Merit Aid, University of Pittsburgh, class of 2028

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pittsburgh
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They have said in the past that some people get merit after being considered multiple times in committee (or words to that effect).

So I would suggest perhaps these are just the OOS admits that were waiting for the committee when they began deliberations, and were somehow tagged as relatively easy decisions, at least in terms of whether to give merit, but also perhaps in terms of how much (I am not sure about that last bit, but if they have some sort of merit-amount/yield model, it could given more or less certain amount answers for different candidates).

So I personally would not be too concerned if yours was not one of the ones decided in the very first round.

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Congratulations to those who have started to receive Merit. We are OOS and daughter had high GPA but did not submit test scores. Not sure if we should be expecting scholarship without test scores submitted.

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23

I am pretty sure that happened last year, although I do not know under what exact circumstances.

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FWIW, first comment on this thread was TO.

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I mean it FEELS like a year ago . . . .

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We were the case with decision on 9/28. Our SAT was 1490. I don’t think there is much to distinguish between 1490 and 1480 :slight_smile:

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My son has a merit letter dated 10/17. He applied 8/22, accepted 9/5. Swanson School of Engineering. OOS. 35 ACT, 4.6 weighted GPA. Very excited!

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28

Would you mind sharing the merit amount? Thank you

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DS was offered $10k/year ($40K total) in a letter dated 10/17. Very happy!

OOS, Dietrich A&S, major Sociology
SAT submitted (super score): 1520 (790 R/W, 730 math)
GPA: 4.23 weighted, 3.8 unweighted
8 AP’s, leadership, service, varsity athlete (1 sport)
Applied on 8/16, notified of admission 8/29.

Really happy! This is one of his top choices.

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Is it only Dietrich school that offers this merit aid?

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DS was offered $10/per tear ($40K total)
In-state
Swanson School of Engineering
Date on letter 10/17

Applied 9/8, Accepted 9/18

GPA UW: 4.03 (1 B+, rest A and A+), all honors and AP except 1 class freshman year
SAT: 1550 (790M, 760V), NMSF (not known before application submitted)
APs: 4 - all 5s (Calc BC, German, World, Physics C Mech)

Good ECs - large time commitments - no leadership positions, included photos and description of independent projects
Good essay about independents projects, getting in over his head, learning and being willing to take risks and leave comfort zone

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Senior year schedule - 6 AP classes

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Anyone IS receive merit yet? I just saw one on this thread. Most (if not all) are OOS merit.

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It’s common for public universities to offer more merit to OOS students to entice those with higher stats to not enroll in their much cheaper flagships. Pitt offered my daughter $8000 a year a couple of years ago, Rutgers offered $0 (she was offered merit at the 18 OOS schools she applied to).

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Surprised to see the OOS awards of only $10K with the stats of those admitted students. Would think with those stats the committee would award the $20K.

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Same. There will likely be another merit wave this upcoming late-Tuesday/Wednesday. It will be interesting to see if in-state gets more representation. But looking at last year, it may be one more week before that happens.

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Completely unscientific, but poking around prior years, it seemed to me like OOS Swanson admits were most likely to get the $20K, and it was not necessarily the highest GPA/test combinations. It could of course be other qualifications, but I note my understanding is a lot of colleges with robust merit programs have yield models which help them determine the most efficient allocation of merit, and it is not necessarily as simple as the most qualified getting the most merit.

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So, is your thinking that the high stats OOS kids get less merit as Pitt assumes that even though they applied, they’ll ultimately go somewhere else? In other words, protecting their yield?

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39

So my basic understanding of what Pitt is doing is it is targeting a certain sort of enrolled class, which will have a variety of different characteristics, including net tuition (tuition minus any grants being paid), a balance of in-state and OOS students, and anything else Pitt considers desirable.

The problem that Pitt, and many other colleges, faces is that just because they admit someone, doesn’t mean they will enroll. And different types of people will enroll at different rates.

So one thing they can do is admit people based on some sort of yield model. But they can then also get proactive by offering things like merit, guaranteed admissions programs, and so on. Logically, those sorts of additional inducements may improve yield.

When it comes to merit, though, any merit they offer reduces net tuition if accepted. So they have to watch how much merit they offer to get more students to yield, such that the yield model does not show they won’t satisfy their net tuition target once people actually enroll.

OK, so given all this, they might well have some sort of sophisticated tool that is helping them determine who should be offered what in merit so as to best achieve their overall goals once they actually enroll a class. And given how complex this is, the outputs of that model might not always have an obvious intuitive explanation. Like, purely hypothetically, their model may end up creating a pattern where OOS people from one state or region get more merit than another. Why? Well, the immediate explanation might be just the model says that will help optimize the enrolled class. But why that? It could be some complicated set of interacting factors involving the distribution of probabilities over possible in-state alternatives, private alternatives, academic interests–who knows?

OK, so I was hypothesizing here that if it is true OOS Swanson admits were more likely to get the $20K, it could be because of a yield model. Why? Because the model says that will help optimize the enrolled class. But why that? Could be any sort of complicated set of interacting factors.

But I doubt it is as simple as high stats kids getting less, or yield protection per se (I don’t think Pitt has any reason to yield protect per se). I think it is more likely that the question of where a big award is most likely to pay off in other ways can depend on a lot of complex interacting factors, not just the individual’s academic qualifications.

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@Charmagfan , I don’t believe Pitt tries to yield protect. Five years back I heard that once Pitt liked some OOS kid (they used to give more weight to stats then, now it seems more holistic), they try to match the Instate tuition of the student. So, if the Instate tuition is less, the student might get more merit aid. It turned out to be true for my daughter, they exactly matched our Instate fee. She took it and was very happy at Pitt. she is a freshman at PittMed now.

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