<p>Hey guys,
Okay so I was admitted to Pitt for the fall 2010 semester as a freshman. I visited there and ADORED it. It's my top choice school now to say the least. Anyway...I'm an OOS student and the cost of Pitt per year for me would be roughly $35000.
Because of my family's financial situation, I was offered only $5500 a year in loans.
My family is NOT extremely well off and will not be able to pay for the school if that is all they are willing to offer.
I have a 31 on my ACTs, am in the top 10% of my class and have a lot of extra curriculars, but got offered no merit aid.</p>
<p>Rutgers NB offered me $2500 a year, bringing my estimated cost of attendance down to about 21000 a year there. Rutgers is cool and all, but i dont feel the same about it as I do about Pitt.</p>
<p>Any advice as to what I should do? </p>
<p>I really really want to go to Pitt and I hate the fact that financial aid is bringing me down</p>
<p>How much money can you and your family contribute? </p>
<p>I have to tell you, attending an Out of State Public school without enough money to pay tuition usually don’t work. If your family really doesn’t have enough money to meet the gap and you aren’t willing to shoulder hefty loans, I don’t think that it will be possible.</p>
<p>idk i mean…my parents dont have extra money lying around but we aren’t poor either. i would be willing to take on loans, but i’m not really sure how loans work. i would have to ask around.</p>
<p>It’s important that you talk to them about this. A random stranger on the Internet can’t tell you how much your parents will contribute towards your education, or whether or not they will help you get loans by cosigning their names to it.</p>
<p>ok…so my dad said that he would be able to pay $25k a year without too much of a problem. with loans, attempting to get the position of RA and everything else, do you think pitt is financially plausible? im starting to think it is, but still im unsure</p>
<p>Now it seems plausible. I’m assuming that the $5,500 is an Unsubsidized Stafford loans. If your father can pay the $25,000 each and every year, then you only have a gap of $5000 a year. A summer job and perhaps employment during the year should be able to take a chunk out of that.</p>
<p>Do you have an itemized list of what each part of that $35000/year figure that you quoted earlier means? While costs like tuition, room, and board are fixed, one thing that you’ll find is that things like “personal expenses” and “transportation” are pretty malleable and the figures that the university gives you are dramatically overinflated. Chances are, the cost of attendance is quite a bit lower than the estimates that the college gives you.</p>
<p>IF your dad can contribute $25k per year, then you should go to a school that would better fit THAT amount along with maybe a small Stafford loan.</p>
<p>UPitt is a nice school, but not worth a bunch of debt. At this point, your debt would be AT LEAST $40k (and that is low since costs go up every year). And what if there are years that your dad can’t give $25k?</p>
<p>What did you like about it? **What is your intended major?</p>
<p>With an ACT 31, there might still be a school that would give you merit. What is your GPA?**</p>
<p>I love the city of Pittsburgh. It’s not as hustle bustle as New York but still has a lot going on…its so culturally rich and beautiful, I just love it. I hope to double major in Int. Studies (with a focus in the middle east) and religious studies. Pitt offers amazing study abroad opportunities which appeal to me. Also when I visited all the students just seemed happy and it seemed like there was a lot of Pitt pride, which I liked.</p>
<p>My GPA is 3.4. not the best. i messed up sophomore year.</p>
<p>Did you ever find out what that Cost of Attendance contained? There might be a lot of fat that you can trim off that might make this school affordable with a summer job and heavy parental support.</p>
<p>It doesn’t look like there’s any fluff in Pitt’s COA</p>
<p>Tuition for 2010 is about $25k for OOS students (ranges from about $24k - 30k depending on major)
Fees are about $1k
Room & Board is about $10k
books are about $1k</p>
<p>That’s $37k and that’s without any transportation costs or personal expenses - which could be another $3k or so.</p>
I’m assuming that the $5,500 is an Unsubsidized Stafford loans. If your father can pay the $25,000 each and every year, then you only have a gap of $5000 a year. A summer job and perhaps employment during the year should be able to take a chunk out of that.</p>