<p>I wonder if the “economic” downturn has caused them to cut back on the scholarships or perhaps the acceptances of the scholarships have markedly increased already! I know we didn’t send our deposit in until after April 1 (when all the colleges’ decisions finally came in). </p>
<p>I would agree with LurkNessMonster – it doesn’t hurt to call! I do know for the Honors Tuition Scholarship (merit scholarship/Honors college) – they have input in who gets the scholarship so if your child got accepted into the Honors College they should have seen or have a copy of their application/transcript/scores etc.</p>
<p>I do understand the need for the full tuition money. Son wouldn’t have gone to Pitt without his scholarship. OOS tuition is 3X what our state flagship would have charged us. Although it was a difficult decision for him, he is VERY HAPPY at Pitt. Freshman year has been going great – knock on wood – finals are happening!!!</p>
<p>Yesterday when I sent an email asking them to check to see if they had my scores again, and to ask if I would still be eligible for scholarships, this is part of the response I received.</p>
<p>“Please do not worry about scholarship money. As long as a student applies by January 15th they are eligible for any merit based scholarship that we offer here at Pitt.”</p>
<p>I specifically stated in my email that I was worried that it was getting so late in the application process that there might not be any funds remaining.</p>
<p>I have a 34 on my ACT and a 3.9111uw/4.9333w gpa. If I don’t get a full tuition scholarship, I can assure you. I will be calling until I get a good solid answer.</p>
<p>Hmmm…just don’t be surprised if you don’t get a “good solid answer”. It is up to the discretion of the university if they award a scholarship. Yes, you might have the stats to get one but maybe the school doesn’t have as many to give this year, there might be tons of kids with your stats or better or they have maxed out on their scholarship awards – who knows their reason! I hope you get want you wish for :)</p>
<p>I’m guessing that most of the students who haven’t heard maybe did apply later as I don’t think there have been many recent posting from scholarship award winners. If the Pitt choice doesn’t work out I am sure there will be other great options…there already are some for my daughter. </p>
<p>So…moving on from Doris Day to Alexander Graham Bell –</p>
<p>“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”</p>
<p>If the door at Pittsburgh closes we’ll make sure to focus on the other open doors!!</p>
<p>My son applied early Oct and received acceptance into honors college and a 2000K/year scholarship. He has a 34 ACT, 34/364 class rank, 3.75uw GPA, good ECs. He was a little disappointed - had hoped for a more. He was invited to apply for the Chancellors Scholarship - which he did. Got our fingers crossed! He really likes Pitt.
We are in-state.</p>
<p>wow bladerunner. With those stats I would have thought a full tuition scholarship would be in order. There really is no rhyme or reason to how they award them. I like the schools that my daughter is applying to that basically say if you have these stats, you get this money and then if you are really good, additional apps can possibly get you more.</p>
<p>In-state people often get less because their tuition is lower to begin with, and I think the OOS kids are courted because Pitt wants to become more geographically diverse. That’s just my conjecture. But I agree with you that with a 34 ACT, this student should have received more. That’s not even half of the in-state tariff. It’s hard to anticipate what Pitt is going to do in every case.</p>
<p>We also thought he’d get more, but knew that being in-state might get him a smaller award. From what I understand Penn State is similar - smaller awards for in state. I’ve heard from our GCs and other college admissions people that this year’s applicant pool is the largest ever and the most competitive group. Could that be why there seems to be smaller awards, plus the current state of the economy?</p>
<p>I called the admissions office today and spoke to someone who sounded rushed and didn’t offer to look up my daughter’s information. She did suggest, however, that we write to the admissions office. We will but if nothing comes of it my daughter is definitely ready to close the door on Pitt. In the meantime she’s applied to several other schools and the ones that she’s heard from so far, except Pitt, have come with generous awards.</p>
<p>Where/who do you call about scholarship information? I’ve been meaning to do the same (it’s been almost 3 weeks), but I just didn’t know who to contact!</p>
<p>My daughter’s stats would seem to make her a good candidate for at least some merit based aid and an inivitation to apply for a chancellor’s scholarship (SAT > 1500/1600, GPA weighted> 4.5, good EC’s and recs, etc.), but she too has not heard anything since getting her acceptance to A&S and honors college in mid-November. We are in-state. </p>
<p>She is applying to several top tier schools, and some have written to encourage us to apply for need-based aid even if we suspect she would not qualify, or have announced plans to step up aid in view of the bad economy. So, it should be interesting to see how matters stand when she makes her decision in April. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if Pitt reserves scholarship money for excellent students (upperclassmen) who did not make the cut (or applied too late) for merit-based aid as incoming freshmen? We are told that Penn State would be more generous with aid once she gets into her major if she has done well, for instance, even if she does not get into the honors college as a freshman.</p>
<p>We have a similar situation here with UNC Chapel Hill. There is one particular merit scholarship that if you are in-state, you get a total of $7500/yr. But if you are OOS and get the very same scholarship, it covers full tuition, room & board and all fees. Hardly seems fair to us in-state people. And all the while, they keep increasing the tuition.</p>
<p>Upanatem2 - I called the admissions office and spoke with a woman who was obviously drowning in work. My daughter then wrote to the admissions office and got when seemed to be a standard email back saying that applications are reviewed more than once and all letters would be mailed by mid-February. Not sure I have a lot of faith in this especially since she addressed the email to my daughter with another girl’s name.</p>
<p>We’re not going to worry about it much anymore although it would be great to see a scholarship letter from Pitt! She has heard from a few other schools and has some great opportunities but it sure would be great to see a Pitt letter before mid-February.</p>
<p>S1732 – The files may indeed be lost behind a desk somewhere or lost in someone’s in-bin. They certainly sounded more than a little busy at Pitt. I think they are drowning in applications.</p>
<p>Good luck to your kids over the next few months. Who knows…maybe our kids will all end up at Pitt anyway. I think we all just have to go with the flow and keep all of the options open for now. (I think that we adults have more issues with that than they do!)</p>
<p>Congratulations everyone!
I hope you all really consider Pitt. I just finished my first semester and I absolutely love it!
I used to come on here when I was a junior/senior and since I was really bored at work today I decided to check in. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to e-mail at <a href=“mailto:kas224@pitt.edu”>kas224@pitt.edu</a>.
Have a great holiday!
-Katie</p>
<p>Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: North Carolina
[</em>] School Type: Public
[<em>] Ethnicity: White
[</em>] Gender: Female
[/ul]
Comments: Hoping for some scholarship money and a chance to apply for the Chancellor’s Scholarship</p>