So I know that its been said that financial aid packages will start coming out in February–and a possible element of my FA package could be the panther pride award, which is pitt’s need based institutional grant.
I know that I qualify for full value Pell and PHEAA grants, along with federal loans (independent student with EFC of 0). Does anyone have more information about Pitt’s institutional grants, like the average amount of grant money they give out per person, and how often they’re given out? The website doesn’t have a lot of information about it, and I’ve never seen it discussed on any other threads I’ve read.
I’d just like to know what to expect come February.
No, I don’t know. You will have to be patient a bit longer until February to see what your aid package might look like.
If you can, I would get a part time job on weekends now and work extra hours in the summer, so you have some extra money.
PHEAA grant is about $4,000 max and Pell is about $5,900 I believe. As an independent student you can take a $9,500 loan I believe. You can get work study as well most likely.
When did you file your FAFSA? Right away when it became available in October?
I don’t know if the Panther pride award is for low income instate and OOS students.
Do you also have a scholarship? The federal and state aid is barely going to cover tuition and fees, so it will be difficult to pay for room and board.
@mommdc I filed my fafsa in October. I’m going to call financial aid today and see if they can give me some kind of information about it, just because I’ve never seen anyone else talk about it before.
My son checked his portal and received a $7300 panther grant!!! OOS . I will have 2 in college next year so our EFC is lower so I’m guessing that gave us need. Beyond thrilled. With his generous merit award this makes Pitt doable for us
Did you get any type of grant? Maybe they call their in-state grants by a different name? Pitt has never come up on the list of schools that meets full need so I’m not sure how much need they do tend to meet.
@carachel2 I only got federal grants/loans and the PA grant, along with work study. I already have a few outside scholarships so the unmet need gap is fillable, I’m just a little disappointed that there wasn’t an institutional grant. It seems somewhat fishy, but nothing that can really be done.
I was disappointed in how the FA award was presented – just how much “off” we’d get with no price point to show what next year’s costs are going to be. Other schools list what the tuition, room & board for 2017-18 will be, then they subtract your aid, showing you with your net. Pitt just states “Pitt Panther grant of $$”… it’s hard to do an apples to apples comparison when you don’t know the costs yet.
@mommdc my point is that link (which I have already seen) is THIS year’s costs, not 2017-18. So, basically, i have coupon for $7000 off. Meanwhile, other schools, have listed next years costs and my aid in a table, showing me our cost, with & without loans.
Have those other schools officially released next year’s rates or are those estimates?
As far as I know, Pitt determines the tuition and fees in July of every year.