Merit Scholarships

flashk
Mon, 12 Dec 2016 02:16:21 +0000

@killersnail

Here is a link to Pitts scholarship page. It will tell you who typically qualifies for merit scholarships.

https://oafa.pitt.edu/financialaid/academic-scholarships/

I believe the deadline for applying and being considered for merit scholarships is December 15th. THIS THURSDAY.

All of the pieces of your application need to be in by that date. You will need to fill out the application, do the SRAR (Student Reported Academic Record) portion of the application and get your test scores rushed to Pitt as well as put some real thought into the short answer questions.

The SRAR is time consuming but will prevent you from having to wait for a counselor to send your transcript, which probably would not make it there in time. Unless you can convince them to send it next day air (?). Or if they can send it electronically and you can camp out on their doorstep and beg? If you have all of your report cards in hand then doing the SRAR is feasible, just read the directions carefully and have someone help you double check the data you enter. They don’t want a transcript AND the SRAR, they only want one or the other.

I don’t know how quickly you can get ACT or SAT scores sent to Pitt, but get on those websites to check that out. It may cost some money to pay for a rush report. I’m not sure.

You HAVE to do the short answer questions in order to be considered for merit. This is your best and only opportunity to highlight your extra-curricular and volunteer activities to the scholarship committee as they do not request or encourage resumes or letters of recommendation at this point. Be aware the combined answers can be 500 words, they do not mean it has to be 500 words each. However this means you need to be concise, genuine and give them a sense of who you are (besides numbers) in 500 words. They are also pretty lenient if you go over, I’ve heard.

Oh, and if you have a question get on here an ask @hailtopitt1787 by typing the name in just like I did there. This is a representative of the school who monitors this U of Pitt page in College Confidential and can help a great deal when you run into a problem or question and they are typically on at least once or twice a day and more than willing to help. (See, while I was typing this they were on. )

Good luck to you!

Ok, CC members, what did I miss?