How good/bad is merit aid for OOS students with good stats?

shortnuke
Mon, 04 Sep 2017 12:58:18 +0000

My understanding is that Pitt’s merit aid awards take into consideration the applicant pool for each college. Therefore, it’s really hard to know just from GPA and test scores what potential merit aid you will receive. The profile for the Swanson College of Engineering is probably different from Dietrich College of Arts and Sciences or the Business or Nursing colleges. The stats seem to be trending higher each years. It doesn’t surprise me that PItt’s NPC wouldn’t show merit aid.

From what I saw on the acceptance threads last year, it looked like a lot of people were disappointed in the merit awards. A lot of students with 1500+ SATs only received $10-15K.

I think you’re definitely taking the right perspective in evaluating if the additional cost for Pitt is worth it compared to the UC’s and CSU’s that you’ll be able to pick from. D18 will be facing the same dilemma, although her 1400 SAT will probably not get her much merit aid as an engineering applicant. We live in Florida, and UF has a very strong program. However, she absolutely hates Gainsville and loves Pittsburgh (I grew up there).