There is no benefit to committing now, especially when you don’t have the full financial aid details. I don’t know if committing now would mean a lower chance of getting merit, but again, no reason to commit so early. Wait until you have the full package, then you can compare to the FA packages from other schools your D is accepted to.
Thank you so much for your reply.
My D was accepted on 12/12. SAT 1570, Weighted/unweighted GPA 4.85/4.0, SAT subject Math II 800, Chemistry 770, 10 APs, Volleyball travel team qualified national girls championships, gold key awards in national scholastic art competition at northeast region, numerous art competition awards, OOS. Waiting for the merit scholarship.
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Hi,
Gauging UPitt honors college cross acceptances
Anyone currently admitted to UPitt and awaiting Honors college notification that has already been accepted to HYPS in an early action rounds? If so, I ask additionally what of anything may be the deciding factor in your choice between UPitt and HYPS? Will partial scholarship from UPitt be enticing, full scholarship? Interested to know if anyone is currently in that situation and what their thoughts may be. I think Pitt is a great school with great opportunity all around but certainly become a difficult decision against HYPS.
@PAdude my ds was admitted with 20k per year merit. He got into P in the scea round. Depending on finances, Pitt is still in the running.
Eta I think Vulcan’s kid got into M
Son got into MIT and Caltech (I know, not HYPS:). A few more apps pending (interviewing for Princeton RD today, actually:), but MIT is his first choice, and we intend to make it happen even if he were to get one of the USC/Vandy full tuition scholarships later on (not to mention Pitt).
It will be a very significant financial sacrifice for our family. MITs finaid is due mid-Jan, and we are hoping for some break based on NPC, but not expecting very much; at Caltech we would be pretty much full pay. The dreaded “doughnut hole”.
But we just can not say “no” to MIT.
…Still no word on merit from Pitt, btw. Admitted in early September (post #7). Pretty ironic, since Pitt’s intended role on his list was to serve as an early financial safety, in addition to our (likely tuition free) state flagship that is ranked well below Pitt. But then OSU beat it to that role two months ago.
@TheVulcan I loved MIT and I hope they make the numbers work for your family. They offered my older son much less fa than P did. But we had a bunch of other circumstances too (all documented on cc).
Congrats to your son, @fretfulmother!
One of son’s school friends is a Freshman there and loving it. Not that it needs advertising:)
Edit: I see you have another son there, so definitely doesn’t need advertising:) Congrats again!
@TheVulcan congrats on the MIT admission. I hope it all works out for you. I know of a family who had to make a tough decision between MIT and a full tuition scholarship at a very highly ranked school also. Both very good choices!
I am very surprised your student has still heard nothing from Pitt. If Pitt is still remotely on their list, I would see if there is a regional admissions officer to reach out to for a gentle inquiry about merit.
I looked it up and am reading it with great interest, @fretfulmother, particularly as it applies to Jewish life:)
Thanks, @carachel2!
They don’t have a dedicated officer for our state, but we reached out to a neighboring one’s, and received a standard “they will get to you when they get to you” response. That was before other options started rolling in.
At this point we are just curious to let the process take its course, both as Pitt, and at other schools we paid application fees to, even if we all but made our decision, in part to have personal experience and help set expectations for when it is our younger one’s time to apply 4 years later.
@TheVulcan - thank you! PM me if you have any other questions. I will say re Pitt, that we liked the Hillel a lot. Also, older DS, after meeting his NJG at P, is now in grad school at M…
What’s not to love?! 
@fretfulmother if you don’t mind my asking, did older DS go to Pitt and then M for grad school or did he go to the other P?
@TheVulcan and @fretfulmother thank you both for you open and frank replies. We will find ourselves in same situation. Our son accepted to H scea, full pay. To this point he thankfully has been awarded full tuition at Pitt (we are in state) as well as a few other full tuition offers. Can we pay full at H? Yes we can. That said the unique thing is he is pretty set on medical school and UPitt gaurantee med program is still 9n table for him., However even with out that the resources at Pitt are tremendous for premed students and the current scholarship plus the potential for further scholarship such as Chancellor etc make it even more compelling. That said the selection to HYP and MIT is a tremendous opportunity itself…Very difficult decision with no truely correct answer.
I asked my initial question because in this process you often anecdotally hear of the guy/girl who turned down H (or substitute your elite college here) to accept full scholarship at State flagship etc…Yet I never actually spoke to or met someone where U knew factually that to be true…for as much as you come across that anecdotal claim that I know X who got in all Ivy’s and turned them all down…it would seem that HYP yield would be terrible, when in fact it is not…this anecdotal student almost seems like a Sasquatch…often talked about yet never really seem in real life…
Anyway glad to hear your thought process you have shared…always helpful to have another perspective.
@PAdude - thank you!
We’re in MA so out-of-state for Pitt. We’ve visited, both as a family and as the individual student - and loved it for so many reasons.
I think that Pitt was a more likely contender for my older son because he was offered full tuition, which now seems not to be offered for anyone OOS. I will say that in any case, we ended up making Princeton work for him (older son) instead. It helped that with APs, he was able to graduate in three years.
For current son DS20, Pitt is offering the 20K/year, which is really generous and lovely for them to do. But it would leave a big chunk for us to pay so it starts to be a different kind of analysis. Meanwhile, Princeton’s aid has also seemed less complete than it was with our older DS (I’m not sure if it’s just having one less dependent but it’s really different than what we were paying them very recently)
We’re also looking at travel costs/distances, Jewish community, grad school admissions, types/sizes of classes, and trying to balance all of the important things.
I’m so grateful that a public option like Pitt has the rolling admissions process, because it is very helpful as senior year unfolds.
@Susanb33 - older son went to “the other P” (Princeton)
He also got into Pitt rolling early with a scholarship, and we also considered all the various $, issues, etc. way back then.
However, it’s a good point that likely he could have also ended up at M for grad school from Pitt as well.
@fretfulmother and others on this thread- I too thank you for your frankness in sharing experiences. This is our first time through and I keep hoping we will make the right choices, knowing that there probably isn’t a ‘right’ choice. Kids such as these will do fine wherever they land.
I believe Pitt honors has indicated the 12th for notification. Will they really send the notices on a Sunday?