My daughter received a financial aid email today. It only gave loan info. Does that mean that nothing else is coming her way?
@mamat80 If you have better offers elsewhere, you can do a cost analysis: https://oafa.pitt.edu/financialaid/academic-scholarships/cost-analysis/
It might not get you a lot, but people have been successful in getting an extra couple thousand dollars a year.
@mamat80 you can call the school and ask. I know of people who have done that this week and they were flat out otd if they were getting merit or not.
Thank you! Iāve never been through this process before and wasnāt sure what to expect.
I received my full financial aid package today and I am in awe at Pittās generosity. On top of my 25,000 dollar merit scholarship, the university also gave me a 12,000 dollar Panther Pride award. A total of 37k in aid to an OOS student makes things so much easier on my family, and Iām so grateful. Itās a little early, but I think itās pretty likely that Iāll be a panther next year!
What happens if I was awarded $20,000/ year in merit scholarship with an ACT score of 33 at the time of admittance, but the admissions office did not update with my new ACT score of 35 that was sent directly in October after I was admitted already? Do you think they will change the amount of scholarship given if i called them?
@teehee1999, The best thing to do for individual circumstances is to give us a call so we can talk it through with you!
412-624-7488
Best,
A Pitt Admissions Staffer
@weirdfishes2 WOW! That is awesome! Congratulations!
@Winky1 Congratulations on the successful cost analysis!! Did you use one or two schools? And how long was the turnaround? Hoping to submit one, too! Thanks!
Thank you @greentea3. I have to say I am impressed that Pitt even has a Cost Analysis form and webpage on their website. A clear protocol to follow. Now I am even more impressed with the turnaround time - 1 week from when it was submitted electronically to when a decision was received electronically. We used only 1 school because she had been given a very generous award from a particular OOS school. So we went with it. I did debate about waiting a week or 2 for another offer to come in from a rolling admissions school, but we decided to submit it while we had fresh data in hand. You have nothing to lose if you have another offer in hand. Nothing is guaranteed, and we were so delighted to have her award increase. Best of luck! Itās ironic that she did have to wait for 4 months to get her initial award and only 1 week for it to increase!
@Winky1. I think I applied ED1 to the same school your D applied ED2 to. I hope she has better luck. I am looking hard at a smaller, regional school with strong engineering on the theory that being a ābig fishā might be a better idea when it comes to finding the best research, internship and job opportunitiesā¦also, just general well-being. Good luck to your D. Sounds like she has great options. Let me know if that ED2 works for her. It is a great school.
Hi @finnb , there is no EDII school for my D! I am relieved her ED school deferred her 
PM me and fill me in! Sounds like you are gaining clarity. All the best.
@finnb best research opportunities is more due to funding vol than big fish in small pond (vs little fish in big pond) - when assessing opportunities at one univ vs another, check into published funding reports. Pitt is #5 in most NIH funding nationally which creates alot of opportunity.
@Winky1 , Congratulations!!!
when doing a cost analysis form, do we include any financial aid? only reason i ask, merit is for the full 4years assuming you keep your grades up, need based financial aid is by the year and can change every year? thanks
@adamt12 , Pittās form is crystal clear. They are looking for figures for tuition and room/board. Just fill in the blanks, and see what happens.
Yes, I think you are supposed to use direct costs like tuition and fees, room and board, minus any scholarships and grants.
So if you get state grants at an instate school you would include those.
And it also says to include merit award letters and financial aid award letters from the schools.
They are comparing net costs between schools, not merit or need based aid awarded.
Some schools might have higher room and board costs or fees (especially private schools), so the net cost might still be higher even if you receive merit or need based aid there.
https://oafa.pitt.edu/pdf/CostAnalysisWorksheet.pdf
^^^the cost analysis worksheet can be found here
My S17 also sent in the cost analysis worksheet with a very generous package from another public school on his list. Pitt did NOT increase his existing merit award any further despite the other institution being substantially lower in net cost. It does seem they brought @Winky1 's D up to that same award with similar-ish stats. So that seems to be some kind of ceiling for that group of kids. Pitt said the class was very competitive this year.
For reference, we used two public sources to check if his awards and net costs were from schools Pitt would view as peers/comparable.
One was the Chrinicle for Higher educations interactive affinity map of peer institutions
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/peers-network
The other was the AAU member list of research universities
https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/our-members
I would also check the Pitt Chronicle for annual articles about Pitt rankings and peers.