<p>So I'm a straight A student in all AP classes, second in my class and got a 1270 (math and reading) on my SAT, and spent numerous hours volunteering at the humane society and at various nursing homes. Not to mention, I either lead or I'm an officer on every club my school has to offer. But apparently, because I didn't score a 1450 on my SAT, I'm literally not getting any money to go to Pitt. I mean, I really wanted to go to Pitt because of their great med program and urban setting, but my backup school are all offering me at least half of the money it costs to go to them. </p>
<p>Should I even consider going to Pitt? I'm incredibly poor and can't go for full price? Pitt was my first choice and I really wanted to go but with no money offers, not to mention, I can't even get into their honors program because my sat isn't high enough, I don't know if I should go? Advice, please...</p>
<p>Sorry, but the fact of the matter is that Pitt (and all schools) have limited money to give away. There are plenty of students applying to Pitt that have your GPA, EC’s, leadership positions AND have SAT’s that are much higher than 1270 – they will get the money before you will.</p>
<p>If you can’t afford to go to Pitt, then you will have to go where the finances work.</p>
<p>*Should I even consider going to Pitt? I’m incredibly poor and can’t go for full price? *</p>
<p>HOW can you consider going if you don’t have the money?</p>
<p>Are you instate or out of state?</p>
<p>What are your backup schools?</p>
<p>Re: Merit</p>
<p>Typically, schools do not give merit just because someone has a lot of leadership ECs. Merit money is typically used to buy high stats students. high stats students help a school with rankings. In reality, Pitt gets enough high stats students with great ECs so they don’t need to give money to those with more modest stats.</p>
<p>When there are only a limited number of merit scholarships, then schools might look at all their high stats applicants to see which ones ALSO have outstanding ECs.</p>
<p>ncnapper92, Where do you live? Your SAT score translates to about a 28 ACT, you do have some options. If you live in Pennsylvania, that would make more sense as to why you didnt recieve anything. We live in Illinois and we didn’t get anything from one of our state schools but we did recieve offers from OOS.
You need to be Pre Med first, you can do that just about anywhere.</p>
<p>Actually, a 1270 is like an ACT 27, which sometimes is right below the “merit line” for some schools or can mean just “token” merit that probably won’t be enough.</p>
<p>However, 1stcolldad is right…Pre-med is your first goal, that can be done anywhere. Minimize debt for undergrad because med school is VERY expensive. </p>
<p>Pitt does not claim to meet all financial need. Very few state universities do. They are very clear about what qualifies a student for merit awards and the Honors College. Not even everyone who is accepted to the Honors College gets merit money. So there really was no reason for you to think that PItt was going to meet your financial need. </p>
<p>Even if you are instate and can commute to Pitt, it is not an inexpensive school. The instate tuition and fees are steep. If your family has money constraints and even with PELL, PA state money, Stafford loans, you cannot make the payments to go there, you need to find a more affordable option.</p>
<p>The good news is that if you can find a local school to attend for 2 years and not incur loans, going to Pitt for the final two years might be something doable. They do accept transfers readily. This might be something to consider.</p>
<p>Pitt’s merit aid is very numbers driven, and it is on a rolling basis, so when you were accepted can also have a bearing on whether and how much merit you received. </p>
<p>We are OOS and D2 got into the Honors college and received a 12k/yr merit award (we had been shooting for full tuition). That still leaves 22k in direct costs to Pitt for tuition, fees, R&B; and you still have to add books, travel and living expenses. As a result, Pitt is not a financially realistic choice for my premed kid. </p>
<p>No, I wouldn’t recommend Pitt as a reasonable choice for you with Med school possible in the future, you need to conserve funds during UG.</p>