The University of Pittsburgh is a research university based in (you guessed it) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, their admissions process works a little differently than most other universities, in that they offer admissions decisions not under any specific deadline, but on a rolling basis. This means “deferred” is not officially an application status that you can receive. You will either be accepted, rejected, or waitlisted, in which case you’ll want to do a few things to confirm your interest in still being considered for acceptance at Pitt. 

Pitt may also request to see mid-year grades from certain students, as noted on their admissions website: “[This] simply means that the Admissions Committee would like a little more information from you before making a final decision. Please make sure to either update your STARS record with your mid-year grades or have them sent to us when available. Once received, the Admissions Committee will continue to review your application and provide a final decision.” Waitlisted students need to confirm their interest in remaining on the waitlist, submit those midyear grades, and then they will hear back or before June 1st, according to the admissions website FAQs.

If you instead heard back that you were rejected from the University of Pittsburgh, you no longer have a shot at admissions there. But! That doesn’t mean your entire college admissions process is down the drain. Below, we’ll walk you through the next steps after getting that less-than-ideal news if you weren’t either accepted or waitlisted.  

Applying to the University of Pittsburgh

As we mentioned, Pitt accepts applications all year round, with no final deadline listed on their admissions website. Their website states, “It’s to your advantage to apply for college early—it’ll help you stay ahead of deadlines for scholarships, Frederick Honors College, and our Graduate School Guaranteed Admissions Programs.” We wholeheartedly agree, applying Early is the way to go!

University of Pittsburgh Acceptance Rate

There is really only one available type of data for Pitt since they have only Regular Decision rolling admissions, so let’s check that out below.

Admissions Cycle	University of Pittsburgh Class Year	Overall Admission Rate
2025-2026	Class of 2030	Not Reported
2024-2025	Class of 2029	Not Reported
2023-2024	Class of 2028	58.08%
2022-2023	Class of 2027	49.70%
2021-2022	Class of 2026	49.14%

What To Do After Being Waitlisted by the University of Pittsburgh

PostMortem Application Review

Since “deferred” is not technically a status you will see in your application portal to Pitt, you may not think to set up Ivy Coach’s PostMortem application review. This review will still be incredibly helpful moving forward in the admissions process, because during the PostMortem, Ivy Coach’s counselor will:

• Provide in-depth feedback on up to three of a student’s college applications. Ivy Coach’s counselor, a former elite college admissions officer, will review both essay and non-essay sections of each one.
• Brainstorm a more compelling extracurricular hook to place a student in the most advantageous spot for admission. The goal is to thread this hook through the entire application, providing a student their own unique perspective to showcase to admissions officers.
• Fix application errors. And trust us, there will be errors. No student’s first pass is completely perfect when it comes to college applications. In fact, most contain a large number of errors. Even something seemingly insignificant can have a negative effect on the admissions game, especially the lower a school’s acceptance rate drops.
• Craft a stronger Regular Decision school list. We’re very good at spotting gaps in a student’s list where we know they would be a competitive applicant, so we make sure those are added for consideration.

Common Mistakes Caught During Ivy Coach’s PostMortem

Among the many, many, many applications that we’ve reviewed at Ivy Coach, a lot of the mistakes are pretty similar. Sometimes students have clearly gotten outdated advice. Sometimes they might’ve just gotten bad advice. We’re here to correct all of that. The ones we’ve listed below are by no means exhaustive, but these are some of the most common ones we catch. 

• A Personal Statement focusing on one of our five forbidden topics: sports, music, community service, grandparents, or travel.
• A Why College essay that’s nearly the exact same as their Why College essay for another school. Even if a student swaps out the names of classes and professors, admissions officers can tell when they’re reading a Mad Lib submission. And that doesn’t show genuine excitement about a school at all!
• A student included the dollar amount that they fundraised for a charitable cause. Dollar signs make students come across as unlikable.
• The student listed out all of their activities, honors, and community service hours all in one essay, trying to impress admissions officers. Ivy Coach’s students don’t have to try to impress admissions officers. They just do.
• The application is too well-rounded. Please note: the well-rounded strategy hasn’t worked on admissions officers in about 30 years. The crucial part of a successful application is its uniqueness, the singularity of a student’s hook. Not that they look like a duplicate of every other applicant. Sheesh!
• Applying for a school that they weren’t competitive enough for in the first place. At Ivy Coach, we tell it like it is. If a student’s Early Action or Early Decision choice wasn’t the right one, we’ll be honest, because honesty is the best policy.

Write a Letter of Continued Interest

You can still submit a Letter of Continued Interest to Pitt in addition to your midyear grades, even if they don’t explicitly ask for it. This Letter of Continued Interest must be a love letter to Pitt, explicating how you will utilize your singular hook to contribute to a school’s atmosphere and be a positive addition to the campus. 

From the very first sentence, you must grip the admissions officer who is reading and provide school-specific detail after detail. Again, the mad libbing won’t work here; a Letter of Continued Interest must be unique to an institution.

What a Letter of Continued Interest Should Not Do

Just as well as there are dos in the Letter of Continued Interest should do, there is a long list of don’ts. The Letter of Continued Interest should not contain a list of academic updates; that renders a student braggadocious and unlikable. That’s the opposite of what you want in this 650-word love letter!

Students need to avoid boring admissions officers to tears and instead craft a clear picture of their singular narrative and display how they’ll contribute their hook to the specific aspects of the school, including programs, institutes, culture, traditions, and activities. This may be contradictory to some of the other advice you’ve heard about the Letter of Continued Interest. If it is, we hope there’s still time for your child to course correct and draft a much stronger version.

When Applicants Should Submit Their Letters of Continued Interest

We have students submit their Letter of Continued Interest as soon as possible. This would ideally happen within a few days of receiving notice that they’re on the waitlist. So, if a student learns they are on the waitlist on December 15th, we like them to send in the Letter of Continued Interest by December 20th. We don’t want the school to think that the student is insulted for some reason!

That’s why time is of the essence, unless, of course, it’s already the holidays. If it’s the few days before Christmas or between Christmas and New Year’s, we absolutely do not recommend submitting. They need to wait until a few days into the New Year. 

That doesn’t mean students should be waiting to write the letter, though. That Letter of Continued Interest is exactly how we’d encourage them to pivot before they start to submit to schools for Regular Decision, so they should use it as a blueprint as they fill out the rest of their applications.

What to Do After Being Rejected by University of Pittsburgh

Did you receive a rejection from Pitt? If so, it’s time to put that thinking cap on. While Pitt does allow appeals, it may not be the best path forward to keep beating a dead horse. Their website states, “If you want to appeal an admissions decision, it is best to start by contacting your Enrollment Services Manager. They can have a more personalized conversation with you about appealing an admissions decision.” To us, this makes it seem like they don’t really want to hear from you about an appeal.

So, what’s the next step forward if Pitt is off the table? You shift your focus to your remaining applications and position yourself for success. You might even secure an acceptance from a college that’s an even better fit for you during the Regular Decision round with our help. But how, Ivy Coach, how??? 

We’ll work with you to create a singular hook that impresses admissions officers and outlines your plan for making the most of your future campus. This strategy, tailored to your strengths and interests, has led to success for numerous students who have turned to us after being rejected. And it can work for you too!

PostMortem Application Review

After receiving word of a rejection from Pitt, it’s smart to contact Ivy Coach for a PostMortem application review as soon as possible. You can of course take a pause for a few minutes during this overwhelming time and process your rejection. Be sure to remind yourself that countless others have been in the exact same spot as you. But time is of the essence now, so it’s crucial to spring into action once you’re feeling ready to do so. 

During Ivy Coach’s PostMortem, we:

• Reevaluate your current applications. We’ll go through each and every section of the application, including both the essays and non-essay portions, in order to readjust which schools you’re prioritizing now that you’ve been rejected from Pitt. Oh, and if you think that these applications are close to done, we’ve got a reality check. They’re not! They need restructuring, finessing, and overhauling to craft that comprehensive narrative that works in the admissions process.
• Portray you as a uniquely talented individual rather than as a well-rounded one. That’s the opposite of what we want in the admissions process! So, we’ll fix this on your application by buckling down and pivoting to a strategy that actually works, otherwise known as Ivy Coach’s singular hook.
• Correct little-known missteps and mistakes that stand out to an admissions officer. Rejection can come down to something as plain and simple as a thought or idea that was miscommunicated and made it seem like the student wouldn’t mesh with that college’s culture. Or, maybe you came off a little too braggdocious in that application. Time to strip the mistakes out of those applications. 
• Take stock of your realistic admissions prospects. At this point, you should consider taking advantage of the Early Decision II round for a school that hits the sweet spot between prestige and admissions feasibility. Of course, not all students are right for ED II, and not all schools provide an ED II round. It’s time to buckle down and figure out the admissions pathway that works for you.

Application Assistance

Following your PostMortem, a crucial first step for us to understand what went wrong and to reposition your application narrative, we:

• Rework your applications with Ivy Coach’s assistance. Now that you understand the college admissions landscape a bit better, it’s time to put everything you’ve learned from your PostMortem into practice. While we can’t fix every mistake you’ve made throughout high school, there’s still a whole lot we can do at this late date in terms of how you present your narrative and get admissions officers to root for you.

What Not to Do After Being Rejected by the University of Pittsburgh

Below are five pretty easy ways to flush your Regular Decision admissions chances down the toilet after receiving a rejection from Pitt:

1. Do not submit your remaining applications as is to other schools. Clearly, something isn’t right about your application, and it ultimately resulted in initial rejection. Don’t ignore that! 
2. Do not reach out to the University of Pittsburgh admissions office with useless questions about why you were rejected. It’s a waste of everyone’s time, because they won’t give you whatever answer you’re looking for, and it’ll only make you look bad. 
3. Do not be picky with your choice of Regular Decision schools and/or leave off safety schools from your Regular Decision list. Unsure what counts as a safety school? That’s where our team of former elite college admissions officers comes in to help. We cannot tolerate pickiness at this time of year from rejected applicants.
4. Do not blame your school counselor for an admissions decision that is ultimately your responsibility. They are still your #1 ally right now in the fight for your college future. So don’t even think about alienating them!

University of Pittsburgh University Waitlist and Rejection FAQ

Is it worth staying on the waitlist, or should I cut my losses?

If Pitt was your dream school initially, of course you should elect to stay on the waitlist! Often, being placed on the waitlist just means that too many people applied for the same major as you, but if one student who was accepted to Pitt chooses to attend a different school, you may very well be called upon to fill that spot!

Can I appeal my rejection from the University of Pittsburgh?

We know that Pitt does permit appeals in their admissions process, but it likely isn’t worth it if they didn’t want you in the first place. Don’t be the desperate ex-boyfriend; move on to bigger and better things!

Do I still have options after receiving a University of Pittsburgh rejection? 

Yes, of course! There is still hope on the college horizon for you. It’s just not at the University of Pittsburgh; it will be somewhere new that you may not even know about yet! During Ivy Coach’s PostMortem, we’ll rework your Regular Decision school list and present you with new options you may be even more excited about.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance Moving Forward After University of Pittsburgh Waitlist or Rejection

Contact Ivy Coach to schedule a complimentary consultation and explore the next steps. For waitlisted candidates, we provide a PostMortem application review along with a Letter of Continued Interest. And while we indeed offer assistance with Regular Decision applications for rejected candidates, we can’t pivot to Regular Decision until both we and you understand the mistakes you have already made in your application process. We’ll review your application for these mistakes during our PostMortem, then our team of former elite college admissions officers will look forward to your remaining schools, equipping you with a new competitive strategy that incorporates a singular hook!