tv4caster, of course, this depends on your family EFC but we were in shock last march when my son qualified for a Pitt need based grant (he too just missed the scholarship boat). to be honest, we expected little to no need based money from pitt. how agrravating on your end to have the great class rank too. is she a national merit scholar which is why she has a full ride to Bama? the 32 ACT sounds close, what is the Englsh math breakdown?
@TV4caster, did she apply to Temple, I think the full tuition is 32 ACT, 3.8 GPA there?
It’s hard and engineering seems especially tough to get a scholarship in at Pitt.
Have you visited Alabama? I’ve heard great things about their engineering program and honors and the weather should be better at this time of year. Also they are supposed to be very generous with AP credit and I think if you don’t use all 8 semesters of your scholarship for undergrad they let you apply it to grad school.
@ctl987 We are too fortunate to get a need based money. I also realized I said “full ride” when a more accurate description would be full tuition and $2500 in addition money. She was not an NMS. Her breakdown was something like 700M and 650CR.
@mommdc She did not apply to Temple. She visited 'Bama and was impressed with the Engineering program but just thought the school was OK, and wasn’t thrilled with the surrounding environment.
ok!!! if you want to know more about Temple, pm me,. my kid is there and really likes it. i noticed Temple mentioned in above post so that’s why i bring it up. i think Pitt is stronger in engineering than Temple though and my kid is communcations major, not eng. Still, he likely knows engineering students. interesting, my kid had a 650M and astronomical CR so maybe it is the 650 low score that killed both of their merit scholarship chances. Still, depending on your need based grant, Pitt may be in range of Bama. i seem to remember Bama would have cost around 20 to 22K with a full tuition scholarship. our out of pocket at Pitt following need based grant woudl have been around 24K. keep us posted!
and what is the 32 ACT breakdown for math and English? that seems to matter from what i have heard.
" think Pitt is stronger in engineering than Temple though and my kid is communcations major, not eng. Still, he likely knows engineering students "
My son was accepted at Temple with Presidential scholarship. We went to the open house and the engineering presentation. DS is interested in Computer Engineering, and they sort of skimmed right over that program, so it is off the table. However, they seem very much interested in attracting women and I believe they are breaking the civil/environmental engineering into two distinct majors, as these seem to be what a lot of the women are going into.
DS is accpeted at UA, and it is a great opportunity. I would prefer Pitt as it is much closer, but he would need full tuition, and I don’t think he will be getting that; anything less and it isn’t doable.
I don’t know about a minimum math SAT score for merit, but my daughter had to have a minimum 680 math SAT score for example to qualify for conditional admission to pharmacy.
totally hear you laralei. UA is where? Arizona? i do think Temple has a respectable engineering program but it sounds like from what i read, Pitt is very strong in engineering. and since your son got into honors at Temple, the honors dept would take very good care of him and would likely help him get computer engineering options going and in my opinion, encourage the engineering dept to make good options avialable for your kid if he decides to revisit the possibility of giong to Temple. feel free to pm me if you have any questions. it was not my intent to hijack a pitt thread on the merits of Temple. a sizable scholarship def helps put a school higher on the totem pole, no doubt about it. interesting, mommdc… that indirectly supports my theory.
I was accepted in november and only got my scholarship letter two days ago. when I was accepted they told me directly that I was in the honors college, so if you didn’t hear that already then you probably aren’t in it. :[
They offered me $5,000 a year which I’m super happy about, but it still wasn’t as much as I needed/wanted. It’s been the same with a few of my other friends as well.
Good luck & I hope you hear from them soon! I’m sure they’ll offer you something.
Well DS had a 33 ACT and a 32 for math & English, English was his lowest score on the ACT.
He is currently 2nd in his class, though that can change before end of year. Weighted GPA of 99.46/100
He got scholarship letter today and it was only $5k, which is basically worthless for him.
I guess it’s going to be Roll Tide! 
laralei. glad he at least got soem money. Congrats on Bama!!! i have heard great things about how Bama treats NM kids and although i think you said your kid was not NM scholar, i strongly suspect they treat all honors kids very well. Congrats! i will post contact info for a Bama mom a later point.
I’m surprised you haven’t heard about the Honors College - that seems like a no-brainer. FWIW, my oldest had fantastic stats and was invited to apply for the Chancellor’s Scholarship, but did not qualify. He was offered $1,000 in merit aid. He did not choose to attend Pitt. I hope you have better luck than he did.