Please no bashing - trying to get more merit aid.
My son got 5K/year merit aid offer from U Pitt. And 22.5K/year offer from temple yesterday. Currently U Pitt is his first choice and I am wondering what should be our next step to get more merit aid from U Pitt. We will not qualify for financial aid.
Has your son added any special honors or awards since his application? If not, you may find that the merit aid he got is what he will get.
Fir merit aid, you can contact admissions. Tell them this is his first choice and ask if there is any chance additional merit aid is available.
Don’t expect them to match Temple. Pitt usually has a more competitive applicant pool.
If Pitt is truly his number one choice, AND he’s ready to commit if the finances line up, he could contact his adcom to tell him “if there’s a way to increase my generous award of 5K to 10K I am excited to withdraw my other applications and commit to Pitt”.
Then see what happens.
If he’s NOT ready to commit, it’s going to be a long, drawn out process (or Pitt will just say “take it or leave it” of them upping the offer modestly, him asking for a “skootch” more, etc.
Agree with Thumper- Pitt will not view Temple as a peer school, so what he got from them is a “nice to know” but not serious competition.
Good luck!
Temple offered my daughter way more than Pitt a year ago (Pitt offered $8000 which wasn’t enough). Pitt is a tougher admit.
Thank for all the suggestions. Yes Pitt and Temple are not pear schools. But I was wondering if 22.5K and 5K difference will matter.
Thank you - will talk to my son and see if he is interested in doing this option
Both colleges use merit aid to help shape the class they want.
Temple is using it because your son is likely at the top end of their applicants, stats wise. Pitt is using it because your son is an attractive applicant who they’d love to have- but likely “above average” in terms of the rest of the applicant pool-- so if he says no, there are more like him to come.
Both colleges would be delighted with a quick yes however- so that’s your son’s leverage with Pitt.
Congratulations. What school at Pitt did your son apply?
Dietrich School of Art and Science.
Thank you
How did you fare when you contacted them?
Pitt rarely budges on merit and $5K is generally the max it offers in-state students outside of the highly competitive scholarships like Stamps and Nordenberg. I have a friend who successfully negotiated more need-based aid, but I do not know anyone who has negotiated more merit.
I would definitely contact them now, if you haven’t already, because as time goes on their pool of merit funds is more depleted.
Pitt generally responds favorably to a numbers’ based direct comparison - i.e. if you can demonstrate that the cost to attend Pitt is higher then the cost of attending a peer institution, they will likely respond with an increase in scholarship dollars. Two things, however - it MUST be a peer ranked university…(such as Penn State, Ohio State, etc.) and they want to see documentation that your student has been actually been offered such a scholarship and/or amended cost of attendance. Wave those papers in front of admissions, and you’ll get positive results.
We are out of state and we simply sent email to join now if they increase the aid. Maybe if we get a higher offer from peer college - we might able to send another email.
They currently denied additional aid.
For the last several years, Pitt has been shifting financial aid money from merit/discounting to need-based aid. Not sure if the goal is to get to zero merit (beyond athletic scholarships) or what. Here’s some info on this shift: