I received my acceptance letter in the mail today and it didn’t say anything about a scholarship. Does this mean I didn’t get a scholarship? I applied before January 15th, but they confirmed that they processed everything afterwards.
Also, some of my stats if that’s helpful…
2050 SAT (650 CR, 710 writing, 690 math)
Realllllly low GPA… ~3.4, but I attend a very competitive OOS school
Excellent EC’s, lots of leadership
Thanks
I’d say you did not receive a scholarship. Generally, they require around a 1450 for scholarship consideration (reading and math combined) and you have a 1340. The low GPA would especially slim your chances even more. You will know for sure by March 1st as this is the deadline for them sending out the scholarship notices.
i agree, it is unlikley you will get merit scholarship. my kid, who applied last year, did not get a merit scholarship. however, we were very suprised he quailifed for a need based grant of around 5K. obs, those are based on family finances but there are many schools out there with a similar price tag to Pitt where he would not have been offered a need based grant at all. And my long winded point is don’t give up yet as our story is proof that Pitt is very generous with need based aid as well, even for families with “middle class” EFC’s.
Thanks for the responses @Chelsey123 and @ctl987 .
Are merit scholarships only given based on GPA and test scores? I sent some impressive music recordings as well. I know some schools will give scholarships based on that if they want you in their band.
^^I doubt if Pitt is such a school.
There is a jazz scholarship offered - here is last yrs app http://www.music.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/2014-15_bny_mellon_scholarship_app.pdf
@amandakayak - Do you know if there is a classical scholarship too? That’s more of my forte (pun intended?) in terms of music.
@TomSrOfBoston -Yeah, I’m not completely sure. In the application they do ask if you are interested in playing in the band, what instrument you play, and if you would like to send recordings.
I have never heard of a specific music scholarship other than that jazz one - and marching band now offers a small scholarship (based on yrs in the band and small - like $400 for a 4 yr member). You can contact the music dept to ask about anything else but Pitt’s music dept is small and I doubt there is anything else.
We do not send scholarship letters with acceptance letters. Our Scholarship Committee meets once a week to review applications and make decisions. They plan to notify all students who are selected for scholarships by March 1.
If you would like to know what our committee looks at when they are considering an app for scholarships, you can refer to this information from our site:
"Criteria for scholarship consideration include SAT/ACT results, overall grade point average, class rank (if applicable) and strength of curriculum. Activities outside of the classroom such as leadership positions, athletics, community service, etc. are reviewed but given secondary consideration.
In recent years, scholarship eligible students possessed ALL of the following:
-minimum SAT score of 1450 (math and critical reading scores only) or 33 ACT (Math and English subscores average)
-overall ‘A’ average
-top 5% class rank (if applicable) while participating in challenging high school curriculums consisting of AP/IB/Honors courses
-record of excellence in various academic and nonacademic activities outside of the classroom."
https://oafa.pitt.edu/learn-about-aid/academic-scholarships/
Best of luck!
-A Pitt Admissions Staffer
I had a 32 ACT, 3.98 weighted GPA, (3.75 uw) And I received 10,000k a year.
There is no way I would have been competetive for scholarships with those stats, so it must have been the musical recording I sent and my cross country state participation that allowed me the merit aid.
Pitt looks at you as a whole. Yes, they tell you that a 33 ACT and 4.0 uw are the lowest qualifications for merit aid consideration, but if you can prove to them you have major skills despite having lower tests/GPA, then you might have a chance…
Although, your GPA still seems too low… don’t give up, but don’t get your hopes up either…
S has a 33 ACT E/M super score (32 math-34 English) National Merit Commended Scholar and is second in his class of 50 (4.0 u.w). Many awards in music including All State in percussion with leadership in marching band/drum line… His plan was to double major in Engineering and music.He knew his ACT was a bit low for a substantial scholarship but hoped being OOS from Tennessee would help. The merit aid of $10,000/year is wonderful and appreciated but may make his top choice out of reach.
se1997, no, in theory, pitt does not rely solely on test scores and class ranks so i am glad u sent your music information in. my unofficial impression however is the test scores and class ranks are crucial to at least get in the scholarship pool. and my guess is yours will be too low to get in the pool. i would have to pull out my son’s acceptance letter but i think he was notified in that letter that he was in the pool. maybe he got something a week later. either way, we knew pretty fast he was at least under scholarship consideration even though he did not end up with one at the end of the day. he applied last year and there are some differences this year but the 1450/33 ACT, top 5 percent class rank still seem to apply as a guideline, not a hard and fast criteria as was pointed out in a post above. if i were in your shoes, i would assume you will not get a merit scholarship and make plans along those lines. if you end up with one, it can come as a wonderful surprise. and file your fafsa so you can find out about need based aid. we got our letter for need based aid toward the end of March.