Scholarship Notification

<p>LurkNess,</p>

<p>DD’s stats are:</p>

<p>GPA 3.97 UW 4.7 W
SAT’s 770 CR 760 M 690 W 1530/2220
Class Rank: school doesn’t rank
IB diploma candidate
Recommendations-Good (2)
Essay- yes
OOS - Florida
EC’s - VP French Honor Society, President and Founder of high school knitting club/charity that knits items and then donates them to the homeless, President/ treasurer of 4-H youth county council, NHS member, Key Club member, part-time job with 4-H, national merit commended
Major - Bioengineering</p>

<p>Landshark…agreed. It was easier even as recently as last year to get the full tuition scholarship. We are in the same position as you.</p>

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sujormik - Congrats!!!

Ah, time marches on. Nowadays, $10k/year is actually closer to “half-tuition” for in-state folks!!! After all, U Pitt is the nation’s second most expensive state school (behind Penn State) …</p>

<p>Land64shark, those are great stats! I am surprised your daughter didn’t get more from Pitt. Another one of those inexplicable cases, I’m afraid. If I were you, though, I would encourage your daughter to call and ask to be reevaluated. Or, failing that, you could call.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I’m sure your daughter has or will have great options!</p>

<p>I am wondering if Pitt is spreading its scholarships out a bit and offering five $10k rather than two full tuition scholarships. It seems as though kids with great numbers are being offered $10k in great numbers. As I have said before, the word is out about Pitt.</p>

<p>A neighbor and I were discussing the scholarships the other day and something I noted was that $10k does not bring Pitt down below our costs for our instate flagship. For both my neighbor and I, what our girls want(ed) first was to go out of state. I wonder whether we will see an adjustment in the next couple of years to correct that.</p>

<p>MisterK, I thought there were several state universities more expensive than the PA schools, Michigan and Wisconsin come to mind since most of our area’s kids tend to go to those if they pick an OOS public. Guess I should do my research!</p>

<p>Pitt and Penn State are actually not state schools in the sense of most state schools. They are state supported and the support seems to shrink each year. Most of the Pennsylvania state schools are much smaller schools such as Indiana University of Pennsylvania and California University of Pennsylvania. Pitt was a private school until 1966 and at one time was the Western University of Pennsylvania. It was considered kind of a bookend to the University of Pennsylvania at one time.</p>

<p>A 10K scholarship would not make Pitt a better financial alternative to our state flagship. Pitt’s OOS tuition is almost $27,000 without the fees/room/board. The 10K would bring it to $17,000 while our flagship cost approx. $12,000 a year. Financially it would not make sense to choose Pitt over our flagship.</p>

<p>Congrats Sujormik!!! So happy for your D :-)</p>

<p>sujormik- you are right that for OOS there are many more expensive than Pitt. But, for IS, the tuition is relatively expensive.</p>

<p>Yes, Penn State and Pitt are the nation’s most expensive flagships for in-state. Michigan and Wisconsin’s in-state prices are much, much cheaper - and their OOS prices are only a small increment above Pitt/PSU’s in-state prices. There are a number of fine flagships from other states that are essentially the same price as Pitt/PSU for PA residents, some even cheaper.</p>

<p>MD Mom is correct in that Pitt/PSU aren’t *technically *state schools, but rather “state related” schools - kind of an odd hybrid. But in terms of how they’re viewed, Penn State is considered to be a flagship, and Pitt is similar to a co-flagship; they’re roughly equivalent, with different strengths.</p>

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<p>I don’t know about in-state, but jeepers, it seems to me that UMich is MUCH more expensive than Pitt for OOS. According to the UMich website, OOS tuition and fees alone (not including room and board) is $37,782 for freshmen and sophomore, and $40,436 for juniors and seniors. </p>

<p>[Office</a> of Financial Aid: Cost of Attendance](<a href=“http://www.finaid.umich.edu/TopNav/AboutUMFinancialAid/CostofAttendance.aspx]Office”>http://www.finaid.umich.edu/TopNav/AboutUMFinancialAid/CostofAttendance.aspx)</p>

<p>According to the Pitt website, OOS tuition is $24,680, with $860 mandatory fees, for a total of $25,540. Quite a bit cheaper.</p>

<p>[Institutional</a> Research - Tuition and Fees](<a href=“http://www.ir.pitt.edu/tuition/reqfees.php]Institutional”>Tuition Rates and Fees | Office of Institutional Research)</p>

<p>A link to the virtual tour on Pitt’s website was posted a page back. Here is a link to a really good virtual tour on a sports website: </p>

<p>[Panther-lair.com</a> - Message Boards](<a href=“http://pittsburgh.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=530&mid=161948373&sid=996&tid=161948373&style=1]Panther-lair.com”>http://pittsburgh.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=530&mid=161948373&sid=996&tid=161948373&style=1)</p>

<p>It starts with sports facilities but as you scroll down, it gives a better tour of the campus and Oakland than the Pitt website does.</p>

<p>LurkNess - You’re right, for some reason I was thinking “Minnesota” when I read “Michigan.” For sure, U Mich is expensive OOS!</p>

<p>“I am wondering if Pitt is spreading its scholarships out a bit and offering five $10k rather than two full tuition scholarships. It seems as though kids with great numbers are being offered $10k in great numbers. As I have said before, the word is out about Pitt.”</p>

<p>Well, the word for next year’s prospective applicants is going to be not to bother applying to Pitt. Better to put your efforts elsewhere. I am soooooo bummed. We had really thought a full tuition was likely for DD.</p>

<p>It is hard to tell what will happen in the future, and Pitt really doesn’t publish how many scholarships(other than Chancellor’s), so it is hard to know who gets awarded what. I am sure your daughter will have some nice options, land64shark.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t discourage anyone from applying to any school that they are interested in! You can’t just compare public schools dollar to dollar. There are so many factors to consider and when you compare the education you receive at Pitt vs some private schools, Pitt is a bargain even OOS! A $10k scholarship brings Pitt tuition down to $15k a year which is less than half of many comparable private schools. Pitt is a great university with a great reputation regardless of it’s degree of public money supporting it. I would say apply to all the schools you are interested in public or private and see what you are offered, then make your decision.</p>

<p>land64shark - I think Pitt compares well with private universities for value at a lower cost using the $10K OOS scholarships which I believe is their intended strategy rather than competing with other public flagships. My son had similar stats (just slightly lower than your child’s) and got $10K last year so your situation is not surprising. He chose Pitt over NYU and BU (both offered half rides) because of the cost difference for comparable value. But if your child can go to UF, then that’s a pretty good situation, assuming they have a strong bioengineering program.</p>

<p>@MD Mom - one data point in terms of how many kids received scholarship… The letter son received says (last year) out of 24,000 kids, less than 4 percent (900-1000 kids, may be?) were offered full tuition offer. Doesn’t tell the entire story but, at least, it provides one data point. I assume about half of these kids ended-up at Pitt.</p>

<p>Still would be cheaper to attend Minnesota with the tuition equalizer and smaller academic scholarship, I just have this “feeling” about Pitt. Something is better than nothing, right?</p>