<p>I spoke to someone in admissions today… and was told that the student must have a 1450 on their SATs to qualify for any scholarship and be in the top 5% of their class.</p>
<p>What if the school doesn’t do top 5%? Ours only does deciles.</p>
<p>Amandakayak: My daughter’s school also only does deciles and she ended up with a full-tuition scholarship so it mustn’t be a major roadblock.</p>
<p>My son’s high school doesn’t rank at all and he got full-tuition last year so not sure how big an issue ranking is either.</p>
<p>rank was a big enough issue to initially exclude me from scholarship consideration altogether, even though i have a 3.95UW (with my 8 AP classes around a 4.5W) and SAT & ACT scores above their stated minimum. </p>
<p>my school district has an unfortunate ranking policy, with no weight given to AP/IB classes, so those who take the very easiest classes are at a huge advantage. worse, the district prints this useless number right on the transcript. it would seem that if there is no rank listed, pitt estimates based upon the information they have, likewise if a decile or quatrile figure is provided.</p>
<p>luckily, my guidance counselor addressed this issue with pitt (and most every other school i’ve applied to which does not use the common app) and my application was resubmitted to the scholarship committee.</p>
<p>My S has a 1450 but his school does not provide rank. Should we (or GC) contact Pitt to see if they need a proxy for rank for the scholarship committee?</p>
<p>i don’t think it is an issue with schools that legitimately do not rank; they must have a system in place to account for that. too many people have received merit aid from pitt and been in that very situation.</p>
<p>Here’s my two cents. DD’s high school didn’t officially rank either. However, the college counselor certainly knew the rank and could provide it when needed. DD was awarded full tuition two years ago.</p>
<p>One of the other things that Pitt correspondence mentioned when DD was in the process was caliber of the high school, so I think that some things are considered that aren’t necessarily written down. My daughter may have been one of the first from her high school to choose Pitt–probably not the first, but the first in a long time.</p>
<p>Thanks - school caliber is very high and he takes all AP and honors courses so maybe that’ll help. I don’t think our school has sent anyone to Pitt recently so maybe we should make sure our GC reminds them of our school’s caliber in some way?</p>
<p>I recall thaat when my son did his applications, the GC said that they include a school profile with each transcript.</p>
<p>We were not privy to what was on it but I am guessing it included the strength of the HS and other pertinent information to help the admissions office of any school make a decision.</p>
<p>Pretty much every high school has a profile which goes out with the students’ transcripts. It’s amazing to me how few high schools make that profile readily available to the students or the parents. I would recommend that those of you still in the college application game ask for a copy of your high school’s profile. You may see some important issues missing and/or outdated. It also gives you an idea of how the high school presents itself to the college/university world.</p>
<p>The general assumption is that schools send profiles, but that is not universally true. Our local public does not. Someone in the the guidance office told me that the colleges would look up the high school on line if they didn’t know the high school, which was long after the point where I knew that high school wasn’t doing much for us!</p>
<p>The school my daughter graduated from did have a very nice profile and if your school has one, you can get it by requesting an official transcript for say a scholarship application. It is a good idea to take a look at the transcript anyway because mistakes are made.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s an official cutoff for SAT score regarding full tuition scholarships. I had less than a 1450 and I got full tuition.</p>
<p>Congrats kmtt! That gives the rest of us some hope. BTW, I found out that our school sent the profile so I guess we’re set.</p>
<p>I just received scholarship info today and I was accepted way back in November.</p>
<p>Our family has found the Pitt Scholarship process to be both confusing and disappointing.
Son applied in November, received acceptance with invitation to Honors College in December and $2,000 scholarship. His GPA is 4.44, (his school does not rank), SAT scores are 1530/1600 and 2310/2400. He has taken 5 AP tests to date – scored 5 on four tests and 4 on one. He was invited to apply for the Chancellor’s Scholarship but has already received a letter that he will not be invited to continue in the process. We understand the Chancellor’s Scholarship is very competitive, but can’t help but wonder why he wasn’t awarded more than $2,000 when so many students seem to have been given full scholarships. Are scholarship awards simply based on test scores?</p>
<p>Suburban Mom. If you are in-state that seems to be the pattern. They offer more money to out of state students. If you are OOS, then that is puzzling, given your son’s scores.</p>
<p>SuburbanMom: are you in-state? It seems PITT tends to offer many full tuition scholarships to OOS students.</p>
<p>Yup, PITT never exactly states what is required for their scholarships, I guess it gives them flexibility in picking and choosing the recipients. They tell you the SAT scores need to be above this number but you hear about students with lower scores getting scholarships. Since nothing is set in stone and you don’t know what the “hook” or stats of the other students; it can be a bit frustrating to hear about the scholarship distribution especially when your child has equal or better scores etc.</p>
<p>We are in state but another student at his school received a full tuition scholarship (similar stats to son’s)…I don’t begrudge any other students (in or OOS) getting a nice scholarship – realize there are various “hooks” etc. But it is really difficult to feel good about Pitt when you know other students with similar (or seemingly lower scores) have been offered much better scholarships.</p>
<p>@SuburbanMom - ask for reconsideration. Have the student send a letter requesting that the scholarship committee reconsider its offer and state the reasons why reconsiderion should be granted. Here’s the thing…has your child received an offer for a full scholarship at another school? What Pitt will do is ask you to complete a cost analysis form. If another school has offered the student a better deal - bottom line - then Pitt may up the $2,000 to full tuition. It depends on how much the student will be out of pocket to attend the school. It’s even possible that the scholarship committee had inaccurate information when it made the original offer. It can’t hurt to give it a try. But don’t delay. The later into the process you go, the less money there is. I would send a reconsideration request ASAP.</p>