When did Pitt become this area's safety school? Why no CMU as a top pick?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Engineers tend not to be hand-wringers so not likely to be endlessly harping on the stats of MIT vs CMU vs Harvey Mudd.

+1. They know when they are good. They don't need a fancy certificate from the wizard of oz to prove it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Alternate theory: There are a lot of Pittsburgh transplants in the DC area. They left in the early 1990s when the economy there was still awful and they couldn't find jobs out of college. But they've maintained connections there and a love of city, so now their kids are considering it. The happy epilogue is the city is now roaring back economically so when those kids graduate, they might be able to stay.

This. Though my parents left in the late 70s to move to DC. But I still have lots of ties to Pittsburgh as other relatives still live there and we go back to visit often. I considered staying after graduating in 2006, but I ended up elsewhere for grad school then didn't make my way back there to live.

Similar story here. DS loved Pitt and also grandma’s meatballs monthly.

My DS is considering Pitt because of the Granddad factor.

Grandad factor is strong. I loved having family nearby when DD was at Pitt.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Rolling admission, easy app, good merit scholarship, and stats driven process. That was our reasons. CMU is hard to get it and stingy with merit money. No safety.

This.

Reasonable distance from home.

State school which means DC TAG money.

City of Pittsburgh seems to love Pitt, and it is a nice city for DC who grew up in DC.

The Cathedral does take a little getting used to

Are you talking about the Cathedral of Learning? What about it is hard to get used to?

And there are the Nationality Rooms. http://www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu/

The Cathedral of Learning is on the National Register of Historic Places, as is Heinz Chapel, another lovely Pitt building.



It's a skyscraper. With classrooms. That looks like an Art Deco office building inside. Great idea for in a city but to those of us who went to larger more rural/suburban universities, 30 stories of classrooms and offices is different.

Pitt alum here. The Cathedral was one of my favorite parts of campus!

Right! It is so cool. Just cutting through the first floor on the way from one part of campus to another is fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Rolling admission, easy app, good merit scholarship, and stats driven process. That was our reasons. CMU is hard to get it and stingy with merit money. No safety.

This.

Reasonable distance from home.

State school which means DC TAG money.

City of Pittsburgh seems to love Pitt, and it is a nice city for DC who grew up in DC.

The Cathedral does take a little getting used to

Are you talking about the Cathedral of Learning? What about it is hard to get used to?

It's a skyscraper. With classrooms. That looks like an Art Deco office building inside. Great idea for in a city but to those of us who went to larger more rural/suburban universities, 30 stories of classrooms and offices is different.

Pitt alum here. The Cathedral was one of my favorite parts of campus!

Right! It is so cool. Just cutting through the first floor on the way from one part of campus to another is fun.

And there are the Nationality Rooms. http://www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu/

The Cathedral of Learning is on the National Register of Historic Places, as is Heinz Chapel, another lovely Pitt building.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think you don't see people discussing CMU for the same reason you really don't see them discussing MIT. The DCUM crowd doesn't seem to produce hard core elite science types.

+1

The elite science types go to MIT, Stanford, Caltech not CMU, for undergrad.

This is not true. I agree with the original PPs assessment. People don't talk about CMU on DCUM the same way they don't really discuss MIT. It's not really on the radar.

Frankly, I've never been able to understand why MIT isn't discussed here. It is as elite as HYPs. Why don't people obsess over it the way they obsess over them?

Because MIT is too small and too specialized. No other schools to compare with other than CalTech which is another very small school.

Not really. the tippy top STEM kids aim for MIT, Stanford, then Caltech and then there is a big jump for everything else. MIT is very much on the radar, its name recognition is up there with Harvard and Stanford. Of course it is more self selected than the ivies because of the STEM focus and its level of difficulty. People just know it is insanely hard.

MIT is actually not that specialized compared to other top engineering schools. it has top STEM of course but also and many top social sciences departments (econ, psych, linguistics etc), creative writing and more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pitt accepted 15/16 applicants from my kid's FCPS high school last year. My kid liked the campus and the distance from home. I'm sure he'll really like the easy application. With a 3.7/4.0 and a 34 ACT, he might get some merit aid (if he doesn't, it's off the table). With merit, it would be a potential backup to VA Tech if he gets rejected there for his "low" GPA.

Our Pitt tour guide was a TJ grad and seemed to have a lot of classmates there for pre-med.

Pitt is particularly popular at TJ among future pre-meds because the Med School has a guaranteed admission program.

That is worth gold. Pitt has a strong program and with medical school admission rates at 5% that would be a fantastic option for a hopeful future doctor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Rolling admission, easy app, good merit scholarship, and stats driven process. That was our reasons. CMU is hard to get it and stingy with merit money. No safety.

This.

Reasonable distance from home.

State school which means DC TAG money.

City of Pittsburgh seems to love Pitt, and it is a nice city for DC who grew up in DC.

The Cathedral does take a little getting used to

Are you talking about the Cathedral of Learning? What about it is hard to get used to?

It's a skyscraper. With classrooms. That looks like an Art Deco office building inside. Great idea for in a city but to those of us who went to larger more rural/suburban universities, 30 stories of classrooms and offices is different.

Pitt alum here. The Cathedral was one of my favorite parts of campus!

Right! It is so cool. Just cutting through the first floor on the way from one part of campus to another is fun.

And there are the Nationality Rooms. http://www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu/

The Cathedral of Learning is on the National Register of Historic Places, as is Heinz Chapel, another lovely Pitt building.

We were married in Heinz Chapel. So beautiful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rolling admission, easy app, good merit scholarship, and stats driven process. That was our reasons. CMU is hard to get it and stingy with merit money. No safety.

This.

Reasonable distance from home.

State school which means DC TAG money.

City of Pittsburgh seems to love Pitt, and it is a nice city for DC who grew up in DC.

The Cathedral does take a little getting used to

Are you talking about the Cathedral of Learning? What about it is hard to get used to?

It's a skyscraper. With classrooms. That looks like an Art Deco office building inside. Great idea for in a city but to those of us who went to larger more rural/suburban universities, 30 stories of classrooms and offices is different.

Pitt alum here. The Cathedral was one of my favorite parts of campus!

Right! It is so cool. Just cutting through the first floor on the way from one part of campus to another is fun.

And there are the Nationality Rooms. http://www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu/

The Cathedral of Learning is on the National Register of Historic Places, as is Heinz Chapel, another lovely Pitt building.

We were married in Heinz Chapel. So beautiful!

I hope you had your wedding reception at the O.