What is the appeal of Pitt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is Pitt's housing, do they offer first year housing or full four years?
DS is considering Pitt.

They had to house some students in hotels. One set of dorms is up "Cardiac Hill," which some kids don't like. We toured the Towers. That holds a lot of freshman.

Like many schools--Hamilton, UVM, UMD--Pitt struggles to get the right amount of housing. As a result, students are sometimes in hotels or triples and sometimes not. You just don't know. But many schools have similar issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Appeal is: close enough, rolling admission. fun enough, big time sports, urban enough for students coming from the DMV, respectable choice.

+1.

I would also add academic enough https://admissions.pitt.edu/first-year-student/class-profile/
I would say it attracts kids serious about their studies while having all the benefits the PP mentioned including big time sports and rolling admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About 5 yrs ago they really were throwing merit money around $20-30K. That increased their popularity a lot in the DMV. Then they started whittling it back down. Some accepted students don't get merit offers now, others as little as $5k.

This, plus rolling admissions. My class of 2020 kid was offered $20/year in merit money. She didn’t attend.

They no longer do that type of merit aid but most kids who go there really like it so Pitt’s strategy to increase dmv applications definitely seems to have worked!

They do still do that type of merit aid! My kid has an acceptance to engineering school plus $20k per year merit aid offer.

[Anonymous]

In additional to factors mentioned in other posts (rolling admissions, Pittsburg appeal, strong technical education), I would add that Pitt, although a big state school, is really well managed and organized, and the admissions/financial aid staff are really helpful when you call with questions. Also, the school puts an emphasis on practical learning, and its urban location allows students to have internships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Appeal on dcum: most kids get in so we don’t get bitter parents of rejected kids tearing the school up as we do for more selective schools.

THIS ^^. Seems the biggest appeal of all is that they accept almost everyone and people hear early, so it puts them at ease. Then they usually accept other offers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honest question…I am new to this forum and wanted to know why does everyone talk about Pitt and apply to Pitt?. Any insight would be helpful. Btw, I have a sophomore in high school.

Rolling admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Appeal on dcum: most kids get in so we don’t get bitter parents of rejected kids tearing the school up as we do for more selective schools.

THIS ^^. Seems the biggest appeal of all is that they accept almost everyone and people hear early, so it puts them at ease. Then they usually accept other offers.

In DCUM land maybe, but their acceptance rate was 49% last year. So, no, they don’t accept “almost everyone.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's really interesting. I had several college friends who lived in Pittsburgh, but didn't want to go to Pitt and attended VT instead.

It's the wanting to get away from your hometown thing. Pittsburgh kids used to turn down CMU too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Appeal on dcum: most kids get in so we don’t get bitter parents of rejected kids tearing the school up as we do for more selective schools.

THIS ^^. Seems the biggest appeal of all is that they accept almost everyone and people hear early, so it puts them at ease. Then they usually accept other offers.

In DCUM land maybe, but their acceptance rate was 49% last year. So, no, they don’t accept “almost everyone.”

Pitt is a good option for kids who don't get into UVa/VaTech or UMCP, but don't want to go to JMU/VCU or UMBC/Towson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's really interesting. I had several college friends who lived in Pittsburgh, but didn't want to go to Pitt and attended VT instead.

That's not surprising at all-- many students want to go away to college. Attending a university in the city you grew up in feels limited, even if it's a great university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's really interesting. I had several college friends who lived in Pittsburgh, but didn't want to go to Pitt and attended VT instead.

It's the wanting to get away from your hometown thing. Pittsburgh kids used to turn down CMU too.

CMU is a prestigious private school at the same level as Duke, Rice, Georgetown, and Stanford. I highly doubt anyone would turn down CMU, unless it's for financial reasons. CMU is a highly sought after school, while Pitt is considered as an easy safety school for the DMV area kids, who are too embarrassed to go to VCU, Liberty, Radford, CNU, or ODU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's really interesting. I had several college friends who lived in Pittsburgh, but didn't want to go to Pitt and attended VT instead.

It's the wanting to get away from your hometown thing. Pittsburgh kids used to turn down CMU too.

CMU is a prestigious private school at the same level as Duke, Rice, Georgetown, and Stanford. I highly doubt anyone would turn down CMU, unless it's for financial reasons. CMU is a highly sought after school, while Pitt is considered as an easy safety school for the DMV area kids, who are too embarrassed to go to VCU, Liberty, Radford, CNU, or ODU.

Duke is T10
CMU is not even T20

[Anonymous]

Of course people turn down CMU for non financial reasons, such a strange thing to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's really interesting. I had several college friends who lived in Pittsburgh, but didn't want to go to Pitt and attended VT instead.

It's the wanting to get away from your hometown thing. Pittsburgh kids used to turn down CMU too.

CMU is a prestigious private school at the same level as Duke, Rice, Georgetown, and Stanford. I highly doubt anyone would turn down CMU, unless it's for financial reasons. CMU is a highly sought after school, while Pitt is considered as an easy safety school for the DMV area kids, who are too embarrassed to go to VCU, Liberty, Radford, CNU, or ODU.

Duke is T10
CMU is not even T20

CMU is T25. CMU is #24 tied with Emory, WashU, and UVA, which is a highly sought after school in the DMV area. Emory and WashU are also a top choices for applicants too.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities?_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc

Where is Pitt? #67

Pitt is nowhere in the same class as CMU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Appeal on dcum: most kids get in so we don’t get bitter parents of rejected kids tearing the school up as we do for more selective schools.

THIS ^^. Seems the biggest appeal of all is that they accept almost everyone and people hear early, so it puts them at ease. Then they usually accept other offers.

In DCUM land maybe, but their acceptance rate was 49% last year. So, no, they don’t accept “almost everyone.”

Pitt is a good option for kids who don't get into UVa/VaTech or UMCP, but don't want to go to JMU/VCU or UMBC/Towson.

Interesting, my kid got into UMCP and VT and chose Pitt. Wasn’t even close for her.

Average Pitt GPA/SAT: 4.16/1380
Average for VT: 4.03/1330
Average for UMCP: 4.43/1440

Compared to the schools you mentioned:

Average for JMU: (doesn’t report GPA in CDS)/1235
Average for Towson: 3.84/1130
Average for VCU: 3.72/1160
Average for UMBC: 3.96/1300

The second set of schools (other than UMBC, whose stats honestly surprised me) are clearly in a different tier than the first set. And while UMBC is an excellent academic institution, it’s a crappy place to go to college for people looking for the traditional college experience.