IS, admitted in first wave, and then into honors college which allegedly only happens for top 10% admitted students- all public OOS schools that admitted my student gave significant merit. We attended the first admitted students day in Dec, but this feels awkward. Had students admitted in their IS school before, when we were living in a different state, and, as they were top students, they always got some merit, even if symbolic, to acknowledge that. With NMF student now, 4.4 GPA, national competitions as EC, in state, applied in August and admitted in September, and then in honors college a few month later, even if Pitt is a great school, they definitely lost my student. It’s the schools that show them love till the end, and this has been a 9 months road during which these students poured their heart into a process that’s already flawed, so moving on. Good luck to everyone and make the best in the schools that showed you love 
I don’t know about Pitt (my oos daughter was offered $8000 a year when she applied), but she chased merit at publics. Only one school offered nothing, Rutgers, our flagship. Oos students get more merit money than in state students because they are being bribed away from their cheaper in state flagships.
The fact that other flagships disadvantage their IS students when it comes to merit doesn’t make it better as a game plan( since that’s what admissions represent imo)- on the same token, there are flagships that attract their best IS students( I will not mention names, but they are well known) to the point where those students choose their IS flagship over a T20–in the long run, I see that being an advantage for the school because instead of being a safety for students rejected elsewhere truly becomes a target- it increases the academic level and the ‘ prestige’ of that school for what’s worth( for those schools and students that care so much about usnews rankings). Also Rutgers instate tuition is 14k, while Pitt instate tuition is 21k, so yeah, there’s some difference in $, making Pitt one of the more expensive IS schools around the country. Even Berkeley, which is top 20 in the world in all rankings has IS tuition of 14k( of course cost of living in CA overrides that in Pittsburgh). So this admission game when school priorities their financial gains over talent acquisition may not be the best if they want to advance in rankings- just saying
When the IS COA for Pitt for IS full pay students is only a few thousands less than OOS COA full pay at GTech, UT, TAMU, OSU, UNC, Rutgers ( universities listed in no particular order), why would exceptional IS students choose Pitt over the others? It’s known that Pitt has one of the highest IS COA in the country and imo that doesn’t help much with retention of IS talent and in the long run advancement in rankings ( if that’s what they care for)
Actually Rutgers does buy the top IS students, they’re the only ones that get merit and honors, my son’s friend chose Rutgers honors college over t20 which were full pay. With fees tuition is almost $18,000 IS at Rutgers.
I’m not saying it’s right, just that high stat IS students shouldn’t feel insulted or not wanted
Good for them. We are OOS and going for Rutgers open house this weekend. Like I said, OOS COA for us is similar if not less than IS COA for Pitt.
We have been to both (OOS) .. kid prefers Pitt over Rutgers .. overall better campus vibe.. Rutgers is spread out with shuttle buses to ride between buildings/classes.. some like it and others don’t as you have to plan you class slots accordingly.. .. Met a couple of Pitt senior kids in honor college who are from NJ.. interestingly they love Pitt over Rutgers any day! It is more like instate kids want to move out for new experiences and friends..
i did call in today to financial aid, they collected my info and then said oops…call admissions. called admissions…they didn’t want to know who i was or who my student was 
…lady listened and then said “yeah, merit is closed and we don’t match, so don’t need to know what you received from other institutions. thanks for calling.” everyone else at pitt has been awesome up until this call…so will stay measured. maybe a bad day for her of people calling to complain about merit. idk. sharing just for the first definitive…“merit is over” words. good luck to all in final decision making.
Thanks for highlighting the income limit. I’m struggling to find the income limit language on the grow-pa application and website. Can you please point me to where I can find it? We’re debating on whether to apply by the April 15th deadline.
i also cannot find it in the PHEAA or in the authenticated AES site, but i did find this from a state senator after googling…
Thanks. I sent an email asking if there was a household income limit and received this response after two weeks (on April 16th). “The Grow PA Grant is first-come, first-served; it is not based on financial means.”
thanks for sharing! wonder when we will hear…the AES website just has the docs sitting there. i think i’ve been submitted for over a month. 
We received an email last week from PHEAA that they received our application for the Grow PA Grant and determined it was complete and that they would begin reviewing applications on a first-come, first-served basis on order of when application was submitted. We submitted March 14th
thanks for that update; we did not receive that email, but i called in last week and they communicated the same over the phone…the agent i spoke with seemed a little unsure of the process because this is technically the first year for the grant. he said “maybe you will hear by june? call back in june if you haven’t heard anything”. 
we submitted on 3/22.
My daughter received an email last week from Pheaa indicating she was determined to be provisionally eligible to participate in the Grow PA Grant program and that Pheaa would now work with her secondary institution to verify she meets all of the program requirements for eligibility. Seems promising so wanted to share!
thanks for the update! we are still waiting for word.
so we got that correspondence and are now waiting for Pitt to i guess confirm…any word on your end? thanks again for sharing
Nothing yet. On some of the Pitt parent pages on FB sounds like everyone is in the same boat. Some people advised PHEAA is historically slow and even processes grants late spring for the Fall/Spring academic year so I guess I’m not holding my breath that it might be applied to our fall 2025 tuition bill.
thanks…it does seem crazy quiet suddenly. appreciate the answer.