Have you run the Net Price Calculator? UPitt doesn’t give much/any aid to OOS students. If you’re prepared to pay (not borrow) most of the costs, then great! But if the school is unaffordable, what are your student’s affordable options?
@mom2collegekids and @PM81 :
Mom2collegekids is right. If you have $50,000 per year set aside to pay for college then Pitt will be a good fit.
If your kid is Pell grant eligible they will get the Pell grant and then Pitt supposedly has a new program where they will match the Pell grant. But that will only be about $10K per year.
If your student has an SAT of 1480 or above, your student will possibly get a bit of merit (anywhere from $5K to 15-$20K per year).
Your total costs at Pitt are likely to be $30,000 to $50,000 per year.
You may know all of this but I wanted to jump in make sure. Hopefully I’m not being annoying. It’s SUPER sad when kids and parents do not understand how the financial process works and then go into private loan debt for Pitt. It’s not worth it. At all. There are many affordable in-state options in Texas for a pre-med student.
A small correction. Pitt currently lists their University scholarship range as 2K to 25K. Although we haven’t seen any reports this year of 25K being awarded, I believe it happened last year, and may still be a possibility.
https://oafa.pitt.edu/financialaid/academic-scholarships/university-scholarships/
There’s also a Chancellor’s, but that’s a pie in the sky, as only 10-12 of them are awarded.
…I am curious, when you say Pitt is not worth it - do you mean at the full 50K price point, at 25-30K, or is it, in your view, dependent on whether you are paying cash or borrowing?
I think in the past it was said here that the students that already filed FAFSA would be getting their FA award letter starting in February.
Back when my D applied it was April but FAFSA was starting in January back then and not October.
An instate student can expect the following aid if they file FAFSA and PA state grant form.
Pell Grant if FAFSA EFC is low enough and Pell Grant match of the same amount. (Max is $6,195 for Pell at $0 EFC).
PHEAA grant if EFC is low enough (I think it phases out at around $12,000 EFC) . Max PHEAA is $3,772 I think. It depends on Pell Grant, EFC and need.
Maybe some small merit for high stats students.
Subsidized and unsubsidized federal loan of up to $5,500 (amount of subsidized loan depends on need).
I think federal work study is also awarded based on need and there might be an EFC threshold under which it is offered.
Some very low EFC students might get SEOG as well. Maybe $1,000?
OOS students would get the same Pell, Pell match and loans, possibly merit, work study and SEOG. I also have seen some OOS students will lower EFC get a Panther promise award in the past which seems to be a need based grant. It seemed to be about $7,000.
But not sure if this will still be offered if the student already gets the Pell Grant match.
For instate students there is also the possibility of the Nordenberg and Stamps leadership scholarships but they are very competitive as well, with only 5-10 awarded a year I believe.
By April you will hopefully have all of the information to determine if Pitt is affordable for your family.
I believe @carachel2 meant it is not worth taking out huge parent loans to attend Pitt if your student has more affordable instate options, especially if medical school is in the future.
In general it’s not the best option to attend an OOS flagship unless you get significant merit scholarships or aid.
My S20 used to look down at our state flagships. Most kids at his school go to Pitt or PSU. He’s finally understanding why. Cost. Even at $35k/year it’s better than $50k/year OOS. Add merit scholarships and it’s very hard to pass up.
Now if you live in places like Texas, Florida, or Georgia your in-state options are fantastic.
He’s also finding that our state flagships are actually pretty good schools. Pitt and Temple are on his short list.
Must be nice.
And in-state GT is quite possibly the best deal to be had in STEM education (short of qualifying for huge need grant at one of the top privates).
Happy but not yet there…
OOS 1540, 800 in 3 subjects and 12 APs completed with 5. 4 more in senior year. Heavy humanities and science ECs. Biomed major.
25k per year. If i get GAP, i’ll pay deposit the next minute. Otherwise i will probably go elsewhere.
I really want to go here.
Does that mean you received 25K/yr merit offer? If so, congrats! You are the first on CC this year.
When did the merit letter arrive?
@chmcnm, I’m looking closer at Temple, it appears to be in the same ballpark as our (likely tuition-free to DS) state flagship.
@sammyGA what are you hoping to get out of having the medicine GAP?
You have a conditional spot in Pitt medical school and don’t need the MCAT?
Only a few students are offered the medicine GAP every year, and even fewer keep it, since it requires you to maintain a 3.75 GPA, along with other requirements.
That is not easy when taking med school prerequisites.
Did you say you are going to be a biomedical engineering major?
I assume you are OOS for Pitt?
If Pitt is affordable, it may still be a good academic choice for you, even if you don’t have the medicine GAP.
You might even change you mind about med school.
It’s not worth private loan debt from an OOS student who has many good in-state options. It’s especially not worth it for a student who is considering medical school.
Pitt came in at budget for us with our daughter’s merit scholarship of $17K per year. But we were clear with her from the start that without the scholarship it would not happen. She had many in-state options that would’ve been fine. But even those schools are $26K per year here and she would’ve had no merit.
@TheVulcan
Yes merit award. Applied early october and got letter 2 weeks back.
@mommdc
Hmmm no guarantees in life and that incluces GAP. I may change my mind about majors… my cousin IS a MD who teaches chinese lit at oxford.
If you see the AMCAS success grid, i need a 3.8 and 512MCAT to have a 80 percent success rate so the 3.75 does not scare me.
I absolutely am sure today of my career choice today. Having a direct med seat lets me puruse my interest in humanities plus science without the darn MD process in front of me.
Not that ranks matter but i have applied to each of the top 10 biomed programs and GA Tech where i can major in neuroscience and minor in biomed with classes in emory medicine is the most attractive. Its IS and the only program i could find that allows me this combination.
I really want to go to UPSOM and the path may be through GAP or another undergrad. (And yes i amy change my mind in the next 4 years)
@sammyGA thanks for the explanation.
Good luck on receiving the Pitt med GAP.
@sammyGA Congratuations! My DS with similar stats to you applied mid Sept and still no word on merit. Our state univ will be releasing results soon so keeping fingers crossed and will drop off UPitt at that time. Not paying full price as a pre med.
@sammyGA Did you complete the FAFSA?
I wanted to chime in and let @Chekov know that my daughter was accepted to SCI on 11/6 with 1540 SAT (one sitting) and 4.25 UW GPA out of 4.3, very unique ECs, answered all short answer questions and we haven’t heard anything yet regarding merit aid. Not quite as good as your son’s but very respectable stats. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone from SCI receive merit aid yet so still holding out hope it will come at some point as it is still very early in the process. We are also OOS.
Thank you, @Sk8mom222! It does look like SCI might be taking longer, based on our small sample size here on CC.
Pitt was the very first school DS applied to, and having been accepted in early September, we were hoping for a much quicker word on merit.
After in-state flagship (that has since admitted him and will be tuition-free if NMF is confirmed), Pitt is the next school on his list in terms of overall and CS strength.
Since he recently also been accepted to OSU, a very healthy merit is a must for Pitt to remain on the list of reasonable price to performance options as we await more results.
@TheVulcan - have you ran the net price calculator on the Pitt website and if so what did it project for merit scholarships for you? I can say my D was awarded exactly the amount of merit it predicted she would get. She was admitted to Dietrich for reference.
@Searching2020, as I discussed upthread NPC shows no aid for us, neither merit nor need (our EFC exceeds Pitt’s COA).
(Edit: looks like I messed up the quoting there, so it wasn’t clear it was me anyway:)
Out of curiosity, I just tried entering 0 for EFC and Business for major (in case CS is just too selective for merit aid), and there was still no merit shown (just Pell and Pell Match).
Again, this is for 36/4.0, so not sure in which scenario this calculator shows merit.
Based on everything I am seeing, Pitt’s merit aid is “holistic”, so not sure why they would even put a prediction into a calculator.
This is the URL I used. Is there a different version of it somewhere, perhaps?
Ok, @Searching2020, I played with it some more and looks like class rank is the culprit.
When I select “top 1%” (which is accurate by my best estimate; son very likely has highest GPA in the class of approx. 500), it shows 25K merit (“University Scholarship”) for CS even with EFC>COA.
When I select “school doesn’t rank” (which it doesn’t), it shows 0.
Hopefully they do not actually penalize students from schools that do not rank that way.