Has anyone received their financial aid packet in the mail yet? If not, any idea when they will be mailed?
I’ve heard elsewhere that they would go out at the end of the month.
Does anyone have any recent updates on the packets?
Would Pitt give me financial aid money even if I don’t qualify for any from FAFSA?
Chelsey123 - If they were giving you any merit money, you would know by now. IMHO, Pitt is not that generous, especially for OOS, so I would say “No” to your question.
I don’t know. Someone mentioned getting a need-based grant from Pitt in their packet last year, but I don’t know if that was institutional or federal/PA grant. I know our EFC is too high for Pell so all we might qualify for would be federal loans and maybe a small PA grant.
I called Pitt today because my S is also waiting for his financial aid packet. They person told me it should arrive by the first week in April. Hum, tomorrow is April 1 so hopefully it will arrive soon. We are wondering if Pitt will be generous with the need based aid.
I’ll repeat myself…Pitt is not known for being generous with aid.
And another thing…There is no excuse for Pitt not being ale to get the aid packages out by March 31st.
Every other school my D applied to managed to do it and many of them get tons more applications than Pitt. Some that she applied to EA got her the info before Xmas.
Obviously, Pitt Admissions has room to improve. They should be embarrassed.
@adkdad, totally agree with you. My S managed to apply by early September, was accepted by end of October. Only heard about merit in March, and still waiting on financial package-although it will probably only contain loans. Still, it is ridiculous that we are still waiting for this information.
I called the office on Monday and was told “maybe” by end of this week by a gentleman who was condescending towards me.
With the little merit my S received I know Pitt will not be affordable, but S is unwilling to move forward with decisions until financial package arrives from Pitt. I know that admissions and the finance office shouldn’t affect school choice, but after this long of a wait I am more than ready to tell Pitt good-bye.
@adkdad, I totally agree that Pitt is not generous even with merit scholarships. My daughter is a freshman this year at Pitt, we are from the Upstate ny area. Although she applied to Pitt late last year she received only a $5000 per year scholarship. We tried getting at least $10,000 per year and they wouldn’t budge an inch. Funny because she has met other freshmen from the Rochester area at Sutherland dorm and they got between 10,000-15,000 per year that applied later too. Similar stats etc…lWe are from the Albany area. I don’t know if geographically in NY Rochester students are considered more desirable than Albany students, who knows… Anyways, after maintaining a 4.0 average all freshman year she decided to go back and see if she could get more merit money. She figured maybe Pitt would budge as she had proven herself academically at their university. She again was denied. She has decided to transfer back to NY next year and save a lot more money. She feels she’s paying a ridiculous amount of money for a public education that she can get here for a lot less. Smart young lady…we told her we support her decision to stay at Pitt or transfer back to NYS. Good bye Pitt!
The fact is that Pitt and also Penn State are public institutions and if you have a similar school in your own state it would make sense to go there (if cost is a concern) because the tax payers of a state support their own schools and public schools usually charge more for OOS than IS. We are from PA and Pitt is the best school for my daughter’s major closest to home and most affordable for us because of the merit scholarship she received.
Pitt was the most affordable choice because of generous merit aid for 3 of my children - including being more affordable and stronger in bioE than our in-state public. That being said, no, not everyone will be so lucky. All of our children are lucky that they have options and I believe will “bloom where planted” so good luck to all!
fwiw - Pitt/PSU/etc depend on funding from the state (obviously) but that the state budget doesn’t get approved, and appropriations understood until July (7/10/14 last yr). as much as OAFA can work it up quicker maybe, as an area for improvement as @adkdad mentioned, PA budget timeline would impact the speed of their process.
Some schools have February financial aid deadlines which brings problems for some people who can’t file their taxes that early. With the March 1 priority deadline at Pitt we were able to file our taxes, and update the FAFSA with the DRT so they have our correct information.
@amandakayak, I’m curious at to which state you are from and are your children attending Pitt now or graduated?
Daughter received an email today indicating that she will receive no further aid. The Net Price Calculator @Pitt doesn’t work. We are a family of four with <50K net income. The calc at Pitt had shown her receiving 7.7k in further aid. So the shortfall will be ~ 21K/yr. Wally World here I come!
I just got off the phone with a financial aid rep. and she said that they will be emailing the students around the end of next week about financial aid packets. They will be available online and they will send a hardcopy through the mail.
@apittparent Your d received an email today? Was it in response to a question or was it the official financial aid email generated from Pitt? tcangoz said they were just told emails wouldn’t go out til the end of next week… It would be nice if they were coming today.
@Goldenwillow I have a graduating Pitt senior, a soph and will have a frosh entering in the fall. First got 10K merit, second 19K merit, and last full tuition (didn’t make chancellors). We are from NJ and they all had stats which got them some but not great merit at Rutgers (our in-state public) and the two who are at Pitt have really had a great time there, senior is a ChemE/bioE, soph is BioE and entering frosh intended BioE as well.