Pitt as Safety/Match/Reach for my D

JMS111
Wed, 21 Jun 2017 19:35:03 +0000

Hi all - My rising senior D is turning toward drafting a safety/match/reach list for the upcoming admissions season. I’d be interested on what category you’d put Pitt in for her. “Low” and “high” modifiers within those categories welcome.

The basics:

OOS (Midwest)
Public high school, limited app history on Naviance to Pitt, looks like maybe 2 of 3 applicants accepted
ACT: 33 best composite (does not look like they superscore - 34 if so. English/reading/science all 34 or higher subscores, math 29)
Major: Would be applying to Arts & Sciences. Undecided non-STEM major
GPA: 3.99 UW (school does not weight)
Class rank: school does not rank. Top 5%
Rigor: 3 APs (4, 5, 5 on tests) as freshman/sophomore. HS is IB so junior classes all IB SL/HL. Intends to pursue IB Diploma as senior
ECs: Strong music EC (likely to participate in college orchestra, but not major in music), three-year varsity athlete with some awards (conference recognition, will be team co-captain as senior), various clubs with lesser duration/depth of commitment
Hooks/URM: No

I’ve looked at Pitt’s admissions website, and looks like middle 50% ACT composite for freshman entering last fall was 26-32 and admit rate was 54%.

Based upon that, I’d be inclined to put Pitt in the match or low-match category assuming that it, like many state-affiliated institutions from what I can gather, tends to have higher ACT/SAT bands for OOS students than in-state. I don’t know that to be true though.

If you had an opinion on chances for honors program admission, that would be welcome too.

I’ve reviewed some of the lengthy and helpful merit aid thread in the forum, and my sense is if admitted she might be offered some merit aid constituting part of the OOS tuition cost, but also might not be. On stats, she seems a low borderline candidate for a partial merit aid award based upon that thread.

Thanks very much all.