@aimster888 the posters you referenced were trying to be helpful. It’s too bad you interpreted as patronizing but that is not how it was meant. No one had your D’s stats memorized and knew that she was qualified. Obviously your D is in the range that she could get merit, but every year there are people posting who have kids below the stated ranges who somehow think magic is going to happen for them. I think there are some regular posters on this site that perpetuate the myth that Pitt has lots of easy merit. While it is a possibility for some with top stats, it is not guaranteed and is not there for kids with stats below the stated levels. Again, people were just trying to be helpful.
@me29034 exactly. No patronizing intended. Just trying to add in some realism to the process. It slays me every year when people post stats below the typical levels and then they post angry responses. Get realistic about it now and create other choices. That’s all I was saying.
@aimster888 I don’t think you should take it personal. Everybody else is trying to chime in based on their realistic observation. If you read this thread from the beginning, people who got merit scholarship this year have ACT 34+/SAT 1490+ and UW GPA 3.92+ (98%). There are many ACT 35-36 / SAT 1540-1590, 4.0 UW (100%) who only received 15K-20K for OOS or 10K for IS. These are all Ivy-league caliber with tons of APs & ECs. The competition is really fierce, and Pitt seems to give out about 10K less per scholarship, compared to last year. Most people will have to wait for 2-3 weeks after they are admitted to hear about their merit scholarship. Be patient and best of luck to your DD!
@aimster888, I sincerely apologise for my post that likely offended you. I just generally commented on the merit-based scholarships from top public Universities. Without knowing your D’s scores, I didn’t specifically talk about her case. Based on her outstanding achievements, she will get the merit-based scholarships from Pitt. For your reference, I knew a girl who got $8000 per year with 1520 SAT (equal to 34 ACT) and 4.35 W GPA ~3.95 UW GPA and outstanding EC from a highly competitive big public high school in PA. Agreed to @worriedcat, the merit-based scholarships from Pitt (and other top public Universities and some top private universities) in this year are not the same as the past years.
My son has similar stats - 34,1500, 3.9 UW, extremely rigorous course load, very strong ECs, OOS - and was accepted to Swanson in mid/late October. He has not received any merit and likely won’t at the point. I think its unwise to make any assumptions unless you have literally the very top scores (35 or 1540+?). I was told by AO that aid to Swanson students is particularly competitive, FWIW.
Does anyone have any ideas of when the honors notification will come out. I was accepted in October and received my merit award but haven’t heard anything about honors yet.
I think I read on here that there will be Honors decisions by January 12th (? Or 15th? I can’t remember).
Just adding another “reality check” data point. My dd17 (yes I realize this is several admission cycles out of date) was accepted in September of her senior year and then accepted to the Honors College. 3.9 UW/4.74 W GPA and a 34 ACT - president of several clubs, volunteer work, great ECs in and out of school, 10 APs. She was a Pitt legacy. She was not awarded any merit. Nothing. She was not top 5% of her class at a very rigorous high school. The only thing we could imagine was that her rank kept her from merit or they didn’t think they needed to offer it to entice her to attend. She walked away and didn’t look back.
I am always amazed when so many on here mention Pitt for great merit $ - that is the case for some, but not most high stats kids. In our PA school, my dd17’s experience was not unusual. She has several good friends attending Pitt and dozens from her school. Some with higher GPA and did make the rank, but with lower test scores. Others who are all excellent students and top stats who got nothing. The results are similar in the school where I teach. Amazing top students accepted but with little or no merit.
My next is now started his college search and has higher scores, higher GPA, and is in the top 2% of his class but will not even consider Pitt after seeing his sister’s results. I am keeping my eye on this thread to see if things have changed so we can encourage him to take another look.
Accepted with no merit money. 36 ACT, 4.0 GPA, NMSF. 1580 SAT, AP Scholar with Honors and tons of ECs. Was hoping to make Pitt similar cost to our state school.
@dbextah Why do you believe you won’t get any merit scholarship? As I understand it, notices go out separately until March 1st as long as you completed the essays. Even if you got the application in after Dec 15th there still is a chance to get merit according to https://oafa.pitt.edu/financialaid/academic-scholarships/ My daughter’s merit letter came 3 weeks after the admission notification, and others have had an even longer wait.
dbextah, how long ago did the acceptance letter arrive? My daughter received her merit letter about 2 weeks after acceptance.
debexta - I would give it some time. My kid has nearly identical stats (except no SAT score). Took a couple of weeks to get the merit letter - $20K. Would make no sense for your kid to get nothing.
After waiting over a month my son with 35 ACT, 4.35 GPA top 5% received $10K OOS. Im beginning to think that some of these schools beleive the higher stat kids are not serious about their schools and sadly they are wrong. My son really liked PITT and didn’t apply to Ivies and at that price point, PITT may not be the answer for him now, we’ll have to weigh all of his options, but had they offered comparable to what others with lower stats had it would have been a shoe-in for him. Still awaiting to hear about honors but this whole acceptance thing is such a game anymore it’s very frustrating. I wish the schools would stop assuming what a student may be thinking just because they have the top end of grades for a particular school. I can’t think of any other reason why he received less for OOS than students with equal or less grades. So confusing!
@doge123 did your son visit or demonstrate interest in any other way? My only other guess is SAQs. If you just look at stats, there’s no rhyme or reason to why one kid gets one scholarship and another gets another, but they do say that the SAQs play a large role in the scholarship decisions, and that’s not something you can look at in the scholarship threads.
@doge123, there is no a surprise if your son was admitted to Pitt Engineer School. He might apply for his dream school for ED II (if possible) or more for RD in the coming weeks. Good luck to your son.
One week ago. Well, then fingers crossed!
@doge123 , I don’t mean to undermine your son’s achievement. But they way your son’s calculate the wGPA is same as Pitt , then I am afraid it is low. I believe Pitt’s wGPA requirement for merit scholarship is 4.39, that’s the lower end of the scale. Also, the Pitt representative mentioned earlier that the demonstration of interest also considered.
Last year, my daughter got $20k with 4.64 GPA and 1540 SAT. But her friend got only $10k with 35 ACT. Her GPA was only 4.3+.
I meant to say “If the way your son’s school calculates the wGPA is same as Pitt”
I’m pretty sure Pitt does recompute GPA though based on your SRAR or transcript, though. (Can someone post the method Pitt does use to compute GPA?)
Received letter in the mail today with $10k per year. 1500 sat, 4.28 gpa and OOS into dietrich.