<p>My name is Austin. I am a senior at a high school in Nebraska. I applied to University of Pittsburgh on Dec. 10th. I got my acceptance letter January 2nd and then today I got a letter telling me that I was not awarded any merit scholarships at all.</p>
<p>I am a National Merit Semifinalist (and on track to be a finalist), IB Diploma Candidate, 33 ACT, 2260 SAT, Eagle Scout and a 3.9 GPA.</p>
<p>I wrote the essay and submitted some extra supplemental information, and took a plane ride to visit the campus. Is this normal? I was really excited about going to Pitt.</p>
<p>If you are hoping for scholarship, it is better to apply early to Pitt. I can’t say for sure if applying late was the reason you did not get a scholarhip, but it likely was a factor. You might want to call up admissions and ask why you were not awarded scholarship.</p>
<p>sadly this is normal. had you applied earlier, i’m sure you would’ve gotten money, but scholarships are given out extremely early at pitt and the funds are probably already depleted</p>
<p>I am surprised you received a letter saying you did not get a scholarship. I believe this is the first time I’ve heard of such a letter. I wonder if this is a new thing – anyone else get one?</p>
<p>What was your M/CR breakdown? Your overall score looks great, but Pitt doesn’t look at the writing (as far as I know).</p>
<p>If your M/CR breakdown was at least 1450, I’m shocked you didn’t get any merit money. You’re from Nebraska, and I’m sure that’s an underrepresented state!</p>
<p>I’m also <em>really</em> surprised you didn’t get money. It certainly would not hurt to email OAFA and ask why you didn’t receive anything and also ask to be reconsidered for scholarship money.</p>
<p>While Pitt is a good school, if they are not going to give you any money, I would cross them off my list. You have stellar credentials, and can do better than Pitt. I presume that given your credentials, you would not even have applied to Pitt if not for the belief that you would be getting a partial or full scholarship. </p>
<p>I too would have thought you would have gotten a 50% or 100% scholarship.
But since you didn’t…</p>
<p>Why not simply contact them and tell them that “if you give me a 50% scholarship, I will attend”, and see what happens. At least give them the chance to make you a better offer.</p>
<p>Did you get anything about the UHC (Honors College)? My S applied last year about a week earlier than you did and got into UHC and a $10K merit scholarship. I would think you should be reconsidered for the $10K since you’re from Nebraska and you have very nice stats. What school did you apply to? Maybe that is a factor? Anway, contact them most definitely.</p>
<p>It almost certainly was the lateness of your application, however, in some other threads around here, people have discussed strategies for contacting Pitt and trying to get different offers. Essentially, the conversations go something like “Pitt is my number one choice and I really want to go there but it is costing me $X amount more than my second choice. Is there anything you can do to reduce the difference?”</p>
<p>The other thing is that Pitt doesn’t award much money specifically for national merit scholars, so that really doesn’t factor in at all.</p>