Show me the Money ???

<p>Perhaps they sent it due to the phone call??? I can’t imagine them sending a letter to every applicant that they are not getting an award but maybe they changed the process this year.</p>

<p>Pitt has never stated exactly what stats qualifies for scholarships so you have those with high stats getting nothing or lesser awards and vice versa. I think they like to keep it that way so they have the flexibility of awarding scholarships to students they want. </p>

<p>If nothing else, the “availability” of merit money has increase Pitt’s reputation among students seeking merit money. I am sure they have seen an increase of applications from high achieving students.</p>

<p>I would take whatever they tell you on the phone with a grain of salt. It depends on who is answering the phones and what they know.</p>

<p>I called OAFA yesterday and that particular person I spoke to said that they were still evaluating merit awards for students who were already accepted, and further that this would occur in January and February. Although I agree that the answer varies widely according to who you talk to, maybe there is still hope of merit money.</p>

<p>My son sent a letter asking about merit money & he never received any kind of response.</p>

<p>I’m waspeaceforall’s daughter just for the record…</p>

<p>After getting my new SAT scores which result in a combined 1450/1600 and 2150/2400, I resubmitted them to Pittsburgh and requested to be reconsidered. I received a letter back within a week and a half or so saying that I was not going to be receiving merit scholarship. I called the admissions rep that I have been dealing with throughout this process and asked why I had been turned down.
She said that for both merit and UHC you need:
- 1400/1600 SAT
- 4.16 GPA (I am pretty sure it was 4.16 and not 4.11 but don’t hold me to it…)
- ranking in the top 5% of HS class </p>

<p>Based on other’s comments in this thread, it does not appear that the awarding of merit and initiations into UHC are as cut and dry as they were presented to me…</p>

<p>Yesterday my daughter got the Honor’s College letter and today $10K a year OOS Merit. All good here in our house tonight. The check goes in the mail in the morning</p>

<p>That’s great! Congrats waspeaceforall. :)</p>

<p>Hi. I’ve been posting on the Class of 2014 thread and thought I’d wander over. My head is spinning from all this. D accepted in early Nov. and told almost immediately she was in honors, too. Best SATs were 1410 on M and R. (720 on Writing apparently not used at Pitt.) D is in top 10 in a class of 300 at a decent, not stupendous, HS in NJ. Excellent activities; recs should have been very good. I’ve contacted admissions office. Still waiting. Helplessly hoping her scholarship hovers nearby.</p>

<p>My son ( from NJ) applied in August when we visited, and the application was not that well done. Initially he did not send in letters of rec. He was admitted in early October. Then he regretted not sending letters of recommendation so he asked the teachers to send those and sent a letter to Pitt asking if he could be reconsidered for a scholarship.</p>

<p>No scholarship yet. (And I kind of doubt he will. His SAT was only 1960. But he is in top 10% of his class. ) Interesting though, one of his teachers who rent the recommendation letter received a letter from Pitt saying that they could tell from her letter that she was an excellent educator , et cetera et cetera. She was very excited about the letter. She said no other teacher had recieved a letter like that from Pitt.</p>

<p>One of the individuals who sent in a recommendation for my son also received a letter like that. Anyone else here in my son’s position. 1460 SAT, Sat II 800 Math, 780 Chemistry, 730 US History, five 5’s on AP’s (AP English, AP Chem, AP Statistics, AP Macro, AP Micro), two 4’s (AP US History, AP Calc AB), top of his class with an unweighted 4.0, great recommendations, and still no scholarship? We are a little (a lot?) disappointed!</p>

<p>When did your kids apply? Earlier in the application season? Or just recently?</p>

<p>My son applied before Thanksgiving and was accepted Dec. 11. And still no hint of scholarship.</p>

<p>hsmom: what state are you from?</p>

<p>We are from PA.</p>

<p>Applied in person when we visited (by the way for future reference, I think that is the way to go) I think she had a complete package, scores, transcripts, recommendations, etc. by mid-Sept. She was accepted 10/5.</p>

<p>hsmom6: We are in-state and d applied early November and was accepted a few weeks later. 1540 SAT, 4.0 unweighted, all honors and AP’s, top 3% at a very competitive h.s. She was offered 2K merit and also 2K from engineering and we were disappointed with that. In January I told them thanks but no thanks. Hopefully they can turn around and offer that $ to other deserving applicants. Good luck!</p>

<p>popcon: Thanks for the info on your daughter. With those stats she should have received much more, in my opinion. Does she know where she is going? Pitt is probably off the list for my son, also. He can go to Case Western for almost the same price with his scholarship there. Or he could go to Oklahoma University for almost nothing (as he is a national merit finalist). He is waiting for other college decisions. We were a little sad as Pitt seemed like a good fit.</p>

<p>Pitt seems to be much less generous to IS than OOS for scholarships. It might be that the difference between full tuition and the next biggest scholarship (2k or 10k depending on residence) is much smaller for IS than OOS, but not getting full tuition would feel like getting shafted with high stats. I can see why trying to attract OOS students can build reputation and selectivity though.</p>

<p>hsmom6, That is too bad that Pitt looks to be off your son’s list. Maybe if you update them on his NMF status that could open up some dialogue about merit aid.</p>

<p>My daughter is a national merit finalist also. I wanted her to apply to a few schools that give generous NMF scholarships but unfortunately she was not interested :(</p>

<p>She has only heard back from Penn State and is still waiting to hear from the honors college. She did apply to a bunch of other schools, but won’t hear from them until the end of March.</p>

<p>We are more of a PSU family anyway, so if it had come down to a choice between PSU and Pitt, it would have been a difficult choice had Pitt come through with more money. Don’t have to worry about that now!</p>

<p>schrizto, I have been reading these forums for a while and always appreciate your insight</p>

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<p>Thanks, I’m glad I made a difference.</p>

<p>I was accepted into the honors college sometime in november i think, and just today recieved my 10k scholarship letter. Not sure what took so long, but I guess it shows those that are still waiting may still get something.</p>