The way merit works at Pitt is that a scholarship committee starts reviewing all accepted applications starting on October 1. I think they may meet on Tuesdays each week. Every week after that date, they will send out merit offers to a subset of admitted students. Those admitted students who do not receive merit offers are thrown back into consideration for the following week.
It seems that many students who receive merit do so within a couple of weeks of acceptance, but it isn’t at all unusual on these boards to hear of students who get merit offers several months after acceptance – so there is no reason to lose hope until the March 1 date hits. Statistically, it may be less likely, but it certainly isn’t impossible.
At Pitt, merit awards are enrollment management tools. There is no formula like one could expect at the Universities of Alabama or South Carolina or Arizona or some other state schools. They aren’t awarding the highest GPA/SAT, but trying to improve yield/diversity/or some other institutional priority through these merit offers.
In addition to these regularly issued merit offers, a small handful of highly regarded admitted students will be have the opportunity to compete for Stamps, Nordenburg, and Chancellor scholarships. Those processes play out in March, I believe.
From previous year threads:
Last year (2023) Feb 22 with a date of Feb 17 on letter.
Year before (2022) Feb 28
2021 - i think it was a little earlier maybe Feb 14.
Their website says on or before March 1, so some day this week…
My son declined his acceptance and scholarship so hopefully it will go to another applicant soon. He didn’t want to hold onto until May when someone else could use it.
Interesting info about the general pool! That makes sense since merit is all about institutional priorities. Just FYI, Stamps and Nordenberg did first round of interviews in October on Zoom. Then invited 36 students to campus in February. Then they gave a second finalist interview to at least 5 students for Stamps in February. Not sure what happened with Nordenberg finalists.
Merit generally does not work that way. Much like acceptances, schools have rather sophisticated calculations on how they distribute merit. They do so in a way that assumes only X% will be accepted when they offer it. There isn’t a 1:1 sort of situation where you son would decline and they would then have one more to offer.
Of course, if the trends on their estimates are off and they are seeing more scholarship offers declined than expected, they may make an adjustment. So it was kind that your son made an early decision, but no student should feel pressured or obligated to do so before the May 1 deadline because the probability of their action is already baked into the school’s enrollment management.
We went to Decision Day at Pitt this past weekend and he made his decision. He absolutely loved it and was driven by the smaller student body, DA to B school, and overall opportunity for hands-on projects or internships with downtown Pittsburgh companies and their global internship opportunities in study abroad programs (short and long). We came home and he pressed the ACCEPT button and he’s officially PITT bound. Doubt we are in line for any merit money, but WE ARE GUNG HO on PITT nevertheless…We really enjoyed Decision Day, had great weather, and great student panels that really connected with our kiddo.
On the Pitt parents Facebook page, someone who attended admitted students day last week said they were told March 1. That’s 4th hand information for you, but tomorrow is also a possibility.
S24 is headed to Pitt right now for admitted students day tomorrow- would love it if he knew tonight so he knows what to check out tomorrow! Fingers crossed.