Merit Scholarships VT and Pitt

[Anonymous]

My rising senior son will be taking the SAT one final time in August. He’s white but we live in a “rural town” per CollegeBoard and he will get award. Are chances of substantial merit Scholarship at those two schools a pipe dream?

We live in MD. So far SAT is 710 math 670 verbal so 1380. Will graduate with 14 APs; 9 through junior year. He’s taken 8 AP tests for his 9 AP classes, one sophomore year he didn’t feel prepared for. Almost all AP scores are 3s (nothing lower).

4s in: AB Subscore of AP BC Cal (overall 3), AP Lang and one other easier social science AP.

Senior year schedule includes AP Physics C and MV.

UWGPA 3.98 and WGPA 4.9. No amazing activities just one long term volunteering commitment where he’s been promoted from assistant to leader in an activity where safety is super important.


If my son is able to increase SAT by X will he have a shot of any substantial OOS scholarship as UMD Pitt and VT are three top choices? Assuming acceptance to all three, UMD would be half the cost without scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Does your student have an intended field of study?

[Anonymous]

Double Pitt BA parent family here. Our son applied OOS (not from MD) to Dietrich for Dec 1 deadline last year. Top 10% of class, 3.9 UW, 6 APs, 2 IBs, 3 EC top leadership roles. 1430 SAT on only try. Scholarship award was 5K/yr. Admitted to Honors College & 5 Year GSPIA Master's program.

Deep in the guts of old Pitt web pages, after it was too late to help, I found a reference to scholarships beginning at 1450 SAT pre-pandemic. That should be a goal.

Being realistic, and as a Pitt grad, I don't think being from rural MD will be a hook. Pitt has plenty of applicants from economically stagnant parts of Pittsburgh, Western PA, and the whole state. And probably more tools to help locals.

There are other threads I've weighed in on where I've said that even though I loved Pitt, it's not worth overpaying for vs. U of MD. Pitt had an arguably better campus back in the day but I hear U of MD's collegetown is improving. It also sounds like the student body stats are strengthening (true of Pitt also).

Have your son raise his score to 1450 if possible. Have him apply early, and eloquently illustrate his hooks.

Pitt scholarships on here last year seemed to be $5K-$10K. Big money seems to be another SAT tier/candidate tier up.

[Anonymous]

No at VT
Maybe some $$ at Pitt depending on major, but doubt it will be “substantial”

[Anonymous]

Not at VT. My students from “rural” VA (fauquier) with 1500 SATs aren’t getting merit scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not at VT. My students from “rural” VA (fauquier) with 1500 SATs aren’t getting merit scholarships.

Thanks. A lot of times though they provide OOS scholarships to kids since the cost of attendance is so much higher.

[Anonymous]

Pitt OOS is $50K a year. You will require so much merit to compete with Univ of Maryland. Huge merit is a long shot.

[Anonymous]

You could check on college confidential, but your student would need over a 1400 for any merit, but probably over 1500 for big merit. And, apply early.

[Anonymous]

Assuming you are talking just about merit (not need-based) aid, I would not expect much from Pitt. My class of 23 kid got $5000 merit offer from Dietrich. 1460 SAT, had taken 6 AP tests by end of junior year (one 5, one 3 and four 4s), 4.0 UW GPA from MCPS, and ultimately was admitted into Pitt Honors college, although ended up going elsewhere. Based on reviewing message boards at the time, most OOS merit awards were in the $5,000-$10,000 range except for kids with truly extraordinary stats (which I didn't consider mine to have). But even with just a $5,000 award, Pitt would have been substantially cheaper than most privates and some of the more expensive publics (like OOS at U-Va or Michigan)

The good news with Pitt that if you get your application in by early September, you will hear about admission and merit offer pretty quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pitt OOS is $50K a year. You will require so much merit to compete with Univ of Maryland. Huge merit is a long shot.

I have an incoming freshman at Pitt. It is $55,500 this year, and that’s Dietrich and one of the cheaper dorms. Engineering, nursing, etc, is higher tuition. The most expensive freshman dorm would have been an additional $1200.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Pitt posters- OP here. We had knocked Pitt off the table for my older child based on a disastrous COVID virtual visit in 2020, but we just came back from Blue and Gold Day for my younger one and he loved it. They said all the right things and were really welcoming too.

I had never been to Pittsburgh before and we LOVED the city. We spent a few days there taking in some of the local sites too. I figured that it was a long shot for true merit, we have no chance at qualifying for need aid but I figured it could hurt to ask though.

[Anonymous]

PP. My spouse and I really enjoyed Pitt. We were Western PA when we attended. It is an unpretentious school with a lot of serious students. It's also a good size.

I was a bit surprised the merit offer was so low. It really took Pitt out of the running for my kid.

When we were in school, we knew the kids who had the full rides and the next tier down. They weren't exactly future Nobel Prize winners, just intellectual and quirky.

From what I read on this board, there are a lot of top tier applicants (including TJ kids) who apply to Pitt "in case". Some of those will get picked off and offered a full-ride Chancellor's Scholarship. But that takes until spring to find out. My impression, triangulating from my historical experience, is that these full-rides must be harder to get now. There are more National Merit Finalists at Pitt now. That is one measurable benchmark.

[Anonymous]

^Western PA residents

[Anonymous]

My nova kid got 10K per year merit from Pitt. Engineering. Apply EARLY. SAT 1520. 4.0 UW. Tons of rigor, AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My nova kid got 10K per year merit from Pitt. Engineering. Apply EARLY. SAT 1520. 4.0 UW. Tons of rigor, AP.

I’m this poster. They didn’t get any money at VT. We were not surprised about that, though.