<p>I am a white OOS female and I applied around October 1st, and got accepted!
I also got into the Honors College quite a bit ago and got conditional acceptance to the College of Pharmacy.
Should I be concerned that I haven't gotten any scholarship notification? Should I send in extra info (ex. first quarter grades, extra essay), to remind them?
Stats:
ACT: 33 composite
SAT IIs: 800 Chemistry, 730 Math 2
GPA: 3.92 UW and 4.75 W
APs: 3 5s and 2 4s
Hook (possibly): Internship at NIH over the summer?
Thanks!</p>
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<p>If you already have rec letters and an essay on file, don’t send more of those in. Have you sent in a list of activities/resume type of document? This is basically just a list of activities you’ve done in high school (clubs, sports, leadership, volunteer, etc.) which you should send in if you haven’t. Don’t send in first quarter grades unless they ask (which is generally for applicants on the edge of acceptance). </p>
<p>Also remember that the scholarship committee only meets once a week starting in October (I believe). People are only now starting to hear about scholarships, and the entire pool of eligible scholarship applicants doesn’t even close until mid-January. Sit tight and wait a bit longer to hear from them. You can always call OAFA to make sure your application is still being reviewed, but chances are they won’t actually tell you anything new.</p>
<p>I spoke with OAFA yesterday. My D is in a similar situation, having applied early with good stats (34 ACT, 1510 CR/M SAT, lots of APs, high GPA), got accepted into Honors College, but still no word on any merit scholarships. It is nerve wracking to see others getting full tuition, chancellors invites, etc, who applied and were accepted later, but I was told not to worry. Given the number of applications, the review process is not as stream lined as we would hope, and merit reviews may not be processed in order of application. I also suspect that early applicants who were strong but not insanely strong may have been held for subsequent review after more applications came in.</p>
<p>I asked to verify that all of my D’s materials had arrived prior to merit review (essays, recs, etc), and was told that the only criteria for regular merit scholarships are test scores and GPA (chancellors is different). I am not sure how they reconcile GPAs from different schools, weighted vs unweighted, etc, and it is hard to pin them down on details.</p>
<p>I was told that scholarship recipients will be notified by early February. We will continue to pester them periodically until then… ;-)</p>
<p>@stoltfar - Good post with useful information from conversations with OAFA. </p>
<p>Pitt’s rolling admissions process is straight-forward for securing the admission part; But, rolling-process for their automatic-consideration / invitation-only policies for merit-aid, GAP & Chancellor’s creates some weird challenges. Pitt has complete visibility on their end and has no obligation to inform hopefuls of their gap/scholarship status - leaving them in a quandary. </p>
<p>Perhaps here is something you have not thought about: Many of the awardees (super-qualified in-your-words), apply ED for their 1st-choice/dream-school/reach schools. If they are successful, in the next 2-6 weeks, they will be giving up their admission/merit-aid/URM-full-ride/GAP-invite/Chancellors-invites (praying that D is one such case). I am not an insider, but I suspect some of this goes into Pitt OAFA’s strategy. </p>
<p>Been there for a few weeks my-self, and my heart goes out to you. Hang in there!</p>
<p>Pitt awarded approx. 960 full tuition scholarships last year. I don’t believe they sent out all 960 within the first few months but probably staggered the mailings. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if Pitt re-awards the scholarships that are turned down? I know some schools do not – they just put it back into the pot for next year.</p>
<p>I know the waiting is very tough especially when you see students with similar stats getting the scholarship letters. I hope you will hear soon!</p>
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@MTnest: You raise an excellent point. My 2 cents…</p>
<p>The general strategy of awarding more admissions (yield guessing) is very common. Super-selective and prestigious scholarships I am very familiar with (AB Duke, Roberstson, Morehead-Cain, Parks, etc) are never re-awarded, and a handful go unused every year because awardess/winners choosing to matriculate to a different school. Chancellor’s, being at the same level, is probably the same.</p>
<p>Now, regarding Pitt Scholars (1/2 or full-tution merit), with numbers reaching 1000, Pitt is likely to re-award any withdrawn as a result of the ED process. After all, the goal is to make Pitt affordable and atractive to future scholars, and to improve yield rates; Also remember that there are many more qualified applicants who meet the high bar than they are able to accommodate. Once the scholarship committe closes shop for the year, the process may end, but $unused$ won’t be known until last day of matriculation.</p>
<p>I also remeber the acknowledged expert AwesomeOppossum mentioning elsewhere that Pitt gives new awards / adds more money / etc for attending students as and when money becomes avaialable.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone! That’s very reassuring. @MTnest, that is a good question! I am not sure that they do, because people won’t accept a lot of them until April-May and they stop giving them out at the end of February.</p>
<p>From what I recall, Awesome’s award was raised because the person who had it switched majors (please correct me if I am wrong). I don’t know why she didn’t get the full tuition when she first applied since she totally deserved it :)</p>
<p>I just wonder how many ED kids will get accepted at their ED schools and how many received the full tuition scholarship? I know at DS’ high school, Pitt is not high on the list for applications but the Ivy’s, MIT, Stanford etc. seems to be on everyone’s list (except my child’s).</p>
<p>For the regular admissions, you don’t have to notify Pitt until May 1. I would not be surprised if the money went back into the pot for next year and if that is the case, they could award more scholarships next year. As Pitt has never defined it – we will never know :(</p>
<p>@MTnest: I brought up Awesome simply to make this point: Pitt seems be methodical and appears to do the “right thing”, when it comes to helping scholarship applicants and students. (my intent is quite clear upon reread, but just wanted to make sure).</p>
<p>While Pitt may not be on the radar for many OOS high schoolers (especially of the caliber attending Governers school, as in your S’s case), it does attract a fair amount through GAPs (Pitt School of Medicine with #5 NIH funding, is the sole draw in my D’s case). Based on our own UVA or UNC examples, most in-state top-kids hoping to get into ivies etc. also routinely apply to flag-ships as “safety”, and I have no reason to beleive that Pennsylvania is any different. I do not know how many of the 1000 Pitt Scholar awards go to in-state students; (yes, by conjecture) It is likely, there are more than a handful from PA itself who withdraw every year due to favorable ED outcome elsewhere. Just hoping that other deserving students benefit in these win-win scenarios.</p>
<p>I am also comforted by the fact that, even in case the money is thrown in the pot for next year in staead, resources are not wasted. Current year applicants are benifiting from last years ED-outs, and this years ED-outs will benefit some additional applicants next year. It all evens out in the end.</p>
<p>I haven’t looked but is there a breakdown on in-state versus OOS scholarships?
It seems that Pitt does tend to favor OOS students with the full tuition scholarships (at least with the postings on this board). </p>
<p>For DS’ school, Pitt doesn’t have the “prestige” factor and our flagship is the “safety” school for the majority of students (although I would not consider UVA as a safety for anyone). </p>
<p>We are grateful for the scholarships our kids have gotten from Pitt and hopefully everyone who is waiting will hear soon!</p>
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<p>Nope you’re correct! I was switched up because before the scholarship had been completed, the prior student switched majors and lost it, so they just handed it over to the next available student. (It was a rather bizarre scholarship that could not be awarded until at LEAST spring semester sophomore year, as the student had to be enrolled in my major and top of their class at the time the award was granted. Oh well, not complaining!)</p>
<p>As for scholarships being re-awarded during the application cycle…I’m not sure how it goes. Considering some students don’t hear back about money until as late at March, it is <em>possible</em> that a scholarship awarded in October and then turned down could be re-awarded in March. I’m not sure how often that happens though.</p>
<p>Chancellor’s is a whole different story: I have NO idea why only 5 students were named Chancellor’s last year. IIRC, the recipients find out about acceptance rather close to when a decision about colleges needs to be made (I want to say late March/early April, and you have to decide by May 1). Then again, I don’t know of anyone who hear about receiving the Chancellor’s later than the other students…maybe it’s such a pull that no one turns it down!</p>
<p>Or perhaps only 5 accepted the Chancellors’ offer. Thinking back 4 years ago, it seemed like many of the students up for the DuPont scholarship was nominated for other full rides (Jefferson etc.). It would not be strange to think that students offered the Chancellors’ received other full-ride scholarships too! Anyways, good luck to all on their application :)</p>
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<p>Could be. But if you look, in 2009 there were 14 CS. In 2010 there were 10, in 2011 there were 9, and in 2012 there were 5. </p>
<p>Seems to me that either more people are turning it down (oddly unlikely) or that UHC is handing out less of them. Both are kind of concerning theories.</p>
<p>Either way I hope there are more than 5 for the upcoming year! </p>
<p>Source: [Recent</a> Chancellor’s Scholars | Chancellor’s Scholarship Application Website](<a href=“http://cscholar.honorscollege.pitt.edu/recipients]Recent”>http://cscholar.honorscollege.pitt.edu/recipients)</p>
<p>With the state of the economy, I would not be surprised that they are cutting back. I wonder if they will cut back on the numbers of full tuition scholarships and/or scholarships in general. It seems many schools are cutting back :(</p>
<p>My D attends Pitt and remembers that not only were the repeated bomb threats going on at the time of Chancellors interviews but the threats actually interrupted several of them. A good guess is that that some decided to go elsewhere when presented with equally generous offers.</p>
<p>^ MTNest - “state of the economy” still allows raises for admin though. [Raises</a> OK’d for University of Pittsburgh officials - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette](<a href=“http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/raises-okd-for-university-of-pittsburgh-officials-664930/]Raises”>http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/raises-okd-for-university-of-pittsburgh-officials-664930/)</p>
<p>I was thinking in terms of their investments. Plus the probable increase of top-stat students applying for the scholarships. The “economy” has never stopped some from getting their raises!</p>
<p>So I do have a chance for a scholarship? Just to clarify…</p>
<p>@awkytown,</p>
<p>Yes, I think you have a good chance to receive some merit aid. You didn’t mention an SAT score, but your GPA is very strong and your ACT is also quite good. I have spoken to OAFA a couple of times, and they indicated that they are far from finished with scholarship reviews.</p>
<p>@stoltfar
Thank you! I didn’t do so well on the SAT, about 1850. I didn’t send that in though, I just sent in my SAT 2s and ACT</p>