Sorry I missed it.
At the end of the day, are you going to let a low level financial aid rep’s attitude stop you from going to your dream college? In the end they apologized and gave you some aid. Keep your eye on the prize, everything else is just noise…
5k off 50k isn’t much and doesn’t change the fact Binghamton is a better value. It’s nice they decided to give you a scholarship to entice you but beside feeling valued by Pitt you should feel good about your decision to attend Bing. 
I am not surprised by your experience. Pitt has been taken off the list as a recommended school at my OOS school. When I applied last year, I was offered admission, but I did not receive any Merit. We found the information for a Diversity scholarship very misleading with very little specific information about the scholarship as well. My understanding is that my scores were “too low” as I needed to be in the 33 ACT range which was NEVER mentioned on the website. Perhaps they change it as well. At any rate, DO NOT SWEAT it and move on. You will be getting a fantastic education at Binghamton and you will be making lots of great friends. Embrace it! I have and I never looked back. It all works out at the end.
I just looked at the website and it seems that they have made some revisions with a few more details about “past” recipients. This information was not even listed last year or in previous years. It does not take away from the bad experience I had. My profile was exactly as what they are describing for these years applicants. I should at least give them a “kudos” for making some updates in “creating” some hope for future applicants I know that there is a very active admissions representative looking through these boars and maybe all my bitching and complaining was brought up to the admissions department. At least they are trying to be more transparent although I never bought into this “holistic” hogwash.
There is some very good advice in this thread. Among the best IMHO are:
- Don't have dream schools, people, etc. (also applies to dream houses when it's your time as it makes it difficult to make good decisions)
- Remember your mom's tears and how that made you feel
I would use that last one to develop empathy. Never make others feel how you felt that day. That’s key to becoming a great person.
Enjoy college and be wildly successful!
I agree that developing empathy is important, but another key lesson is that you can’t let rude/ignorant people ruin your day or your life. You are going to come across people like that fairly regularly. My FIL used to say, “I feel sorry for them - they have to live with themselves 24 hours a day!”
Wow. If the Pitt rep in admissions told you your SAT score was not high enough for merit then that’s fine. It isn’t high enough and it says so clearly on the Pitt website.
If she truly belittled you and said you didn’t “try hard enough” then that’s altogether different. I’m sorry she said that.
But the bottom line is from the beginning* you could see the merit threshold published right on the Pitt website. IT’s there in black and white. But despite that, you continued to hope that somehow your case would be different? Why would you do that to yourself? You should take ownership of that fact alone. You lived in dreamland.
I hope you can move forward and be happy with your choice.
My D17 got EA into one of her top 3 choices ,but she did not get Merit. She then in the last week of March got accepted to her top choice and with merit. What was interesting is that the EA school in April, came back and offered her lots of merit. By then we had paid the deposit at the number 1 school. If that EA school had offered her money sooner, it might have changed where she went . I understand that these schools have to look at their funds and when kids start turning down acceptances, they have money back in the pool for others, but it can shape appearances. move on and be happy where you are planted.
Most schools are very vague about the criteria for merit. They want to keep their options open to try to tempt the most desirable applicants once they see what the whole pool looks like. Sometimes money frees up and they can offer more.
Applicants should (1) recognize that colleges are businesses. It isn’t personal. (2) Keep your options open. Unless you have to commit before May 1, why do so really early? (A few colleges are unethical about how they handle housing deposits, requiring early commitments for decent housing, but otherwise there is no good reason). But if another college comes through with merit money after committing, you can just give up your deposit at the first college and switch, especially before May 1. Look at the big picture.
I like that Pitt tried to address your interest in the school with an award, esp after you felt dismissed and disrespected by an employee (who could also have been a student working in the office? I know some that work there as work-study). They probably looked again at your app, presented at committee and decided to offer a scholarship. I think you should be proud. And then go to Bing and have a great time!
My nephew transferred to Binghamton from GW and is very happy there. It’s a great school.
A lot of people are in your boat - no FASA $$ but still can’t afford expensive colleges.
You are lamenting this. One of the best life skills one can have is to let it go and move on. Bing is a great school. Great things will happen for you there if you embrace it and let them.
Your mom encountered one rude lady on the phone. So what. That’s life. Because of that and the fact that you can’t afford Pitt, doesn’t mean you should suggest others not apply there. Nobody is entitled to anything. Ever.
How many kids in the word will never get to go to college? You’re not one of them. Be happy, move on, and don’t be bitter. Bitterness will get you nothing.
Don’t let rude admissions staff take you down (yes, I found more than one rude person in the admissions office, so it’s not just you) Binghamton has a prettier campus, better dorms and superior for some majors. Friends with kids at Pitt have reported a decline too - no reason to be that way because they are a hot school. Admissions staff at Binghamton University were much more helpful - a good indicator. Don’t be discouraged!
Unfortunately, every organization has some nasty employees and members that say things that are horribly rude. WHat happened to your mother was beyond rude. I’m really sorry that happened. I’d write a formal complaint against this woman because what she said is inexcusable.
That woman is not representative of Pitt. Sometimes someone like that slips through the cracks and finds the way into a position of customer service that they cannot handle. I’ve had a lot of contact with Pitt and seen administrators there work with some very difficult people with the upmost kindness and patience. One of my kids went to Pitt and though I can’t say it’s a perfect school and that all went swimmingly well, it was not difficult dealing with the personnel there. He enjoyed all four year in Pittsburgh and is a proud Pitt grad.
Was it worth the premium cost over a SUNY? NY is also our state. We were in the situation where we could afford to send him OOS and it did cost us a lot more than Binghamton or Buffalo would have. Less than the private schools that were also on his list and about the same cost as most of the OOS publics.
I think you have a great deal and great school with Binghamton. Look at the forum boards for this school. It’s filled with many people, NYers and OOSers for whom Binghamton is a first class, first choice school Congratulations on your acceptance there. I would not think a moment more about Pitt.
You wanna talk about rude admissions people - try calling Temple. If you’re lucky enough to get through you get someone that’s either clueless or nasty and usually both.
I’ve only ever called Pitt once to talk to financial aid and this woman was VERY nice and patient and answered all my questions. No complaints at all.
To all the people who are saying that they don’t believe that a Pitt rep would be that rude, here’s my story: I was being quoted out of state tuition even though I am in state. I called financial aid, who had me on the line for 30 mins then transferred me to admissions, who then transferred me back to the same guy at financial aid, who tried to send me back to admissions but I told him not to so he sent me to some IT manager, who promptly transferred me back to a admissions. I called back a month later directly to my regional rep, who was absolutely useless, and kept rudely interrupting me, and tried to tell me 3 different ways that I should be paying 52,000 a year as an in-state student. He said he would call me back with more info but never did. So yeah, Pitt is off my list. Plus the fact that their portal is seriously just a blank page with no instruction on how to see anything relevant whatsoever.
edit: I’m not saying that Pitt doesn’t have any nice admissions people. I’m just saying that a whole bunch of them seem totally incompetent.
Also, @pittsburghscribe why did your nephew transfer from GW? I’m looking there now and was just wondering.
Good morning all,
We don’t like seeing posts about our institution like this so I want to apologize on behalf of our team if you feel that you have been treated unprofessionally by any of our representatives. We hold ourselves to a pretty high standard and are customer service driven (which is why I’m always here trying to answer your questions). Unfortunately, we cannot control everyone nor do we see/hear the conversations they have with you over the phone. We simply trust that our staff will do the right thing. All of your comments and concerns will be shared with our leadership team so that we can continue to strive to provide the highest quality of service that we can.
-Pitt Admissions Staffer
We attended last weekend’s admitted student day and one of the things that struck me was how exceptionally nice and friendly all the staff and students were. But unfortunately with any institution, there are going to be some people who are not as friendly or helpful.
@Henloo my nephew loved being in DC and I believe enjoyed his classes for the most part. He really didn’t care for the student body. Although he is from an upper middle class background in suburban NY, he found the GW students to be privileged and unenjoyable as peers. Since GW doesn’t have dining facilities that would facilitate mixing and I don’t believe he joined much in the way of clubs, I assume he was basing his opinion on the students in his dorm so living somewhere else he might have had an entirely different experience. He is much happier with the students at Binghampton, but as I said, that may be a function of circumstance as much as the school.