<p>oh ok, I gotcha, I think they come out with that information in mid-february?</p>
<p>Well, just got the letter in the mail. Seems Pitt saw it in their best interest to reconsider and have awarded my daughter the Honors Challenge Full Tuition Scholarship. No invitation to apply to chancellor’s, but at this point, I don’t think she would have it in her to complete those essays anyway. This will sure make the decision process a bit tougher. Now I guess we will have to visit.</p>
<p>usafa2011dad – That’s great! I wish we had the same outcome but at this point we’ve moved on. Congratulations to your daughter.</p>
<p>That’s great news! I guess it paid off that you asked for reconsideration of your daughter’s stats, right? It doesn’t hurt to ask.</p>
<p>definately doesn’t hurt to ask, and frankly I am shocked at the outcome. Basically what we were told originally was that she didn’t get it because of her class rank. Well, we were not happy about that at all because her HS is so competitive that we were told originally when we enrolled her there that the colleges would consider the HS profile and not hold a lower class rank against her.</p>
<p>So, in a nutshell. Pitt was saying that they would rather give the scholarship to another student that was ranked 1 or 2 at their HS, even if their stats were much lower than our daughters than to give it to her. That was the hardest thing to take because our valedictorian has a 5.4 wgpa, but my daughter with a 5.15 would most likely be the valedictorian at any other HS in our county, other than hers.</p>
<p>Yes, my daughter’s high school doesn’t rank, for the same reason, and Pitt didn’t hold it against her, thankfully.</p>
<p>usafa2011dad - </p>
<p>Crazy that they would tell your daughter that it was because of her rank when her GPA was a 5.15. I’m almost tempted to try again for my daughter but at this point my daughter wants nothing to do Pitt. </p>
<p>With a 1450, a perfect 4.0, not sure what her weighted is but she is one of 5 kids that are AP Scholars with Honors (completed 4 APs already) and is currently taking 4 more this year, all other courses were always honors and her midterms were once again straight As, lots of ECs (no sports though)… I don’t blame her. We are focusing our sights on all of the schools that want to give her money. Pitt was especially high priority for us because of it’s excellent reputation in the health care fields, …and because it has a medical and pharmacy school and maybe even a dental school. We are PA residents so it would have been a wonderful option for her. Scholarship money would have made this very affordable for us…even if it weren’t full. </p>
<p>Our school doesn’t rank either but they just stopped ranking. The last time she saw her rank was in freshman year and it was 3 out of about 400ish kids. …anyway…we get correspondence from the Pitt Honors College frequently and I open it but my daughter has 0 interest. I don’t even know what she did with the Honors T-shirt but she has no intentions of wearing it!</p>
<p>Anyway, I hope you like your visit — we did! I’m not at all happy about my daughter’s outcome but as for the school – it is a great school…just not in the cards for my daughter.</p>
<p>when did you all apply to Pitt? many kids had recieved decisions by mid-october and many scholarships (a lot of full tuition) were given out in early november. if you really wanted the $ you guys should have applied as early as possible since Pitt is rolling. when the money runs out it runs out you can’t complain about that.</p>
<p>ack27 – I can assure you that we “really wanted the $” but my daughter didn’t apply until early November. As you note – perhaps the money ran out. She applied with a free Honors application and was quickly accepted into the Honors College and has been bombarded with mail from the University and the Honors College ever since.</p>
<p>As for your comment “…you can’t complain about that.” As a resident of Pennsylvania and the mother of an academically gifted and highly qualified student I can most certainly choose to complain. The University of Pittsburgh is not a state owned school but it is a public University in Pennsylvania and I will reserve the right to complain on my time schedule. At this point I have decided not to pursue this further with the University as they have already reviewed my daughter’s information a second time - or so they’ve told me. </p>
<p>Had I done this again I would have definitely encouraged my daughter to apply earlier. She didn’t apply until we received a letter from the Honors College and after visiting the school. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>ack27 - I think if you would have read through the posts, you would see that we were not simply complaining about not getting money because money ran out.</p>
<p>If fact, I don’t recall exactly when my daughter finished her application, mid nov at the latest, I had several conversations with the school fin aid office because it seemed like it was taking a long time for them to download her test scores. They assured me there was no worry that all applications received by the priority deadline, Jan 20 I think, would be given equal consideration for scholarship money.</p>
<p>She was accepted before winter break, so that certainly was well before they ran out of money and I have seen posts regarding full tuition scholarship well after that.</p>
<p>there is nothing wrong with discussing with the school when there has been an injustice, and the very fact that they changed my daughters scholarship from a $10,000/year to full tuition proves that mistakes can and do get made and can also be corrected. It certainly would not have gotten corrected had I not said anything. AdvicePlease is pretty much in the same boat.</p>
<p>usafa2011dad – Good post! Thanks…and while this ship may have sailed out of our harbor…we have a few other sturdy boats that are still very much afloat!!</p>
<p>From what I have seen, Pitt’s decision-making regarding scholarships is mysterious, at best. Certainly, many qualified students get funded, while other students, also qualified, do not. In this case I think that because AdvicePlease’s daughter is in-state, she was passed over. I speculate that Pitt is using the scholarships to attract students from out of state, striving to become a college with national appeal like UMichigan or Berkeley. I’m just conjecturing, though. I’m glad that AdvicePlease’s daughter already has other good schools that are giving her money. It just goes to show that in the merit-money “game,” you have to cast a wide net because the results sometimes have you scratching your head.</p>
<p>I tend to agree with LurkNessMonster. I believe Pitt uses the full tuition scholarships to pull in OOS students. Without the scholarship, Pitt would not be even a possibility for my son. It would have been more prudent to attend our state flagship or one of the other schools who offered him scholarships.</p>
<p>When is the earliest time you can apply (to get the best chance at some money)??</p>
<p>You can apply during the summer. They had the applications available at their open houses. There was no application fee if you submitted it during the open house.</p>
<p>I agree with the OOS philosophy for money. Even our great school here, UNC Chapel Hill gives a full ride scholarship to OOS students when the IS students that receive the same exact scholarship only get $7500/yr. And this is from a school that is so over prescribed from OOS that it is nearly impossible to even get in.</p>
<p>So, while I agree that AdvicePlease daughter might have been skipped over for a full tuition scholarship because she is IS, it really doesn’t make sense to me that she would not have been offered something. But yes, this whole merit money thing really does stink.</p>
<p>you can complain if you want haha. but you have to think about it… they didn;t give her a scholarship to spite you or because she was unqualified. there must have been other factors e.g… </p>
<p>in-state status, recession, attracting OOS, no $ left or scholarships (i’m sure that a majority of the full-tuition offers have neither been accepted nor denied by recipients). </p>
<p>i was suprised by how many full-tuition scholarships there were posted on CC in early november. they wouldn’t stop coming in. a ton of kids at my school got them too. </p>
<p>other than that, as a PA resident, total costs would be around 20k, which is still cheap these days for an education that Pitt offers. even if you have scholarships from private unis i’m sure they still lower the cost to around Pitt’s cost without a scholarship. </p>
<p>i also read the posts and you said you contacted Pitt several times. i don’t remember if you called, but you should. find out why exactly she wasn’t offered anything. if they give a reasonable answer like financial difficulties or lack of scholarship funds then i don’t think you can complain, but if they give you a BS answer then i would tell them off and complain. </p>
<p>i still really think Pitt/honors college is a bargain for 20k/yr. just because she didn’t get any scholarship shouldn’t degrade her achievements or success, or interest in Pitt. Someone mentioned boston U (50K/yr). I’m applying there too because they give out a lot of scholarship $, but if they don’t give me any $ then i wouldn’t even consider it. 50k? that’s ridiculous and i refuse to put that financial burden on my family. but 20k for Pitt and honors college status/priveledges is reasonable and worth it. basically, i wouldn’t completely cross off Pitt. i have heard such great things about it and i wouldn’t doubt it’s a much better experience (Co-Op, city, honors college, hospital, research etc…) than many other private unis provide. </p>
<p>basically i would get to the real bottom of the reason why she didn’t get $. i have a feeling that you think it’s because she’s not qualified, but that’s definitely not the reason. someone said earlier, and i really think it was “early bird gets the worm.” although november is still early for the jan. priority deadline, some kids applied in the summer and september and were the first reviewed for the scholarships since Pitt is rolling. it’s a shame, but i think Pitt would still be worth it.</p>
<p>From the Pitt website:
</p>
<p>I would have thought they would begin evaluations for scholarships on the given date, but that’s not the way it works. If they say January 15, I would think that means January 15 rather than August or September. What if they have given away most of their money in the 6 months prior to January 15? Those later applicants really don’t get the same consideration. They apparently evaluate the Chancellors Scholarships the same way…rolling…no matter what they seem to say. Apply early.</p>
<p>ack27 - Just a quick side note. Pitt’s co-op is only offered to chemistry, computer science, and engineering majors. I’m not sure about BU’s co-op program (or if they even have one, somebody please enlighten me), but I know that Northeastern University (in Boston, not Chicago) offers co-ops for pretty much all majors… which is a big attraction for me.</p>
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<p>But how do you explain my daughter, OOS with even higher stats (1480/2240), not getting full-tuition? I just feel it’s really important for future applicants to know that Pitt is not a slam dunk financial safety. It’s very easy to read through threads and see kids with lower numbers and think your kid will get what they got, but it may not play out. There are schools with straightforward merit aid charts that might be a better option. Pitt is a great school and the merit aid is wonderful for some, but there are no guarantees.</p>