Just returned from a six college tour. University of Pittsburgh is now my sons number one choice. He loved it and I loved it. Wondering what the odds are for receiving a merit award? The information session was somewhat vague and just said that they are competitive. My son is OOS and would need to get something to make it feasible to attend. What types of awards have students gotten? BTW, white male, chemE major, 5/541, 35 ACT, no real extracurriculars but is two season athlete in cross country and track
For starters, it is easier to get merit aid if you are OOS rather than IS. For engineering, the nice thing is that there is an additional pool of money specifically for those students thanks to generous alumni contributions. You can also double dip merit between the University/UHC and the SSOE.
The state you come from matters, a “rare” state like Colorado will be a little easier to get merit from than a “common” state like Maryland or New Jersey. The white male part doesn’t add any additional hooks, especially in Engineering, unfortunately. The sports and good grades/ACT should help, but the lack of any other activities might hurt.
Mostly it’s a crapshoot. The numbers lets you into the pool but any variety of factors is what makes you stand out to get money. A full application early on (i.e. LoR, essay, resume of activities) will help with this.
Our scholarship review process is holistic. As our site states, scholarship eligible students have possessed all of the following in recent years:
-minimum SAT score of 1450 (math and critical reading scores only) or 33 ACT (Math and English subscores average)
-overall ‘A’ average
-top 5% class rank (if applicable) while participating in challenging high school curriculums consisting of AP/IB/Honors courses
-record of excellence in various academic and nonacademic activities outside of the classroom
Our scholarships range from $2000/per year to full tuition. The best advice I can give you is to apply before January 15th, which is the cut-off date for automatic review for scholarship eligibility. Beyond that, encourage your son to work on providing our Committee with great information about himself. While the application itself will not open until mid-August, we have already posted the short-answer questions (optional), so he can get started on those now if he would like. https://oafa.pitt.edu/apply/admissions-process/freshmen/
Best of luck!
A Pitt Admissions Staffer
@perch1024, My son is also a white male with limited ECs, though he too did XC and track 1560/2300 SAT, 4.0 UW GPA/4.72 GPA, from MD.Applied to business school and got full-tuition. He loved Pitt and will be there in the fall. Good luck to you and your son.