We were hoping that new documents were added, but that doesn’t seem to be the case (he has been checking!). The first email came on 10/14 and was titled Link to Access Pitt Admissions Documents. That came 2 days after the letter with his login credentials. The second one came on 10/18 and was titled How You’ll Hear from the Admissions Committee. No documents followed in the document center. The third email came yesterday. The title is Link to Access Pitt Admissions Documents (again). Nothing new has shown up in the document center, so it seems that this is related to the admissions letters (business school and GAP) that arrived on 10/26. It seems that the email comes in 2 days after the letters hit the document center. Since my son has been checking the document center regularly (he is now looking for a merit award letter), these emails seem to be coming in after the fact.
Thank you everyone! I had to take it upon myself to search her email and find the link they did email her to access the document center. For whatever reason the link that’s been posted in this thread would not work. But yes the official acceptance letter was in her document center! Yay!
Thanks to all!This is incredibly helpful information. My C is OOS and has 1260 SAT and 5.25/6.00 weighted GPA from well known HS. Lots of honors but only a few AP. Sports captain and non sports extracurricular leadership. What are the chances of admission and merit money? Application complete 10/18 no news yet.
@majicman , merit money has been tougher to get from Pitt in the past few years. I don’t think her score puts her in that category. Depending on her major, I do think she can be accepted. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences has a lower threshold for scores/gpa than Engineering, for example. I think this information is on the Pitt website. My D22 has a 32 ACT, and I am not confident she will get money or the honors college. I just don’t know if they are firm on a cutoff with scores. Good luck to her!
Perfect advice! Thanks. Yes the SAT seems to be a big factor for money, mentioned in this thread. Too bad the “whole picture” doesn’t mean as much as schools say it does.
This was so helpful! Thank you for taking the time to post this! My Ds application shows complete 
A question about merit based awards. These awards seem to range from a few thousand dollars per year to full tuition, and a small number of awards that include even other expenses such as dorm. From the previous posts (and thank you for the details!), the all-expenses-paid awards seem to go through a competitive process in March or so, and involves interviews etc.
My question is about the awards that are handed out early on, for example now. Do the currently handed awards include full tuition? Do do they reserve those as well for the March round? A neighborhood kid last year got full tuition (he’s freshman at Pitt now), and his award had come out in spring 2021, not in fall 2020. I was wondering if Pitt hands out awards by category of awards, and phase the distribution over several months.
My son received full tuition scholarship called The Cathedral of Learning Prestige early on. It was months later that he was invited to compete for the Chancellors which is full tuition plus room and board. From what I understand the Cathedral of learning is a diversity scholarship. My sons friend also received a full tuition scholarship early on but I believe she had to apply separately for it. I think it was called Stamps.
Thank you for the info, very helpful.
FYI, if you are a full pay family who does not qualify for any financial aid and your child is definitely scholarship material, do NOT fill out the FAFSA early. Or in fact at all. We did not. NO child should be reviewed for merit based on their parents finances. Merit should be an unbiased decision based on a student’s performance alone. That’s what merit is.
In the end, Pitt came out on top over all the other schools… especially those that required the CSS profile and other invasive financial inquiries.
Lesson learned from child #1.
Great advice! We have been dragging our feet on fafsa, now I feel good about it!
It’s really not that hard. Some schools require it for merit, so just make sure. It’s also the only way to get federal student loans, if that’s a consideration.
Css Profile schools tend to give very good need based aid and there’s a reason why they need a lot of information. Some kids don’t have a choice about filling out these forms.
<<NO child should be reviewed for merit based on their parents finances. Merit should be an unbiased decision based on a student’s performance alone. That’s what merit is.>>
That most definitely is not what merit is, not in this day and age.
A lot of times it’s just a discount, like a coupon. Colleges call it merit to make us feel better about it.
And if they require FAFSA to award “merit,” while you are totally within your rights not to comply, I think holding back on filing, or not filing at all, is doing yourself a disservice.
My theory has worked again for D22 who has been granted an annual $21,000 merit scholarship to a private school. I doubt if she had had less than stellar stats this would have been just given to her as a “discount” especially if they knew our EFC. Full pay families are not required to file the FAFSA and I know for a fact if we did file she would not have been given MORE merit. There is no disservice to anyone.
@mom2cats A lot of schools do require the CSS profile and this is not an option like the FAFSA for full-pay families to schools such as Pitt. Not everybody’s situation is the same and each family must make the best choices for their own families.
Congratulations to you and your D22. which private school is that?
You can PM for details.
I don’t really understand what you mean. Do you think filing fafsa with a high efc will prevent a merit award? Colleges would love to have you pay $40,000 instead of the $20,000 they might get from a lower income student. Your theory is based on 2 kids.
do not listen to this. this is not true at all, this is not how merit based scholarships work.
Please explain how merit worked for you at Pitt or other schools? Because your circumstance may be completely different than ours. What worked for us may not work for you. I wrote this on the Pitt thread because it specifically involves S19’s merit offer from Pitt… and now D22 at a private university.
This board is for insight and everyone’s situation is now yours or mine for that matter.