tell me about Pitt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Due respect, but your college prof knows absolutely nothing about Pittsburgh and needs to get out more. How old is the prof?

He was probably in his early 30s, and had done his doctorate at Yale, then become an assistant prof at Harvard by a young age. He knew plenty about academia and the reputation of different schools and departments, and I don't think he would have needed to even visit Pittsburgh or "get out more" to enhance his credibility.

Pitt is an OK school with an OK, not spectacular campus, and some good departments. Depending on your goals and the schools with which you are comparing Pitt, it might even be a "good" school. If you are comparing it to the Ivy Leagues and the most selective schools, it is just OK.

My brothers loved it and have no student loans, and are happy they went there. Even they will freely admit that my house at Harvard was in a different league than their Pitt dorms, and Pitt's campus is not great compared to those of other schools. But they don't care: they liked the grittiness, and they didn't want student loans, and they are very successful now.

But I would have been so depressed at Pitt.

Dang, you must have been awfully sheltered if that would be enough to make you "so depressed." Maybe, and I mean this in all seriousness, your brothers' success is based more on them being more resilient than you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would any educated person say "Ivy"?

My DS had his aha moment on tour at Pitt. The Cathedral of Learning is really cool. The kids have free city bus passes, lots of ethnicy places to eat in addition to the typical college food. Lots of diversity and real people. He loved his experience and was one of only 2 of his buddies with a real, major-related job at graduation. And it didn't cost a ton. It's not for everybody but he loved it.

The Cathedral of Learning IS cool. It is also a very small part of the campus, the rest of which is hideous. And not all classes take place in the Cathedral, anyway. Some of the dorms are absolutely disgusting ("Towers", the thing built by a hospital so you can see the ambulance helicopter launchpad from some of the rooms, etc.).

Is having a few classes in the Cathedral going to make up for living in a gross dorm?

The dorms when I were there were nice. I'm assuming they are remodeled by now. One dorm was older so it had character but it was far from gross. It was cool as it was a suite with a few rooms, kitchen and two bathrooms (that they cleaned). I stayed in the Towers for a year. I really liked it. Having classes in the Cathedral was cool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
[Up]

Anonymous

I'm from Pittsburgh and never considered Pitt for myself since it was the hometown university. (It was kind of like GMU would be to a Fairfax County kid.) I was shortsighted, for sure. My son toured Pitt and while he leant toward smaller schools overall he really loved what he saw of Pitt. It has a great reputation and draws in a lot of very bright kids from all over. Very strong in the sciences especially as Pittsburgh is a medical town.

Oakland is a very vibrant neighborhood but the campus still feels fairly contained. You can't beat the accessibility to the amenities of Pittsburgh and Pitt kids really have the run of the town. The sports scene is also outstanding if you have kids who love both collegiate and major league events.

We heard Pitt was generous with merit aid but that didn't turn out to be the case for my kid (high scores but just OK grades), and the OOS COA would have been more than we were comfortable with, so we went with an in state option.

I highly, highly recommend you take an official tour. We visited lots of colleges but the tour there was by far the best and I understand the guides keep to very high standards.

OP again. We will definitely go and see it. Thank you.

PP. My pleasure. I really wanted it to work out for my kid. Pittsburgh is a city filled with smart, friendly people. A lot of people still envision coal miners and steel workers!

[Anonymous]

DH and I met there, c/o 2002. Both really like it!

[Anonymous]

22:58, c/o 2006, rather...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My brothers went there for engineering. I guess it was a good enough school, and I am jealous of my student loan free brothers, but I wouldn't have been happy at Pitt. It had a gritty, almost ghetto feel that I didn't like.

But I went to an "Ivy" and was a bookish kid who hated the gregarious fratty types that seemed to swarm my brothers' dorms and the Pitt campus. I once overheard one of my college profs advising a student about where to apply for grad school, and he responded to the student's suggestion of Pitt by dismissing it as a "working class school in a place no one wants to go, but that's what makes it affordable." I concur, but didn't share this with my brothers.

My brothers have great careers now and both make a lot more money than I do, so presumably the engineering department is fine.

What are you talking about? Pitt has changed a lot since I went 20 years ago. It was a nice campus then. Sections where there was private housing was not that great nor were the areas with the frats but it was by no means ghetto, unsafe or bad. Pitt is huge and only a small part is Greek. I was never Greek nor were most of my friends. I only went to a handful of fraternity parties and most were with my dad when he visited his fraternity. The only negative is you can only get housing for a few years and then have to go off campus. My friend and I senior year had a really nice 2 bedroom apartment. It is far from working class. It wasn't cheap out of state and they attract a lot of kids from MD and other local states. They are well ranked for many majors. You sound like a huge snob.

I am a huge snob, probably. So? That doesn't change Pitt's caliber. But the difference between the average Pitt student I met while visiting the campus and staying with my brothers or high school friend and the average student I knew at Harvard was immense. By "fratty", I mean the type of person who is boorish and clearly not smart. There was an immaturity and lack of social grace that was prevalent, though of course not applicable to every Pitt student I met (and I met a lot). One of my brothers had something called a "cathedral suite", I believe, which he "won" in a housing lottery, and this was regarded as luxury housing by Pitt students...but the Pitt campus was tatty and ugly compared to my school, and the schools of my other friends. The "nice" Pitt dorms I saw were OK, but they were only "nice" compared to other Pitt dorms and the Pitt campus. This was in the early 2000s: I doubt the student body has changed that much, and the campus certainly has not.

As I said, my brothers did fine for themselves, and they loved Pitt, but you are delusional if you think it is a "nice campus." Or you haven't visited really good schools with beautiful campuses. Pitt is OK.

Translation: "my brothers graduated debt free and have great jobs and my barista job barely covers the student loans on my worthless Art History degree."

[Anonymous]

My hs senior was accepted at Pitt but has decided to go elsewhere. We know 2 students from N Virginia that go there and love it. One will be spending next year studying abroad in Berlin. I recommend you attend one of Pitt's Open House days....more in-depth than the campus tours, very well-organized and informative. We were not expecting to like Pitt as much as we did after the Open House. My DD is interested in the medical field and Pittsburgh seems to be full of opportunities in that field. Some of the reasons for not choosing Pitt included the OOS tuition with low merit aid, no offer of admission into the guaranteed graduate program (PA), the high percentage of students from Pennsylvania (don't know the # but my impression is ALMOST everyone is in-state). The campus itself didn't seem gritty, and is right next to Carnegie Mellon and Chatham. But I wouldn't call it picturesque. The freshman dorms are in high rise buildings, 17 floors. For my DD, who grew up in suburban N Virginia, the urban campus seemed cool. But it's certainly a different type of campus from UVA, where she will be going in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My hs senior was accepted at Pitt but has decided to go elsewhere. We know 2 students from N Virginia that go there and love it. One will be spending next year studying abroad in Berlin. I recommend you attend one of Pitt's Open House days....more in-depth than the campus tours, very well-organized and informative. We were not expecting to like Pitt as much as we did after the Open House. My DD is interested in the medical field and Pittsburgh seems to be full of opportunities in that field. Some of the reasons for not choosing Pitt included the OOS tuition with low merit aid, no offer of admission into the guaranteed graduate program (PA), the high percentage of students from Pennsylvania (don't know the # but my impression is ALMOST everyone is in-state). The campus itself didn't seem gritty, and is right next to Carnegie Mellon and Chatham. But I wouldn't call it picturesque. The freshman dorms are in high rise buildings, 17 floors. For my DD, who grew up in suburban N Virginia, the urban campus seemed cool. But it's certainly a different type of campus from UVA, where she will be going in the fall.

The campus and surrounding areas have changed a lot since I went there. There were a lot of out of state kids and even instate lived on campus who were younger. It did not have a commuter feel. Most people I knew got into the graduate programs no issue. I ended up leaving for another school but I could have stayed without issue.

[Anonymous]

Pitt, along with CMU seem to attract a fair number of TJ grads, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

I do second that the city of Pittsburgh seemed to be filled with lots of smart and hardworking folks. Plus, I recently toured campus with DD and I like everything except was not thrilled about dorms compared to other schools. DD will apply for sure and we'll see.

[Anonymous]

Personally I think the IVY poster gives a lot of insight. She / He actually spent time at the school, had family there, visited, met people.

No one else on this thread comes close to having that kind of insider knowledge.

I know some of its depressing OP, but its worth considering. For sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Due respect, but your college prof knows absolutely nothing about Pittsburgh and needs to get out more. How old is the prof?

He was probably in his early 30s, and had done his doctorate at Yale, then become an assistant prof at Harvard by a young age. He knew plenty about academia and the reputation of different schools and departments, and I don't think he would have needed to even visit Pittsburgh or "get out more" to enhance his credibility.

Pitt is an OK school with an OK, not spectacular campus, and some good departments. Depending on your goals and the schools with which you are comparing Pitt, it might even be a "good" school. If you are comparing it to the Ivy Leagues and the most selective schools, it is just OK.

My brothers loved it and have no student loans, and are happy they went there. Even they will freely admit that my house at Harvard was in a different league than their Pitt dorms, and Pitt's campus is not great compared to those of other schools. But they don't care: they liked the grittiness, and they didn't want student loans, and they are very successful now.

But I would have been so depressed at Pitt.

Your insecurity is glowing neon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally I think the IVY poster gives a lot of insight. She / He actually spent time at the school, had family there, visited, met people.

No one else on this thread comes close to having that kind of insider knowledge.

I know some of its depressing OP, but its worth considering. For sure.

Actually, nearly all of the posters said they had been there or are even from there (and so know tons of people who go there or went there).

[Anonymous]

I'm from Western PA, went to high school in Pittsburgh, and avoided Pitt like the plague since it was the hometown school. I went elsewhere for my freshman year. I went to GW here in DC--waaaaay too expensive and my dad taught at Pitt so I could go there for free so I finally decided to give Pitt a shot. (GW was actually "free" for me too except for the student loans that I didn't want to be saddled with for years). Best decision ever. I also spent a semester abroad, and that was free too, not because of my dad but because the country I went to was not in huge demand and a scholarship from the Center for Latin American Studies covered tuition, room and board.

I did not live on campus though. Housing is much cheaper in Pittsburgh than in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm from Western PA, went to high school in Pittsburgh, and avoided Pitt like the plague since it was the hometown school. I went elsewhere for my freshman year. I went to GW here in DC--waaaaay too expensive and my dad taught at Pitt so I could go there for free so I finally decided to give Pitt a shot. (GW was actually "free" for me too except for the student loans that I didn't want to be saddled with for years). Best decision ever. I also spent a semester abroad, and that was free too, not because of my dad but because the country I went to was not in huge demand and a scholarship from the Center for Latin American Studies covered tuition, room and board.

I did not live on campus though. Housing is much cheaper in Pittsburgh than in DC.

Pitt is urban, but Pittsburgh is a small city, so it isn't truly urban experience if that is what your child is after.

Pitt is really strong in any medical related fields. You would want to go to CMU for engineering though.

There are a lot of commuters, most people move off campus after the first year, mostly people from PA. The closest city to Pittsburgh is DC, (well Cleveland, I guess).

I don't think it has a lot of national recognition.

There is an honors college.