I’ve definitely seen this!! Especially if they question if Pitt is your safety.
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I never had any doubts, @Winky1 - huge congrats!
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I believe BU does this too. Kids get into competitive honors college with no merit.
So @colonelmike64 , you are saying you believe all kids who get into honors should get some merit? It’s not bad logic, but Ive never seen that policy anywhere. Except maybe Penn State. Schreyers Honors College comes with $5,000 per year, unless that changed. WVU has a nice chart and gives merit money based on gpa and scores regardless of honors college. Last i checked Miami University in Oxford Ohio also had a merit chart they go by.
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Agree! My daughter is there now and got $10k merit before being admitted to honors college. She’s a freshman there now and living in Sutherland. We are in state. Her major is anthropology.
Thank you, thank you. We are so excited, and we still can’t believe this is unfolding. Stamps Foundation interview is next week!
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My D22 received generous merit from 2 private schools which does the GPA linked awards. These are very transparent and much appreciated. Plus anything that comes on top of that is a bonus, including the $2000 non-need grant thrown at her.
Pitt knows our numbers from S19 now (although he was one of those 200+non-need merit kids and Honors, didn’t file FAFSA at all in the end in 2019) We don’t expect a penny from Pitt for D22.
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Not exactly what I’m saying, but close. It depends on how many students get merit and how many are admitted to the honors college, all of which varies by institution. That’s why I asked if anyone has the numbers.
But if there are two students, call them A and B, and both apply to the honors college, I can’t think of any college except for Pitt that has a university-wide merit award (ie not geographic, diversity, or major based) that would award student A with merit AND reject student A from the honors college, while not awarding merit to student B AND accepting student B to the honors college.
I can see it because Pitt makes it very clear that the essay is an essential component for the Honors college. Especially if student B is in state.
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My son received an email this morning that there is an update to his portal. He applied EA and we’ve been waiting. It’s his right to check first (instead of me checking for him) so hopefully it is a decision.
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Actually UMD does this all the time. Most of their merit awards are university based and not based on need or intended major (evidently unlike Pitt with CompSci) and these awards are primarily stats driven and not at all holistically driven as far as I know. However, the Honors College decisions are totally independent of the merit decisions so it’s not unusual at all to have kids get a nice merit award but no HC and vice versa. Of course their is still a strong relationship between getting into HC and receiving university wide merit.
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We live in PA and a lot of our kids apply to Pitt. Pitt give a lot of its merit out early on. Also for honors I believe the essay plays a huge role. I know of a student who got in was in the top 10 of his class was awarded a lot of merit with an engineering scholarship on top and he didn’t get into honors. My son got into honors and was awarded the chancellors but his essay was really good and they talked a lot about it during his chancellors interview. Before the chancellors he was first awarded the Cathedral of Learning full tuition scholarship but he applied super early.
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Has anyone attended one of Pitt’s admitted student days this year? We are scheduled to attend one this coming Saturday, but the information page sent to my DD does not include the promised “link to your itinerary” and we are wondering what to expect for the day. It lasts from 8:00-1:00; will there be any food provided or should we bring snacks? (Younger teenage sibling is coming with us and can get hangry!) Is the tour the very last part of the day? Any insights from someone who’s already attended one of these events would be much appreciated!
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I was surprised at the lack of itinerary also. My advice is always bring snacks - I am also known to get hangry! And an 8am start on a very cold windy day - ugh!
I buy the essay explanation but you still need high stats, even with a strong essay. I’m just not seeing how there are thousands of students receiving merit who are more academically deserving than the hundreds admitted to the honors college. I suspect the true answer is that merit is a yield management tool as much as it’s an award based on academics. The awards seem to skew heavily OOS and heavily away from full pay families (of which I’m not one. Just something I’ve observed).
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Definitely skew OOS.
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Some of the awards here are diversity, but not identified that way. They don’t have to be, but it’s good to know if you’re researching or wondering why your kid didn’t get anything.
Transparency about merit is nice, but it’s less common these days. It’s one of the reasons why kids apply to a lot of schools. And I have to say, we were shocked at nice merit from umass and temple, plus need based awards from jmu (and honors) and Pitt.
D did not get merit, and we weren’t expecting any, but the Panther Pride for need was nice, since it’s expensive out of state.
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I think this happens a lot. I think it’s common. It can be aggravating that top kids don’t all get honors and/or merit, but I do think it’s common practice for schools to use merit like @caz0743 has said to fill in a financial aid package for a student with demonstrated need and not give it to a full-pay high stat kid. Or give the merit to OOS instead of In State when choosing between 2 equal candidates. I also think merit and honors with or without merit are used to entice desired students. It’s all fair game, as this higher ed stuff is a business. Not saying I like it or it’s fair, but I do think it’s common.
I understand and am glad to hear your daughter got the Panther Pride! That helps. Private colleges can do whatever they want to do with merit. And I have no problem, personally, with OOS applicants getting support to attend Pitt, or Pitt using funds to increase diversity. That improves the college experience for all.
But public colleges are not private colleges and they really do need to be transparent about funding. It shouldn’t be an option or a nice-to-have. This is not funding that entirely originates with donations, the endowment, or money from tuition receipts, as it does at a private college.
Much of Pitt’s funding is either directly or indirectly, PA taxpayer money. I shouldn’t have to guess at the parameters for awards funded, in part, from my tax dollars. And if a stated award is for outstanding academic achievement, award it for such. If a major component of the award is to defray costs for out-of-state applicants, then just label it as an OOS grant as they do at plenty of other colleges (UDel comes to mind).
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I just checked the Pitt dashboard and D22 was awarded the Panther Pride award, so that’s unexpected and great news! $8,600 per year will may move Pitt back to the top of her list.
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I wish I could share your optimism Winky1! I would argue it is not fair but it is the business of higher ed. It’s hard not to be a bit tainted by the entire process.