First, check Common App and see if college has downloaded the application. If so, give it 5 days the most. If not hear anything, contact admission
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I suspect they are being inundated with applications. Although Pitt has no set deadline for submitting many students’ work with a Nov 1 deadline in mind (early action date at many schools). So, they may be submitting all their apps around the same time. Meaning it is taking a little longer to set up portals. You applied on Friday, and nothing would have been processed over the weekend. I would give them 3-4 business days to set everything up and if you have not heard by then, contact them.
That you know of is it every Tuesday night that they post merit $. I didnt see any posts today 10/24
The new posts are in the merit thread
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Applied 10/11 took 3-4 days to get portal set up, longer then all the other schools but application was complete by 10/12 and it went into the review the following week. Found decision on the portal today! 2.5 weeks total turnaround! No email yet but portal has accepte\decline buttons!
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Congratulations!
What are the stats and major ?
Very disappointed in the merit aid my S24 was just offered ($5K / year; $20K Total). Goes to the top public high school in the US (in Virginia) and from past data points, most everyone from that school that applies to Pitt gets $20K / year ($80K Total). Has something changed this year or did we do something wrong? Applied to Deitrich and also applied for GAP medicine and was definitely hoping to pay at the in-state tuition level than OOS level. Could they have made a mistake??
For reference:
ACT: 36
GPA: 4.48x / 4, Weighted
8 AP classes by graduation
National Merit Semi-finalist (though couldn’t mention that yet when application was submitted in August)
Many more classes beyond AP level (some are post-grad level)
Many activities (including medical research internship, leadership roles, sports, academic competitions/awards, etc.)
There is a Pitt Merit thread you might want to check out (here is a preview):
There is a long post about this in the Pitt merit thread you might find interesting.
The short answer is it’s all going to be speculation from our end. Did your student show significant demonstrated interest? Are they applying to a program that they don’t have trouble filling slots in? Do the kids from that high school that get the great offers tend to pick Pitt or do they end up going somewhere else?
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There are a lot of factors that go into awarding merit. Beyond historical enrollment trends, student profiles, geographic targets for the current year, etc, there is also the popularity of the major. If a school has a major that is in high demand (lots of quality applicants, perhaps for limited spots), there is less incentive for the school to offer big merit because they know they will fill the class. This happened to my kids for computer science - one year, interest in the major was average, and merit was good. The following year, AI exploded, and along with it, the number of applicants (e.g., RIT received over 22000 applications for 250 spots. Pitt was not much different). So, that year’s merit was much less than the previous year for students with a similar profile. Sometimes, it’s as simple as that - it does not reflect the quality of your child’s application/accomplishments; it is simply a supply and demand issue. We don’t know their goals (e.g., we have a lot of kids from VA but none from GA, so let’s focus there) or the number of applicants they are getting for each school/major.
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Yeah, it could be one big change, a bunch of little changes that add up for that individual in particular, or so on.
One thing we do know is Pitt’s application volumes and yields have been in flux in recent years. So things have definitely been changing for them, and they are likely learning as they go what is working better or worse to optimize their classes in this new environment.
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Oh, and just to toss something else in.
This is part of why I understand experienced counselors often recommend you only ED to colleges assuming no merit, unless perhaps there is a published automerit program for which you know you qualify. Because even if it seems like you have a good idea based on prior years, absent such a published automerit program, these colleges can, and sometimes will, make significant changes in internal merit policies without warning.
But it also means you should not necessarily ED based on assuming from prior years you won’t get much merit from schools with these sorts of variable merit programs. Because one applicant’s unfavorable shift can be another applicant’s favorable shift.
I work in higher ed, and I know for a fact that schools (maybe not all, but enough. And I am not saying that Pitt does this) look at the profile of a student and have a reasonable idea based on their historical data, the probability that the student will, in fact, enroll. As one example, if the student has an exceptional profile (say, above the 75 percentile of their student profile for that major), they may, based on their data, know there is a strong chance that this student will go to another school. So, they may award the additional merit to a student they feel is more likely to enroll. I know that may not seem fair, and they shouldn’t assume this, but if the historical data supports it, it can influence their decision. There is nothing “fair” about college admissions (just as there is nothing totally fair in life) and the aid process (IMO). The decision-making process can change from year to year.
If merit scholarships were 100% based on “merit - academic and extracurricular achievements,” then students with comparable profiles would receive the same merit regardless of whether they are in-state or out-of-state. Looking at past merit awards (even in the same year), we can see that this is not necessarily the case. So there is some other factor(s)at play - geographic location/zip code, desired major, institutional goals, etc.
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And personally, I have no problem with colleges using their non-need grant budget strategically/efficiently. It is just unfortunate that we call non-need scholarships “merit” scholarships. But I guess “optimizing institutional goals scholarships” does not roll off the tongue . . . .
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Agree with all of this and suspect HS history also factors in. My kid’s OOS HS has had ~100 Pitt applicants each of the last two years, with 60-70 accepted per year and 5-7 attending. That can’t be a great yield. My kid—top 6% of class, 4.0 uw, 10 APs, etc.—was accepted in early September and has not gotten a merit offer yet; given our HS history, that does not surprise me at all. And, in fact, Pitt is right; kid is unlikely to attend, although it’s an appealing back-up option, and has shown no demonstrated interest beyond the early application.
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In addition to what has been explained here and in the other thread, this is another way to consider why Pitt didn’t offer your student more:
Pitt does not yield protect with admissions. Their review has gotten more holistic, but for the most part an applicant above a certain objective threshold will be accepted. Other schools may yield protect and not accept a student that they don’t expect will enroll, but Pitt does not seem to engage in that practice. There was no way your student wouldn’t have been accepted at Pitt.
But that does not mean that Pitt expects that your stellar student will enroll. Given that your student’s academics seem to be perfect and courses rigorous, and that they have good to great activities, Pitt may look at your student as highly unlikely to choose them because they will have better options elsewhere. You are from Virginia and in state choices like UVA and Virginia Tech would likely be cheaper and at least as strong as Pitt; your student will have opportunities to join honors programs with auto merit at places like Alabama where they could go for free; and, of course, your student has a reasonable chance to be accepted at Ivies or other T20 programs.
Pitt’s pool of merit money is finite. They offer more than they expect to actually pay because not everyone will enroll, but who they offer it to matters. Even when offering $20K (essentially getting it down to in state pricing), they may have found that kids with ACTs of 36 still don’t enroll, or kids from your state still don’t enroll, or whatever. But if they instead offer $10,000 to some kids with ACTs of 33s, they likely find that they can get those kids.
Are you following the enrollment management concept? They figure out what gets them the most bang for their buck.
Your student is excellent and should have great choices. Pennsylvania schools like Pitt and Penn State are usually NOT attractive options for anyone chasing merit, especially out-of-state.
(I realize coming from an overrepresented county in Virginia or a highly competitive high school like Thomas Jefferson or similar makes the Va state school applications more complex, but I’m only presenting the situation from Pitt’s perspective.)
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Hello there DS applied on 10/16, SRAR next day and just saw accept/decline buttons in his portal today. Yay!
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In state - Engineering
$10K per year
1530 SAT
3.9 unweighted
National award
Strong leadership etc.
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Congrats !
Can you please post your stats and major ?
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Out of state- Pre-Dentistry
31 ACT
3.72
Does have a national award
Varsity Soccer
2 jobs
Tons of activities and volunteering
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