Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Just being pre-med does NOT guarantee admission to the Med School.

Duh. There's a special program at Pitt where you can apply for guaranteed admission to its medical school at the same time you're applying to be admitted as a freshman. Several TJ students have done that.
http://www.medadmissions.pitt.edu/admissions-requirements/guaranteed-admissions.php

Also, TJ kids get a lot of merit scholarship money there. It makes a lot of sense to spend fewer dollars on undergrad when you'll be paying for four years of med school.

In addition, there are lots of great opportunities to volunteer at the many hospitals there, which gives kids some experience with what the work of a doctor might really be like.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Just being pre-med does NOT guarantee admission to the Med School.

Duh. There's a special program at Pitt where you can apply for guaranteed admission to its medical school at the same time you're applying to be admitted as a freshman. Several TJ students have done that.
http://www.medadmissions.pitt.edu/admissions-requirements/guaranteed-admissions.php

I think that many people on this forum, most of whom are not in academia or research, talk unfairly about Pitt. Even the positive comments here seem to include comments about being a safety or back-up. While I think it does have many of the same downsides as other large, state-funded, research oriented schools, it also has a lot of the same up-sides. It is a MASSIVE research enterprise with as much cutting edge work as can be found anywhere. 2016 R&D expenditures were nearly 900M, 18th among US universities (just ahead of Yale). UMD was 41st with 540M (admittedly, they are hurt by medical campus being considered separately), VT 43rd, UVA 56th. This leads to tremendous research output and the ability to attract top faculty. This is why in Times World University rankings it is #100, (UMD-69, UVA-113), and in the QS rankings it is 142 (UMD-129, UVA-173).

It is true that it is not a school for everyone. It is large (though not as large as some), urban (though that is a draw for some), has some large classes, foreign TAs, and some of the researchers may not care much about undergrads. But, this is no different than schools like Michigan or Wisconsin or UVA that seem to be discussed much more respectfully.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Anonymous wrote:CMU is a very poor choice for undergrad imo. The campus sucks the city sucks, the school is very one-sided and intense. Many say it is a miserable experience. Most people do not believe that this is what an undergrad education should be like and the CMU name is not strong enough to motivate them to overlook these things. Tons of top kids who want to study engineering and cannot make it to MIT or Stanford go for ivies and then do graduate degrees at engineering-focused schools like CMU and GTech.

How can a school that is known both for IT and Musical Theatre be called one-sided?

CMU is a very poor choice for undergrad imo. The campus sucks the city sucks, the school is very one-sided and intense. Many say it is a miserable experience. Most people do not believe that this is what an undergrad education should be like and the CMU name is not strong enough to motivate them to overlook these things. Tons of top kids who want to study engineering and cannot make it to MIT or Stanford go for ivies and then do graduate degrees at engineering-focused schools like CMU and GTech.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine going to CMU for a non-STEM degree.

They have one of the top two or three musical theater programs in the country. Nearly impossible to get into, and many alums working on Broadway. I was really surprised when I found that out - DD is obsessed with musical theater and was researching top schools for MT. She will probably study something else so not applying to CMU - not that she had a snowball's chance in hell of getting in!

Yes, if you aren't in the theatre world, you may not realize this. Close friend made it through the call back stage, which was a bid deal in itself.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Just being pre-med does NOT guarantee admission to the Med School.

No one said it does.

It's a reasonable drive OP and a lot of kids are "average" and they can get in there. No big surprise to me

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.

I went to Pitt and loved it. Oakland was demented when I went but nicer now. I would have been just as happy at Maryland but they did not have my major.

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine going to CMU for a non-STEM degree.

They have one of the top two or three musical theater programs in the country. Nearly impossible to get into, and many alums working on Broadway. I was really surprised when I found that out - DD is obsessed with musical theater and was researching top schools for MT. She will probably study something else so not applying to CMU - not that she had a snowball's chance in hell of getting in!

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

CMU has a very strong arts program as well - particularly theater. Not sure spending 70K on a theater degree is the best financial decision though.

They also have one of the top architecture schools - which is sort of STEM adjacent.

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.

Just being pre-med does NOT guarantee admission to the Med School.