<p>I have been searching threads and can't find anything recent regarding scholarships at Pitt. My son's statistics are: 4.0 unweighted gpa at a private, highly academic high school, 4 AP's as a junior, rostered for 5 AP's as a senior. 5 in both AP Calc AB and AP Computer Programming, 4 in AP Latin. His SAT scores 690 Critical Reading and 770 Math. Subject Tests: 800 Math Level 2, 790 Latin 740 Physics. He is involved in multiple activities at school: band, cross country, track, service. Any thoughts on his chances for scholarship at Pitt? He is a PA resident if that comes into play at all. He wants to major in Computer and Electrical Engineering.</p>
<p>Pitt scholarships are iffy and unpredictable. Some have even said that Pitt isn’t generous to PA students because it prefers to give its awards to some high stats OOS students to improve regional diversity.</p>
<p>Your son’s M+CR is a 1460 and his GPA is a 4.0. That’s what the merit would be based on…SAT II and AP scores, etc, aren’t used. </p>
<p>How much merit do you want? Free tuition? more? less? How much do you want to pay? </p>
<p>If you want/need merit to afford college, then along with Pitt, your son should apply to some schools that FOR SURE will give him merit for stats. </p>
<p>You can’t count on merit as an instate student at Pitt.</p>
<p>There have been a lot of threads and discussion regarding merit aid at Pitt. </p>
<p>The consensus is the large merit awards are not very predictable and the standards have gone up in recent years. Those stats would probably put him in the mix, so it would be worth a try but not something you could count on.</p>
<p>Hi. My son had similar stats, except his CR score was much higher. He also submitted an arts supplement. And it’s always hard to compare students. But he did get a full merit scholarship. To get a full ride (room and board included), you have to pursue another level of hurdles, with essays and possibly an interview. At that point, he had already decided not to attend. </p>
<p>We are in state and thought they were very generous. It just wasn’t the right school for him.</p>
<p>Three years ago, D2 had over 1450, 4.0, got the halfish tuition as an OOS applicant. When we requested a reevaluation (she needed the full tuition to make it a feasible option), they said her SAT wasn’t high enough, see my post #50 here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pittsburgh/1068579-scholarship-info-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pittsburgh/1068579-scholarship-info-4.html</a></p>
<p>One major factor though, she didn’t submit her application until the end of Oct and it wasn’t complete until the beginning of Nov. For Pitt scholarships, early submittal is very important.</p>
<p>Use the Search function on this forum for ‘Pitt’ and for ‘scholarship’ on the Pitt forum for lots of threads.</p>
<p>If you are able to apply early at Pitt. For both my kids, they applied during a summer visit (the application fee is waived) and was accepted in October with scholarship letters arriving in November. Both kids received full tuition scholarships (we are OOS). </p>
<p>For the full ride (Chancellor’s), you have to be invited to apply and then invited to interview. It is very competitive. They do award full rides to URMs without the interview process.</p>
<p>From the info I have seen over the past several years, the early bird gets the worm for Pitt merit. It seems like the end of October is about the latest a student can apply & have a chance at merit.</p>
<p>Agreed with Kels mom… Apply early. It seems you are instate, so Merit will definately will be less in terms of gross $ v. OOS. DD1 received $5K annually with simalar stats and slightly less aggressive course load.</p>
<p>I would have him try to get the SAT score up a bit, or how about the ACT? Both my kids scored higher on the ACT than SAT.</p>
<p>Definitely apply early, complete the optional essay and send teacher recommendations.</p>
<p>I have heard the stats for full tuition have gotten higher in recent years, 5 years ago my D was offered full tuition with 33 ACT and 4.0 UW GPA. That might not have made the grade this year, my other D was offered full with 35 ACT and 4.0 UW this year. We are in PA also.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. He is the bottom of four so we are really hoping for as much as we can get. Do you have any recommendations for other schools that would be generous?</p>
<p>About 15 years ago, Pitt pretty much had auto accept for the Honors College and for Chancellors Award with a two part SAT1 of about 1360, I believe. I knew a number of kids who got the money. But no more. The break point is now in the high 1400s from the last missive I’ve read from the univeristy about these awards and that may have changed as well. And it is not automatic. That is where you have to be to be good candidate, and you still have to apply. As others have said timing is all important there, and is with many scholarship programs—do not be fooled by the deadlines, those making awards on a rolling basis tend to favor the early birds. The required stats change as the averages vary among the applicant pool. If you are unlucky enough to be in a very competive group of applicants, the test score cut offs along with other criterion are going to be tougher. Plus other factors are taken into consideration that are not expicitly given out. So it is with most merit money, I have seen that do not have auto threshholds.</p>
<p>The other big difference between today and 15 years ago is the number of big awards given. Pitt doesn’t give out as much merit money anymore and the cost of tution has risen drastically to the point that it’s one of the most expensive state related schools for instater in the country. </p>
<p>You can run your numbers in the NPCs for Fordham U and any number of Catholic colleges. SUNY’s UBuffalo has some generous awards for high scorers. There is are threads on this forum that outright list those schools that have auto awards. Not as many these days.</p>
<p>My S got Honors College, but no $$. We are in-state, his SAT was 800 CR, 690 M, and 740W. GPA weighted of 4.1, don’t know UW. APs mostly 5s, one or two 4s. Applied in September, wrote the essay and sent in 2 good LORs and a CV of extracurriculars…Not sure how they determine who gets in-state merit?</p>
<p>We also thought since he is going to Swanson we would get some $ (apparently all engineers used to get something?) but seems they don’t do that anymore.</p>
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<p>Which is what happens when the state keeps cutting their share. University of Pittsburgh was actually private until 1967. It wouldn’t surprise me to see both Pitt and Penn State go private again. Penn State has actually sent a team to study Cornell’s land grant model. (Cornell is mostly private but has some land grant schools that are public and offer lower tuition instate). </p>
<p>Pittsburgh has a very large endowment for it’s size, but prudent management will require a reduction in benefits for instaters and a reduction in awards. </p>
<p>In state tuition requires that the state subsidize the cost. It’s not the school’s fault if the state doesn’t.</p>
<p>Yes, Bearpanther, I believe 1470 was the cut off a few years ago for the two part SAT1, though holistic factors also come into play. But if your look at some of the threads, there are kids with SAT scores well in the 1500s who don’t get a full. If you apply to an overprescribed program, if there are other kids in the pool that the school is trying to attract, or you are later in getting in your apps, that can be it. It’s surprising and scary to me how much this has changed in short period of time. A combination of steep increases in tuition coupled with a reduction in merit money. I don’t remember the % of students getting merit money these days, but it is not so remarkable any more. At one time it was. </p>
<p>Still for OOSers with great stats, the chances of a nice award are higher at Pitt than at , say UMich, UW, or a number of other state schools where the odds are even higher and the stats having to be even better.</p>
<p>bearpanther: yes, Swanson use to hand out scholarships regularly to their students but not anymore. They have cut back on those engineering scholarships.</p>
<p>I don’t know the numbers, but I’ve been told that Pitt gets a relatively small percentage of money from the state of PA so that the cuts did not hurt them too terribly, though the tuition costs, to me, imply otherwise.</p>
<p>Question: does Pitt allow students to self report their grades and then send in an official transcript if accepted ( SUNY does this)? The reason why I ask is because it’s easy enough to do the app and send in SAT scores over the summer. It’s also fairly easy to send in the teacher rec early on, especially if you ask in the spring of junior year. I am not so sure how realistic it is to have the official transcripts sent in by guidance when school opens in Sept, as they are very caught up in ED apps. I suppose if my daughter tells him that merit money is on the line he may accommodate her, but otherwise the school typically sends transcripts by early to mid October. Will that be a problem in terms of merit, given that everything else will be in? If a student’s application shows a strong student but the official transcript is not yet in, will Pitt " save" some money for the student? I can’t imagine that all schools are able to get transcripts out the door by Sept… But maybe they do.</p>
<p>twogirls - S2 (HS class of 12) applied late November and received full tuition in early Dec. I also recall some kids got it even later than my boy.</p>
<p>Thanks!! You just eliminated much anxiety, especially since some areas start school in August. That would put us at a big disadvantage.</p>
<p>It’s really, really smart to be really, really friendly to the guidance staff, LOL!</p>