What is the appeal of Pitt?

[Anonymous]

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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.

People turn down CMU because it is known to be a super stressful school with a very heavy workload.

[Anonymous]

My DC is a junior at Pitt. He is in the honors program and lived in the honors dorm, yes up cardiac hill, but great cafeteria in the dorm! DC is premed and with 5 hospitals on campus, he has been doing research since freshman year, which is incredible. Great sports school and great school spirit! Lot's to do and very easy to get around. Like others, I had no idea what to expect, but love the area! The one negative is that the housing close to the school (not owned by Pitt) is pretty gross, lots of old houses that have not been fixed up, and rent for high prices.

[Anonymous]

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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.

DP. Could you please post your sources for the above stats? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

because it has rolling admissions. everyone knows this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP. Could you please post your sources for the above stats? Thanks.

Google the common data set for each school, then select the latest year.

For example, VCU: https://irds.vcu.edu/media/decision-support/pdf/commondatasets/CDS_2022-2023Finalrev9-5-23.pdf
Look at C9 and C12.

[Anonymous]

For Pitt:
https://admissions.pitt.edu/first-year-student/class-profile/

Near the bottom, you can gets specifics for arts and sciences, engineering schools, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP. Could you please post your sources for the above stats? Thanks.

You can’t compare MD to VA HS since grading scales so so different. MCPS gives a full point bump for both honors and AP and as such has much higher GPAs than VA schools which I think give a .5 bump and only for AP.

[Anonymous]

No effing clue. Don’t care for it.

[Anonymous]

Pittsburgh? Yuck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP. Could you please post your sources for the above stats? Thanks.

You can’t compare MD to VA HS since grading scales so so different. MCPS gives a full point bump for both honors and AP and as such has much higher GPAs than VA schools which I think give a .5 bump and only for AP.

FCPS schools give a 1.0 bump for AP, but generally only a .5 bump for honors, so yes, I would expect the average HS grades for MD schools to be a bit higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pittsburgh? Yuck

That was my opinion until I actually visited. Lovely place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pittsburgh? Yuck

That was my opinion until I actually visited. Lovely place.

Same here.. it's a beautiful city

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pittsburgh? Yuck

That was my opinion until I actually visited. Lovely place.

NP, We were also pleasantly surprised, however I've never heard/seen the adjective "lovely" used to describe Pittsburgh or any other major American city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pittsburgh? Yuck

That was my opinion until I actually visited. Lovely place.

Same here.. it's a beautiful city

I totally agree! Great city, many bridges over the water makes it easy to get around and some really cool areas!

[Anonymous]

Just visited last week and my daughter loved it. She wants something different from her Dad and brother that both went to Virginia Tech. The students were working hard and lots of cool study spots. We went in with no expectations and were pleasantly surprised. Lots of stuff for the parents to do in town when visiting.