My D filled out the interest form on the website (Recruitment (web form)) and got a reply from the BD within 24 hours. Then filmed audition videos and sent them in – you can do in-person auditions but they’re throughout April and June and we’re OOS. The BD got back within the hour with his decision.
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They are accepting video auditions now, but they also have three dates for in-person ones throughout April, May, and June
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Wonderful! I did just look at the Pitt Band Website. I hope she doesn’t have conflicts, but worst case, she can do the Pep Bands freshman year and march sophomore year. But I hope she can march as a freshman.
Ive heard wonderful things about the director and how he runs things, interacts with the musicians
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Thanks for the band info. My son’s interested in marching as well. I will have him start looking now. It didn’t occur to me that auditions would be now, but I think that’s great!
Congrats to her for making it!
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Same! I wasn’t thinking the info would be there
@caz0743 They did only let 16 kids off the waitlist last year because they had way more kids accept than anticipated and ended up wildly overenrolled. This year they have said they are going to reduce the number of accepted students so I would not count on many getting off the waitlist.
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Yeah, I saw the letter only briefly, but it did mention being put on a waitlist. I wasn’t too surprised based on info I’ve read here. My kid doesn’t want to run into anyone from highschool, so I think it’s for the best! I did want to have one reliable local option though, assuming CMU CS is an extreme reach for everyone. I’ve enjoyed your friendly comments on this thread.
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Thanks for this tidbit. Your student has wonderful stats and will do great. My D22 has a friend also waiting for CMU for engineering. A tough nut there.
Your information is valuable because it may be shedding light on the importance of an early application. Who would’ve thought your kid could be waitlisted? Certainly not me. But it’s probably because of the acceptances that have gone out for CS already, and maybe even the commitments they’ve received for the program.
Thanks for your kind words. Best of luck
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I know Dec 9 is late for Honors and probably for merit, too, but is it really “late” for Pitt general admission? I know lots of kids in my son’s class applied Dec 1 to meet the honors deadline and got into the college (no honors decisions yet, obviously) and I am not sure why an extra week would be held against such a qualified applicant. Think of how many T100 schools have Jan 1 deadlines. Maybe there is something specific about the CS program having a hard cap?
Maybe. I dont know. I would think it wouldn’t affect lots of acceptances
I’m guessing that had met their enrollment goals already for CS. Whatever algorithm they use must predict a full class based on current acceptances. Those are fantastic stats. After seeing the post, I warned my friend with a high achieving, local junior daughter to apply early even with an application that likely would have been a shoe-in in previous years.
That said, when we toured Pitt in the summer, long before they knew that they would have the big spike in applications, they were firm about applying early for a couple of reasons. The AO told us that they see early applications as a form of demonstrated interest. They also said that applications submitted in August and September could expect a relatively quick turnaround, but once they get into mid-October, they are swamped and the process slows down dramatically. From what has been discussed here, that seems to have held true and response times slowed from probably two weeks to two months.
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Thank you for the reply!
I get it. I took the same tour this summer. And as I asked the gentleman hosting the financial aid information session, “why does the university say on one hand that they are sensitive to the pandemic and allow students to apply test-optional… yet give preference to students for admission and merit aid who apply in August?” He had no real answer. Because it’s inconsistent.
My son didn’t even have leadership positions for his ECs named until late September and took the SAT in October. He didn’t start working on essays and applications until November because he spent the summer prepping for the SAT (and working). We just returned from visiting colleges in DC for the first time, this past weekend, for schools to which he has already applied.
Many of these delays resulted from Covid disruptions. They were things he wanted to do junior year but were postponed/canceled REPEATEDLY over the past 24 months whenever he tried to do them. He did get his Pitt application in by the Dec 1 honors deadline (and was admitted) but he basically turned his entire timeline around just for Pitt — since all 13 of the other schools to which he applied had Jan 1 deadlines —but even then his Pitt application was almost too “late”?
Everything about the ambiguity of this process, from the squishy meaning of “rolling”, to notifications and timelines, admissions and interfaces, financial aid packages and merit, and on down the line to over-enrollment and housing shortages, have left a bad taste about the resources Pitt commits to basic administrative functions. I have no doubt the cheer squad in here will start throwing their blue and yellow pom-poms at me for saying that, but that’s honestly how we feel relative to what we’ve experienced everywhere else he applied.
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I’m in no way a Pitt cheerleader, but rolling admissions is awesome for the kid who knows he wants to go to a specific school. It takes out the stress and alleviates competition.
My S is in state and Pitt was his number one choice - he applied in August. Dozens of kids in his HS do the same, more so for Penn State.
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I am totally sympathetic to how hard the last two years have been for kids, especially as they relate to activities. I have a 2020 and a 2022 and I am proud of them for surviving this craziness, and anything extra is gravy!
The test optional stance doesn’t really conflict with early applications and Pitt is one of the least-squishy rolling schools. My daughter applied test optional to Pitt very early because there didn’t seem to be any benefit to waiting for scores. If they weren’t truly TO, her application would have been penalized, but she was accepted and received merit, so I feel like Pitt is doing a much more holistic review than they did in the past, when you could basically submit an SRAR and scores and get a decision.
As far as rolling goes, schools like Penn State have a rolling admission option, but those answers usually come after their EA applicant decisions, so schools like that seem a lot squishier than Pitt, who seems to generally issue decisions on a first in-first out basis. There is some variation based on school (engineering vs dietrich vs COB, for instance) and the lead-time has slowed, but it still seems to generally be first come, first served.
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I think the first come, first served is the essence of what rolling is. I’m sorry this has been your experience @ShillingtonMom . Hoping the best for your kiddo
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Priority and early action systems (such as the one you mentioned at PSU) are also awesome for the kid who knows he wants to go to a specific school, with the added benefit of that system making it transparent when, how, and why students of different interest levels should plan to apply to that school. Someone shouldn’t have to take a tour or live on College Confidential to learn that there is a soft Dec 1 deadline for CS buried within the supposedly “rolling” Pitt admission system.
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It’s not. Almost every law school in the US has rolling admissions. They do it to space out their ability to review candidates and to de-stress applicants. The top ones get in. The ones who don’t meet the qualifications, don’t. But it isn’t first come first serve. That’s an optional add-on, and if Pitt wants to do that, that’s fine by me. They just need to publish that fact. And I can find it nowhere on the website where they do. They just give an ambiguous “apply early”.
Appreciate the good wishes.
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I see what you saying.
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