<p>I never took the ACT.
But yes, I applied in mid-October. </p>
<p>Also, for the whole “full tuition went to mostly URMs this year” group, there’s an “Honors College” full tuition scholarship and an “Honors Challenge” full tuition scholarship for “URMs”. Two separate things awarded by two different departments.</p>
<p>As CPUscientist3000 said, there is the full tuition scholarship from the Honors College and there is a full tuition Honors Challenge scholarship specifically for URMs. </p>
<p>Every year the bar for scholarships goes up!!! The word is out that Pitt offers great “merit” scholarships. I am sure Pitt is getting tons of applications from students with outstanding stats!</p>
<p>I’ll be very interested in your data SteveC. And as SteveC and Podvigs suggest, I must have read that someone had a theory about how the full tuition scholarships were distributed. Its possible that I’m confusing a post about Pitt with one about a different university in this regard. It’s quite clear from the just few data points stated that the theory isn’t correct either. I kind of wish I could just delete my post. My apologies for stirring the pot - it certainly wasn’t my intention. It’s also very interesting that this is the first year with a new Honors College dean. That must play a factor, as MD Mom suggests. </p>
<p>My D received scholarships from every place she applied, and after scholarships are subtracted, Pitt is the second most expensive school on her list. We had hoped it would be one of the least expensive based on what many people had told us and what I had read last year on this board about Pitt scholarships. As many others have suggested throughout this post, there is most likely something unique about the applicants getting the full scholarships (like extracurriculars, awards, activities, upward trend in GPA, etc) beyond test scores and GPA cause those don’t seem to correlate. Maybe SteveC’s data will show the correlation. And, actually, that’s the way it should be - there’s certainly much more to the individual than their grades and their scores on a standardized test! It does seem like many colleges are more formulaic about their scholarship distribution, some even posting scholarship tables on their websites. Congrats to all who received the full tuition scholarship. Its a wonderful accomplishment and a wonderful opportunity! We did get full tuition elsewhere and hope to take full advantage of it! D is down to choosing between 2 schools, and I’m looking forward to some finality in the decision process - it’s been a long road!</p>
<p>In answer to a question above, I’d be surprised if any college today considers students of Asian backgrounds to be under-represented minorities. You might find one in rural Kansas.</p>
<p>Another factor in the mix is that “merit scholarships” at many universities often do have a need component in it. If a university knows that a student will need substantial university-based need-based aid, they may get some preference in a merit scholarship. This is because it sounds better to receive a merit scholarship than a need based scholarship, and because universities don’t want to waste their scholarships on students who can pay sticker price.</p>
<p>Here is the analysis I promised of the data on this thread.</p>
<p>I considered only data from this thread plus my own data point which I thought I posted but apparently didn’t. If the poster specified when s/he applied, I’m using that date; otherwise, I’m using the awarded date, if given, and finally the post date. For SAT CR+M, I converted any ACT reported to an equivalent SAT using the official ACT-SAT concordance. If a poster reported both, I took the higher of the two. If a poster reported SAT on a 2400-point scale, I multiplied by 0.6667 (potentially inaccurate, I know, but best I can do). If a poster did not report SAT, I made a “best effort” to find his/her stats. Many were reported in the decisions thread. Of the 30 reports, I failed to find an SAT score for three.</p>
<p>Breakdown by scholarship amount: 15 full, 12 10K, 2 5K, 1 2K. </p>
<p>Breakdown by date and amount:<br>
full: Sep: 1, Oct: 5, Nov: 6, Dec: 2, Jan: 1;
10K: Sep: 0, Oct: 1, Nov: 2, Dec: 6, Jan: 3;
5K: Sep: 0, Oct: 0, Nov: 0, Dec: 2, Jan: 0;
2K: Sep: 0, Oct: 0, Nov: 0, Dec: 0, Jan: 1.</p>
<p>Average SAT score by amount: full 1513, 10K 1478 (too few 5K and 2K for an average to be meaningful). Full scholarship SAT scores ranged from 1380-1600; 10K scholarship SAT scores ranged from 1387-1560. Considering both groups, 12 scores were under 1480 and three scores were below 1450.</p>
<p>By a small margin, more full scholarhips than any other type were reported. Awarding of full scholarships peaked in November whereas awarding of 10K scholarships peaked in December. Awarding of 5K and 2K scholarships occurred in December and January. Although the average SAT of the full scholarship group is higher than that of the 10K group, there is significant overlap in scores between the two groups. The data do not support cutoffs of either 1480 or 1450, although with only three scores below 1450, that might be interpreted as a “floor” with exceptions.</p>
<p>To me, the data suggest that although it is important to apply early and to have a “high” SAT score (with the definition of “high” open to interpretation), there are clearly other factors in play. Pitt recommends supplemental materials (essay, recommendations) for those interested in scholarships and we should probably take them at their word that these are used in evaluation. They may very well be using other factors such as geographic diversity to build a freshman class, but absent good data, we can only speculate.</p>
<p>Steve, Great job. I totally agree. My son was also one of those that rec’d a letter stating that the recommendation letter written for him by his GC was outstanding. So I do think that the Letters of Rec and essay count very much.</p>
<p>Such a nice gesture on Pitt’s part recognizing the letters of recommendation! They sent us a letter about the rec that my D’s AP Eng teacher wrote for her. The teacher was thrilled and said she had never received such recognition from any other college/university. That certainly made a big impression on us that Pitt really cares and takes the recs very seriously.</p>
<p>SteveC, nice job compiling all of the results! Thanks for sharing!</p>
<p>Has anybody with a rank in the 20+ percentile received full tuition?</p>
<p>I have the raw data from this thread and would be happy to try to find what you’re looking for, but 20th percentile of what? SAT? ACT? Class rank?</p>
<p>Haha I meant class rank. Sorry for not being specific</p>
<p>Thanks in advance; I very much appreciated your other post.</p>
<p>That’s what I was afraid of. Not a lot of people reported rank because Pitt emphasizes GPA and rigor over rank (at least according to their common data set).</p>
<p>Unless someone wants to volunteer the information now, I don’t think the answer’s in this thread. Sorry.</p>
<p>Oh okay; thanks anyway. I noticed that too about most people not posting rank. I hope it isn’t too great a factor in getting the full tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>I didn’t report rank because my school doesn’t rank.</p>
<p>But, if I had to guess, I’d say like top 10-12%</p>
<p>I got an “Honors Challenge” full tuition scholarship, but If I switched from biology to bioengineering would I be able to get an engineering scholarship? Does anyone have info on this? When I applied I just arbitrarily chose biology, but I’d much rather do bioengineering.</p>
<p>STATS:
ACT: 33 (34 superscore)
SAT:1440 M+V
SAT IIs: Biology-M: 710 (currently in AP Bio), Math L2: 790
GPA:3.8 (rigorous AP ridden curriculum)
Rank:Top 3%
Other stats:
Subjective: various leadership positions
Essays: Yes
Teacher Recs:Yes
Counselor Rec: can’t remember
Hook (if any): URM I guess, grew up in another country</p>
<p>LOCATION/PERSON:
State or Country: Illinois
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Black
Gender:Male</p>
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<p>You would be able to, but I’m not sure there are any left (engineering scholarships are given out quickly). It’s possible you could pick one up in following years, but not very likely.</p>
<p>Rongo, I applied as a Physics major, and was accepted Honors with a scholarship. After doing my second visit recently which included a tour and talk with folks in Swanson, I asked if my acceptance could be transferred to the Engineering program. They were able to do so and my scholarship stayed the same; but no additional Engineering money.</p>
<p>I visited Pitt this weekend and after posing a similar question to some admissions folks (a bunch were seated together along a table) during admitted students day, I was basically told that it was late and that I should transfer after I matriculate because there are not many spots left especially in the more popular departments. I don’t enjoy being sent off, and seems like sciencelove was able to switch, so I’ll try contacting the admissions office from home in the next few days…</p>
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<p>Also try talking to someone involved in admissions for ENGINEERING, and not admissions for ARTS&SCIECNES. It seems silly, but they’re two different schools with different criteria for acceptance. Since you are only entering as a freshman, there is no “cap” on any sort of major in engineering, as you will not declare until the end of your freshman year here. And even then, SSOE has never put a cap on the number of people who could be in a given department.</p>
<p>Did any one else out there just get merit money? My son did not get any merit money originally and we had given up a long while back and today he got merit money. Very strange. I can’t imagine that they care that he hasn’t committed yet because it sure doesn’t seem like Pitt really “needs” to court students.</p>