<p>My son is graduating high school next year and is interested in attending UPitt. Unfortunately, we have some financial problems and would need scholarships/financial aid to attend. He has a 3.7 GPA (UW), but with a very strong upward trend (including straight A's in 5 honors and AP classes junior year). On the SAT's, he got a 1550/2280 (1550/2300 superscore) and near perfect to perfect scores on his SAT subject tests. He has very solid EC's, a good amount of community service, and is a first generation college student. What are his chances of getting a scholarship to UPitt, and how much could this scholarship be?</p>
<p>In past years, I would have said that he stood a very good chance of getting a full tuition scholarship with those stats. Pitt’s applicant pool statistics have been ramping upward at a rapid pace these last two years, so I am no longer certain where he would stand. Assuming his class rank is top 10%, I would think that he stands a very good chance of getting, at the very least, the in-state $2,000 or out-of-state $10,000 honors scholarship, if not the full tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>Make sure he takes the essay questions seriously and does his best on his responses.</p>
<p>I would have him apply early! I would agree with QuietType that the stats for scholarships have been increasing since more students have become aware of Pitt as well as their scholarships.</p>
<p>Good advice^^</p>
<p>Are you in-state or OOS? From what I have observed, the OOS kids do better with scholarships because Pitt wants to cultivate a national student body. And it helps if you come from a state that doesn’t send a lot of kids to Pitt. I agree that your son has a very good chance at the full tuition. His stats are awesome. What else is he considering?</p>
<p>Definitely apply early. He seems to have great stats for getting a scholarship. If he’s serious about Pitt, have him get all the material he can complete (I.E. essays, etc.) during the summer. He should also contact teachers now that he wishes to have write rec letters for him so that they can start those in the summer or when the school year begins. That way, he can just gather all the materials in early September, apply, and not have to worry about decided last-minute if he can go/etc. (Plus, assuming your S gets in, the financial aid letter comes no later than 2 weeks after the acceptance letter, so you’ll know very early in the year if he can go/if he needs to apply anywhere else or not).</p>
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<p>I do not think this is still true. Students this year (according to posts on here) waited longer for their merit scholarship awards. And don’t confuse financial aid with merit scholarship offers. Financial aid certainly is not available before the FAFSA is due in January.</p>
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<p>Apparently things have changed! I didn’t realize the letters took longer. But you are correct that Financial Aid would be later in the year regardless of when you apply (I didn’t apply for any, though, so my Merit Scholarships Letter came in the mail shortly after my acceptance letter). Either way, you can’t go wrong applying early, since you still don’t have to decide on anything until May 1!</p>
<p>Hey, i thought i may be able to help. I am attending next year, class of 2015, and got a full tuition honors scholarship (which made my decision very easy). I took APs and Honors and all that jazz, 33 on my ACTs, lots of EC and a varsity basketball captain. My essay was strong and I wrote and revised it probably close to ten times, and though it’s optional I think it’s a must to get money. Also, definitely get those recs ahead of time. Ask teachers who not only love the student, but are linked to the major they intend to study (as an engineer, I had a physics and math teacher from junior year to write mine), and try to avoid recs from freshman year teachers. From the kids who i’ve met, anyone with scholarship is out of state, and nearly all of them applied before halloween (myself included). I heard about my scholarship 8 days after my acceptance but others waited a month, so I don’t know when you’ll have an idea by. Of all the schools I applied or know anyone applied to, Pitt has been by far the most generous. UConn can give only half tuition for out of state, but if you have a 93 average and some ECs you’ll get it. Ohio State is similar, they just do it through smaller installments (i.e. an honors/department/alumni awards). Penn State gives nothing, whatsoever. If you get into their honors college you get the $2000 research honors grant or something, but thats it. Michigan is the same story.
Hope this is help. Message if you have any questions.</p>
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<p>I think this is definintely the case for the Honor’s College. I think they like reading essays to get a good idea of the students that they’re funding instead of just funding kids based on academic reports.</p>
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<p>I think it’s because Pitt is rolling admissions. So once all the scholarships are given out…that’s it. (Which is why it’s <em>so</em> important to apply early/ASAP if you know you want to go there and you want to get a scholarship). I applied in December and got half-tuition because I think they ran out of all the full-tuition ones.</p>
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<p>From my limited experience, it seems as though the stronger your numbers, the quicker you hear. DD heard very quickly after a November application three years ago this fall.</p>
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<p>Probably because they want to “lure” (I mean it in a good way!) the strongest applicants to their school quickly, instead of letting them wait around/get other offers, etc. Good observation!</p>
<p>Agreed, AwesomeOpossum. And it works. DD had her Pitt scholarship for months before she was even accepted to our state flagship and eventually offered the same scholarship as Pitt had given her. Maryland is REALLY slow.</p>
<p>I visited Pitt a couple days ago and took a tour and fell in love with it. The only thing I was disappointed about was the music building. Im interested in majoring in something music related like music industry but I know it’s not offered there. What music-related majors do they have at Pitt?
Also I remember during the presentation they talked about making your own major. Is it possible I could do music business or something? Thanks!</p>
<p>Oh whoops wrong thread sorry!</p>
<p>if my son applies in early October, he’ll only have taken two Sat IIs (although he is planning on taking a third one in October). Will this seriously effect his chances at a scholarship?</p>
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<p>I shouldn’t think so, assuming his regular SAT is good. What two did he take/what is he applying for?</p>
<p>@AwesomeOpossum
he got a 1550 CR + M so his regular SAT is fine… he got a 770 on Chem and 800 on USH and is planning on applying to the college of arts and science with an undeclared major</p>
<p>I do not think that the SAT IIs are a big part if any of the scholarship process, and if they are, your son’s are great.</p>
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<p>Exactly. I think your son is fine, he has great stats 
I applied to the school of Engineering and one of my three SAT IIs was Latin…still got a scholarship just fine!</p>