College Scholarship Strategies

In My Humble Opinion
1

Yesterday our daughter received notice that she has earned a full tuition grant from the U of Pitt. We are obviously very excited and even though we live in Michigan, U of Pitt is one of her top choices.

She has not heard from other schools yet. Looking for input on the following:

  1. Do you think she may have gotten “extra credit” for being out-of-state? Curious as to what to expect from other out/in state schools.

  2. She got a perfect 800 on the math part of the SAT… I had the impression that wasn’t all that rare.

  3. Would it be appropriate to let other schools know of the Pitt offer? Might it do more harm than good?

2

Congratulations to your daughter!

I don’t have kids but in watching my friend go through this, I think you wait for all the offers and then you can try negotiating among them.

Does she need to respond to Pitt at a deadline that may rule out other schools (early decision/action)?

3

First off, congrats to your daughter!

  1. Given that Pitt is a public school, it is very unlikely that being from Michigan was an advantage. Public schools typically give preferential treatment to in-state students.

  2. 800 math is more common than 800 verbal, but still impressive. Being female might lend some extra weight to her score.

  3. I’ve never heard of letting schools know you were offered scholarships elsewhere. I think it would appropriate to mention it on an application form, but I wouldn’t send a note about it after the application. Admissions offices deal with thousands and thousands of applications, so I don’t think that negotiating is a possibility at any large school.

4

First, I would like to offer my congratulations to your daughter. Pittsburgh is a fun city with a lot to offer young adults. With respect to question number 3, personal experience has shown me that it is to your benefit to inform the other schools that accepted her, of your daughters full scholarship offers. The only reason that I was able to attend CMU was due to my scholarship offers from other schools. Initially, I received no money from my current university but I had full scholarships to 4 other schools. After talking with the financial aid office and one of the admission offices, the school offered me substantial scholarship money. Other classmates had similar experiences with our school and financial aid, but I am not sure how this works with other universities since CMU is private. Hope this helps some. Good luck.