<p>Yes, LurkNess is right: apply early since UPitt has rolling admissions and notice of merit $ is sent after acceptance. Also, visit the campus. Many schools include "demontrated interest" in their common data sets. IMO, visiting could help push a competitive candidate to the top of the applicant pool. Remember, UPItt gets thousands of applications each year - and everyone is seeking merit $$. (I think it's going to become a "hot" school if it's not one already.)</p>
<p>I've posted this before but if it helps. D got the full tuition, an engrg scholarship and a study abroad scholarship. She had an ACT 35, was NMF, strong consistent EC's, good LOR's, strong essay. She is also OOS from a part of the country not well represented at Pitt (gulf coast). Most of her friends also have scholarships, and while if you run with that crowd it seems like "everyone" has merit $$, it would be very mistaken to assume that somehow Pitt isn't competitive. There was an article in the local paper about merit aid in colleges and the numbers for Pitt were really small. Only about 5% or so of the freshman get merit money, and that includes the small $2,000 scholarship people. Maybe people with 1560 SATs think "everyone" gets that type of score. Of course not, which is why it's called the 99th percentile.</p>
<p>Oh, another thing besides being OOS that may help with a scholarship is your ability to "tweak the profile" of the student body, like being from really far away or being ethnic. I think Pitt even has special scholarship money for different ethnic groups and in different majors to up their numbers in enrollment. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>btw - when I said local paper above, I actually meant the Pittsburgh paper. We read it in October when we were up for Parents Weekend and there was a big article on college costs, financial aid and merit aid and they were comparing all the various colleges in Pittsburgh. Frankly, it was amazing to us just how special D's scholarship was 'cause we didn't realize how few they gave out.</p>
<p>And it isn't just OOS kids who get them, 'cause one of the kids they profiled who got the Chancellors free ride was a boy from Pittsburgh who had been home schooled and got a really high SAT score plus had lots of unusual ECs, probably due to the fact he had an unusual schooling arrangement.</p>
<p>My nephew got full tuition at UPitt, but only if he agreed to go to Johnstown campus, which is about 2 hrs east of Pittsburgh in the Laurel mountains. He agreed to try it for a year. I think they called his aid something like: Mountain Scholars... that's not it but it had a goofy name like that.</p>
<p>His stats: 1510 SATs, CR710, M800
I think his rank was top 5%
In-state, public high school
Applied late or might have gotten Pittsburgh campus.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the replies! A few more questions though. How does Pitt view the ACT? Does anyone know the cutoff for that in terms of the full scholarship?</p>
<p>They consider it the same as the SAT. What they do is for scholarship consideration, they look for a 32 ACT, which is equal to a 1400 SAT. I'm assuming that the lower 1400s get the $2000 scholarship while the higher 1400s to lower 1500s get the $10,000. But then again i'm not positively sure, but it also depends on when you apply.</p>
<p>What Pitt does is convert your ACT score to an SAT score. So, for example if you get a 34 ACT, it's converted to the SAT score which is I think about a 1520. I think the lady told me that they convert your math ACT to an SAT math scaled score and do the same for the reading, but i might have misheard her, because it sounds pretty wierd lol</p>
<p>How much weight would being a National Merit Scholarship finalist or semifinalist have?</p>
<p>I know somebody with NMS and they got offered full ride or full tuition.</p>
<p>^^^ I don't know if that's Pitt's official policy or not. I know a NMF who applied late (like early January) and got half tuition.</p>
<p>There's no specific criteria for getting a full scholarship, but being a NMS finalist definitely doesn't hurt.</p>
<p>IMO, Pitt looks for strong, demanding hs courses on the transcript for scholarship consideration. You could have outstanding scores - but you have to prove that you can take on challenging academic work and do well.</p>
<p>Pitt is on the list of colleges who provide a one time NMF scholarship of $2000. I have never seen it posted in any of Pitt's scholarship information, but it is in the National Merit Corp. info. I haven't heard of anyone getting it from Pitt though because I think they tend to offer NM Semi-finalist and Finalists more than $2000 in scholarships. My D put Pitt as first choice, but she had already been accepted and scholarship given to her before she knew she was a finalist since she applied in Oct. They did know she was a semi-finalist at that time though if I remember correctly. So chances are if you are a semi-finalist you have a good shot at getting some decent money. Another guy from my D school was also a finalist and offered full tuition from Pitt, but declined it to go to another school.</p>