Pitt class of 2023 honors college/ merit aid

@upitt2023 historically the Chancellor’s invite comes in the same letter as the scholarship notification.

@gschally Thanks! OOS, 3.9 IB Diploma, around 15 AP/IB classes, 36 ACT. Good luck to all!

@elena13 how did you get notification regarding scholarship?

@angeltalk - A separate letter that arrived in the mail.

@upitt2023 @carachel2 Pitt has said that Chancelors invitations are going out later this year, not coming out with the original scholarship notifications.

Hello, all (and hello especially to @mathmomvt, @carachel2, @elena13, and @upitt2023 who are discussing this topic):

I just want to clarify the Chancellor’s Scholarship invitations. In the past, they did go out with scholarship letters. However, this year with the changes in the Pitt Honors application process, there have also been changes to the Chancellor’s Scholarship. Students who applied to Pitt Honors by the November 1 priority consideration deadline and who are admitted to Pitt Honors will be considered for the Chancellor’s Scholarship. Pitt Honors admission decisions for those who met the priority deadline will be sent by December 15 at the latest. So invitations to interview for the Chancellor’s Scholarship will go out around that time, as well.

You can learn more about the whole process here: https://oafa.pitt.edu/financialaid/academic-scholarships/chancellors-scholarship/

Best,
A Pitt Admissions Staffer

Has anyone gotten financial aid offers from Swanson of late?

@angeltalk Do you mean merit scholarships? The main merit scholarship offers come through the University. Swanson might add smaller departmental scholarships at any time in the process, but historically these engineering departmental scholarship offers come later in the game.

If you are talking about “financial aid” i.e. need based aid via the University, that will come out in the early spring.

@Angeltalk, The Office of Admissions and Financial Aid sends out merit scholarships and financial aid letters to incoming freshmen. It won’t come from the school directly.

For merit scholarships - Those letters go out weekly on a rolling basis as the scholarship committee makes decisions. The latest someone would hear back from us about a scholarship award is March 1.

For financial aid - Any student who has filed the FAFSA should get a letter from our office informing students about the aid they are eligible to receive in February/March.

Best,
A Pitt Admissions Staffer

Thanks @hailtopitt1787

@hailtopitt1787 – Thanks for being here and responding so quickly to all of our questions! If a student receives a scholarship award, is there any way to find that out other than by letter? We have very irregular mail service in my town and so I was just wondering if there is any way to check that other than by mail. Thanks again!

@pittsburghscribe, The primary way we initially communicate about scholarships is mail. However, you are welcome to check in with our office if you believe something may have been lost in the mail.

Our Office of Financial aid sends the financial aid award package via mail and email.

Best,
A Pitt Admissions Staffer

@hailtopitt1787 - My daughter received her admission letter a couple weeks back but hasn’t heard anything about scholarships yet. She had completed two of the 3 short answer questions when submitting her application through Common App. She recently updated her application by completing the 3rd question and submitted it through the online link. Does the scholarship committee review the application for scholarships at the same time as admissions? Will they see and take into consideration her updated application with the added response? Thanks!

@Ighosh, Admissions and Scholarships are separate committees. The Scholarship Committee meets weekly and reviews students on a rolling basis - so there is a good chance that they have not reviewed your daughter’s application yet and will see her updated application.

Scholarship decisions go out weekly October-February. Good luck!

Best,
A Pitt Admissions Staffer

Hello! Jumping on these threads early for my Junior DD who is very interested in Pitt!

  1. How does Pitt calculate/factor/assign a high school GPA? Do you have to submit a school profile? It seems to favor my DD to simply input the SRAR, rather than cite a GPA number, because their school district's "unweighted GPA" calculation is "Numeric average divided by 25", which means only a perfect 100 numeric average can say they have a UW 4.0. DD has a 3.84, or 96.25/25 = 3.84 but has never had a grade lower than 92.
  2. It appears Pitt superscores, so are posters in Pitt threads using superscore? And more importantly, does Pitt consider the superscore number for merit aid?

I live in Socal about 10 miles from thousand oaks where we had a shooting just a few days ago, and I’ve been evacuated from my house because of the wildfire which hit my community the night of the eighth. From what we know, our house is still standing but we won’t be going back for a few days at least and won’t know until then, especially if the fire flares up again when the wind restarts tomorrow. It might sound dumb that I’m still worried about college, but especially if my house will be gone, my family will need all the aid it can get in terms of merit scholarships. Obviously the post office will not be delivering mail for a while, if the office even still stands. I got my acceptance letter the day we evacuated, but if I do get merit aid, will there be any way to find out except a letter? I don’t think I will see any mail for a long time.

@SG2468 I am so sorry to hear that you had to be evacuated. I can only imagine how upset you must be by the events of this week. I’m sure that the Admissions Office would provide you with your merit scholarship information over the phone once they’ve made their decision. It took about 3 weeks after my daughter’s acceptance for her to receive her offer.

Once you know the outcome of your home, I think it would be a good idea to call them and discuss your situation to see if they would recommend any specific actions in regard to need-based aid.

I hope everything turns out okay. I have a friend from college who lives in your community and he was able to get back to his home yesterday. As of then it was untouched. Hopefully yours will be as well.

@SG2468, We are sorry to hear that you had to evacuate your home. As MominPA2017 said, we will be more than happy to assist you once you are ready to give our office a call.

@HCopter, We look at the GPA on the SRAR or transcript. We typically look at weighted GPA for merit aid. More information here: https://oafa.pitt.edu/financialaid/academic-scholarships/university-scholarships/

We do superscore the SAT and take the highest ACT composite score a student sends us.

Best,
A Pitt Admissions Staffer

Hello,

Would you say that the merit awards are lesser than last year? I noticed the awards last year were around 20-25K for people with the top stats, while this year similar profiles are being given around 15K.

@BigMan1234 It appears so. In addition, I have heard Pitt no longer offers Cost Analysis process, so it will be hard for OOS students to consider even with $15K scholarship. I hope Pitt will change their mind and reinstate the Cost Analysis process to give OOS students another chance. Otherwise, those might be better off staying with their IS options.