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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s hugely popular with our (non-NYC) NY public school. The kids who go there love it!

They tend to be really bright and balanced kids. The ones who take honors and some AP classes but aren’t competing on the uber-rigorous track. Many get some merit aid, which helps OOS. And they live the school spirit.

We’re considering it for DS next year and will likely go visit. In the meantime, we’ve heard mixed things about how “city” it feels.

Maybe put another way, does the campus have a quiet, calm, separate young adult community feel? Or is it physically more integrated into larger Pittsburgh (including traffic, businesses, adults not affiliated with the university etc.)? Our kid is not itching for a city experience at this stage of his life. Finds it over-stimulating! [/quote]

I have family who live near campus so know the area quite well. It is its own neighborhood - a few miles from "downtown" Pittsburgh where the tall buildings and business are. It doesn't have the ideal college town feel of an Ann Arbor or Chapel Hill, but there is an area with stores, restaurants, etc. It is adjacent to a gigantic park. I'm not sure where kids go for bars but that has never really been on my radar. They seem to constantly be building new housing as historically it was more of a commuter school. And the hospital (which is right there) is constantly building as well. So there is a lot of construction but it doesn't seem to bother much.

It is also immediately next to Carnegie Mellon which strengthens the "college town" feel. Football games are where the Steelers play which is unfortunately not on campus, but not too far away - I think they have shuttles which could probably get there in 10 minutes with no traffic. Basketball is on campus. There is a public bus from campus to the airport - it is a pretty long ride (40 minutes or so) but still pretty easy, especially not at rush hour. Pittsburgh rush hour is not DC or NYC but it is not trivial.[/quote]

DP here and I would cosign this and add a couple other notes:

1) There are some bars and hang outs in Oakland where students go, but a big draw for going out is Southside Flats, a neighborhood across the river south of campus/Oakland. Southside Flats is a draw for all kinds of young people, not just students, and there's a lot to do there (tons of bars and restaurants but also recreational stuff like bowling and gyms and other activities). I think the development of SF has helped keep Oakland more neighborhood and focused on the University because it's adjacent to but not in an area with a ton of businesses and development.

2) To compare it to DC universities, I would compare it to Catholic (in and adjacent to Brookland and commercial districts, but still it's own campus) as opposed to GW (which is fully integrated into Foggy Bottom with no real distinction between campus and city). And yes, the proximity of Carnegie-Mellon gives it kind of a "university district" feel where there are just lots of students and staff around and it doesn't feel like a city neighborhood that just happens to have a college campus in it. The neighborhood is dominated by the university.

3) One caveat here is that they've had a bit of a housing crunch recently and as they solve that, it could impact the experience of students depending on where their housing is. Some of the new housing might not feel as much like it is "on campus." But I don't know enough about it to speak authoritatively, I'm just flagging the issue for anyone applying to explore and make sure they are happy with. Freshman year dorm experiences can be very make or break for students who are sensitive to their physical setting, so I'd want to have a very good idea of where your child would be living and if it will feel good to him.[/quote]

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