3.9.

Accepted to Dietrich (maybe merit is being decided on a college basis rather than university?) I’d imagine Swanson is getting very, very high stat kids which may raise the ACT/ SAT merit aid scores required higher?)

OOS (we are in the south which northeastern schools view as adding a level of diversity because many kids from the south don’t want to deal with the cold weather)

National Merit SF

Intended major: linguistics

5 years of math, 5 years of social studies, 5 years of foreign language, 5.5 years of english, two years of fine arts: (all taken in grades 9 - 12) - opted not to include HS level courses in math and foreign language taken during MS.

Studies two languages: Chinese and Japanese

Visited campus

Essays:

  • Overcoming failure? Not sure of the exact question as my son named the document “failure”: Wrote about how he found ways to overcome challenges (his feeling of failure in getting the two B+s that are on his transcript) caused by a serious medical illness. Also wrote how once he figured it out, he further challenged himself.

-Leadership : Wrote about helping an elementary school boy overcome some obstacles that helped changed this boy’s life. He could have written about leadership in Debate or Track but chose what was most meaningful to him.

  • Why Pitt?: At the time the app was written, we had not visited Pitt. He wrote about Pitt being an exciting city to go to school in, then moved to what he intends to major in and the strength of Pitt's programs, then closed with how the combination of the opportunities available in Pitt and at Pitt would give him the college experience he is looking for.

I have no idea what aspects were the deciding factors but that provides a snapshot of what Pitt was provided.

Regional diversity may definitely play a role, also ethnic diversity.

And the school applied to.

@MomTwentySeven She was notified just after Christmas, but the letter was postmarked earlier.

@carachel2 That was the final score, and she didn’t take the ACT. It was this season. The only thing that I can think of being a tipping point is the fact that she’s an URM, and the fact that her essays were phenomenal.

@outtahere2017

As @mommdc says–I think regional and ethnic diversity all play a role as well as the essays, rigor and test scores.

The bottom line is it’s not guaranteed merit. It is holistic for sure and all sorts of factors are considered. Regardless, it’s very tough. If you received anything at all you can know you were in a super competitive pool and it’s a big deal.

@mommdc - thanks for posting the information from the Common Data Set. I was trying to figure out how those total non-need based numbers relate to the average 1st time freshman scholarships (simply multiplying by 4 years is way off for all 3 colleges).

I looked at the CDS to see if I could get a better understanding, and am wondering if the answer is that some non-need based aid is used to make up need-based financial aid, and that those numbers are included in a different section (as indicated on the CDS).

If I’m reading it correctly, the 1st time freshman numbers (235 students/$10,312 average for Pitt) are for just those students who do not qualify for any need-based aid. Does this sound correct? If so, would that also mean that there are other first time freshman who received merit (non-need based) aid in addition to those 235? This would also help clear up why the total non-need based aid awarded each year seems so high. Do you, or does anyone, know roughly how many freshman get merit aid offers each year?

The $10,312 average also indicates that there are lots of lower awards ($7,500, $5,000, and $2,500?) given, and very few, if any, have been reported here (Thinking I saw maybe one for $5,000, but can’t remember). Perhaps there are still many more awards to come, even if they are not as high as the highest ones posted so far.

(Have also been following this discussion closely, as my child is yet another 33 ACT scorer with high GPA and high course rigor who was admitted quite a while ago, but who has not heard anything about merit aid (OOS). Still very much hoping to hear something. Congratulations to all who have already received merit aid, and good luck to all who are waiting. Hoping they all get good news soon.)

@Mom20132017, yes, it does mention in the CDS that some non-need based aid might have been used to meet need, and also that 166 freshman students who received need based aid also received non-need based aid.

So from that we could conclude that at least 235 +166 = 401 students got merit scholarships in 2014/15

You cannot multiply the average award by the number of students and arrive at the total of non-need based aid awarded because we don’t know how much each individual student was awarded.

As far as I know instate students can get $2,000 $5,000 $10,000 or full tuition (about $17,688 in A&S right now) merit.

For OOS it seems to be $10,000 $15,000 $20,000 full tuition

Of course there are also about 10 Chancellor and 5 Stamps full rides.

The reason I posted the CDS data about merit from Pitt, PSU and Michigan was to show that Pitt does give a lot of merit and while fewer students might receive an award the average award given is higher.

@mommdc Thanks for the clarification. I didn’t see the 166 students who got both need and non-need based aid. My sense was that about 400 students receive merit aid.

Do you have any idea how many people are offered merit aid (as opposed to the enrolled students listed on the CDS?

Also, I was just doing that math to get a ballpark and it was so wildly off that there had to be some other missing info. Thank you for providing that piece - the 166 students who got both types of aid.

Lastly, yes, I would agree that Pitt is very generous with scholarship money. I believe some OOS students get lower merit aid awards as well (or did in past years) - at least their parents described their offers as “small awards”. I don’t have any solid confirmation of that, though.

Again, thanks for all the information. Much appreciated!