May not be to the same degree but I suspect the top colleges will continue to see increases and really good students need safeties which they don’t mind going to. Pitt is probably the benefactor of this trend. Also I would expect the international student apps to increase across the board releasing some pent up demand abroad due to COVID/travel/visa situations.
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Expectations for merit aid just dropped like a brick:) However, seeing that there is this much interest in the university is also encouraging.
Pitt is one of the few highly rated colleges with rolling admission. Last year’s super low acceptance rate in elite schools made good students anxious and they need more safeties than before. And Pitt is a top pick as a safety. The surge of applications also means lower yield rate though.
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The University of Georgia thread has a link to their admissions blog which indicates a 3% increase in Early Action candidates this year, not what I would consider a surge. Definitely worth reading this blog even if your child isn’t applying. I suspect the rolling admissions option for Pitt plus their liberal use of application fee waivers are at least partially impacting the number of applications for this year. We too are waiting for merit notification - going on three week now… and of course concerned about the seemingly low awards for CompSci majors. We’re out of state with an excellent in state option so a hefty merit award from Pitt is pretty important for us.
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Same situation here, 3 weeks and counting, CS, OOS. The merit seemed to be arriving like clockwork then came to a screeching halt. Fingers crossed that it is just the application surge. We don’t really have a good in-state option, every bit helps…
They don’t have TO policy right, so it’s interesting they saw a rise from last year. They were TO last year ?
Very true. We know of high stats, well rounded kids who chose UPitt over other very high ranked schools they were admitted too. This is from last year admissions .
when did he apply? thanks! and congrats!
While applications have gone up, I am not aware of any data indicating that the graduating class of 2022 is smarter than the class of 2021 nationwide, so I don’t know that colleges are necessarily getting tougher to get into year over year. I think a few schools, like Pitt, that do rolling admissions, are seeing a surge.
My gut feel is that Pitt will accept the same number or maybe less than last year, so they may start tightening up acceptance criteria pretty soon as their acceptance pool fills up. While Pitt traditionally has a low yield, the way Pitt handles acceptances discourages students from applying to other schools in the same range in the rankings. If you already have been accepted to Pitt, why bother applying to Penn State, Indiana, UConn, Ohio State, Rutgers, or Maryland in January unless there is something about one of those schools that you really like? A kid may send one or two applications to those schools, but she is unlikely to blow $400+ on application fees on all of them in January if she already has Pitt in the bag.
For those using Pitt as a safety, nothing changes with the early acceptance, but unless the Pitt admissions department is clueless, they are able to classify those kids separately and know they will get a relatively low yield out of that group.
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Same here. My son received acceptance at Pitt. Nothing on merit. Any news on the Guaranteed Medical Program?
My son said that Pitt’s website (he thinks it was somewhere in the FAQ’s) states that, starting in October, the admissions committee meets once per week to review admitted students for merit aid and releases the merit awards once per week also. I believe that the last time anybody on CC was notified of merit was back on 11/03 or 11/04. I do wonder if perhaps they have put all of their resources into admissions decisions at the moment, because you are correct that merit decisions seemed to be coming pretty regularly throughout October.
My D was accepted!
App submitted 10/26
Acceptance email 11/19
School of Nursing
Gpa 3.97U/4.27W
SAT 1400
Strong course rigor
OOS
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Where do you see app status? My son applied Oct 27. We received the email about the document center and portal but nothing else. The portal always say no application pending or something like that. He applied using the common app
Their e-mail is delayed and the regular portal updated not exactly simultaneously.
The fastest way to find out is to check the document center. This is where the acceptance will show up first.
My child’s portal changed from “No application pending” to Accept /Decline buttons. Nothing in the document center yet. Application submitted October 19, but sent recent SAT scores after submitting the original application which seemed to bump the process back a few day. Applied to engineering. Taking this as a good sign!
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@CU1986 As far as merit goes, don’t hold out for much…especially for CS… my daughter (in-state) was admitted last year with high stats (1570 SAT, 13 APs, 4.8 GPA, etc) within 10 days after submitting her application in mid October. She didn’t hear about merit aid until January, and it was only $2000/year.
Ugh, this is my concern for my OOS CS son with stats like your daughter. Do you mind sharing where she landed? Hopefully with better merit?
She is at UPenn. Very happy there. No merit of course as they only give need based aid.
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I think Pitt is offering OOS kids more merit money than in-state. My son had high stats, also only got 2k in merit aid. We’re disappointed and he will probably end up elsewhere even though Pitt was high on his list. It’s a shame they don’t give much love to in-state students.
Where is the document center? Thanks