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<li>Can a freshman keep a car there?</li>
<li>I plan to take the premed courses, as I would like to go to medical school. Are there any additional classes that I should take. Any that would help with the MCAT, or classes that people who attend Pitt would really recommend.<br></li>
<li>Getting involved in research and/or clinical type experiences.. any advice?</li>
<li>As far as the student body goes I gather that is really isn't too much of a party school and that people are nice, is this true?</li>
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<li><p>yeah, but it costs a lot (not like in university fees but just in paying someone for a spot)</p></li>
<li><p>You should take biochemistry it is expected. Otherwise take what you are interested in and don’t worry about it. If you tell me what you like i might have suggestions.</p></li>
<li><p>Generally just google search or looks at faculty pages and then email people. Be bold. I found both my research and my volunteering that way. Make sure you do something you think you will enjoy. </p></li>
<li><p>Plenty of people party, plenty of people are nice, plenty are both. I don’t know what to say. Just don’t worry about it and find people who like to do similar things to chill with.</p></li>
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<li><p>Yes. I know a few freshmen who have cars. Not sure where they keep them parked though.</p></li>
<li><p>A lot of premeds, aside from the prereqs, also take other upper level sciences like biochem and genetics.</p></li>
<li><p>Agreed with CuttingEdge on this.</p></li>
<li><p>Parties are there if you want them, avoidable if you don’t.</p></li>
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<li>Can a freshman keep a car there?</li>
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<p>Yes. It costs some absurd amount of money though. I think it was $765. It’s in the housing packet I believe.</p>
<ol>
<li>I plan to take the premed courses, as I would like to go to medical school. Are there any additional classes that I should take. Any that would help with the MCAT, or classes that people who attend Pitt would really recommend.</li>
</ol>
<p>You should take the classes people above me mentioned. </p>
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<li>Getting involved in research and/or clinical type experiences… any advice?</li>
</ol>
<p>There are a lot of research experiences available, but they aren’t posted around. You have to go to the departments and ask about them. However, there are A LOT.</p>
<ol>
<li>As far as the student body goes I gather that is really isn’t too much of a party school and that people are nice, is this true?</li>
</ol>
<p>There are actually a lot of parties that go on, but since there are other things to do since the whole city is accessible via bus, not EVERYONE parties. People are generally nice, but it’s Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>I live in Pittsburgh, parking in Oakland is a major pain in the butt. Parking permits are required everywhere for street parking and I’ve seen MANY cars ticketed and towed.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how it works,you might be able to get a parking permit without having a residence (having a street address) but I doubt it.</p>
<p>You might be able to find a private garage/lot but you’re gonna pay big money for it ($700-$1,000) per month.</p>
<p>Get a bus pass, that’s what all the students do.</p>
<p>My wife went to Pitt and enjoyed herself (besides for being mugged at gun point and multiple apartments being broken into). There are some parties around, but it’s not really a “party” school.</p>
<p>DO NOT BUY A BUS PASS! A Pitt ID already works as a bus pass. </p>
<p>Unfriendly Oakland says the WVU graduate with a heart of gold. Oakland is a great neighborhood. However, it’s still urban. It’s not like you’re going to school in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. Use common sense and you’ll be fine. I lived nine years in Oakland without incident, and it is much nicer today than it was when I lived there.</p>
<p>BigeastBeast, I was talking more about the students there. And, also, South Oakland is a small part of Pittsburgh. The people is Shadyside are very nice.</p>
<p>When I come to Pitt, I give credit where credit is due. It’s a good academic school and provides a good education. However, it is not a safe campus. Out of my wifes circle of friends, about 75% of them were either mugged (with a weapon), attacked, or had their houses broken into.</p>
<p>The Oakland area surrounding campus has a very high rate of burglaries, not even counting the amount of vehicles that are broken into - which is absurdly high.</p>
<p>The idea that Oakland is the nice, cozzy, family-oriented neighborhood that it was in the 50’s is a fairy tale. </p>
<p>You can walk off campus and be dead-set in the middle of the Hill District AKA The Hell District in a few blocks, nice huh?</p>
<p>If you stick with a group of friends you’re generally alright, but my wife was robbed at gun point walking home from the library at 10:00 p.m. (alone). A cousin of mine was robbed (again at gun point) while walking down Oakland Avenue at 11:30 p.m., accompanied by her boyfriend who was on the football team (big dude).</p>
<p>I have tons of these stories, they aren’t uncommon. What makes it worse is that Pitt completely ignores the issue and pushes it off to the city. Sure, it’s city property, but don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining. They are completely aware that the bulk of their student population resides in these areas and have shown very little concern or effort to improve the situation.</p>
<p>Pitt may brag about having a “safe campus”, but the definition of “campus” only includes dorms and other school owned property. If you walk a block away and get robbed - not their concern and they don’t include those numbers in their annual safety report.</p>
<p>Beggers and homeless like to hang out on 5th Ave by the “O”, along with all other sorts of vagrants. </p>
<p>The people who deny these problems are flat-earthers and die hard “yinzers” who refuse to accept the fact that their city is turning into a shanty town and cling to the Steelers/Penguins to retain any sort of relevance. </p>
<p>There isn’t one really nice, family style neighborhood left in the city limits anymore. Shadyside and Squirell Hill are the best you’re gonna get, but walk/drive a few blocks in either direction and you will find yourself in some pretty rough areas.</p>
<p>BTW, I worked as an investigator in Pittsburgh for a couple years and have seen it all in this town. If I was a parent I would strongly discourage my child from attending Pitt or Duquesne, there are lots of other schools out there that provide just as good education in a much safer environment.</p>
<p>P.S. WGMCP was correct, do not buy a buss pass, your student ID is accepted. I forgot they did that.</p>
<p>Yeah… judging at your name and your previous posts, I’m going to assume you’re just a ■■■■■. Nonetheless, I’ll entertain you, just for my own amusement.</p>
<p>In another topic, you put down philosophy (a major Pitt is extremely well-known for, and one that was specifically suggested more than once for philosophy) in favor of political science? Sorry, but they are both around the same level job-wise. Sounds like you go to a rival Big East school and have some childish reason to put down Pitt.</p>
<p>
True, the Hill District is nearby, although it’s not “a few blocks.” Pitt’s “campus” isn’t anywhere near the Hill District. The closest university building is probably Trees Hall, which is way out of the way to begin with, and is still a good 4-5 blocks from being a “bad area.” </p>
<p>The rest of campus is a good mile from the Hill. Look at Google Maps yourself. From the Cathedral (roughly the center of campus) to the Birmingham Bridge (a legitimately bad area) it’s over a mile. </p>
<p>You can’t “randomly wander” into some bad area. The Hill is either (fittingly) over a huge hill, or it’s down a stretch of highway. It’s pretty obvious where the area is starting to turn bad.</p>
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<p>The O is on Forbes Avenue. Which is kind of important considering that they are the two main streets in Oakland. Looks like you’ve been here lately. </p>
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<p>Completely anecdotal. I live in Pittsburgh and spent all of the past 1-1.5 years in Oakland. My friends include freshmen, upperclassmen, graduate students and faculty. I don’t know anyone who has been “mugged (with a weapon), attacked, or had their houses broken into.”</p>
<p>It’s a city folks, don’t walk down a dark street at 2am and expect to not have trouble. That said, I’ve walked around countless times late at night and had no problems, but I kept to the main streets.</p>
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<p>If you had any credibility, you just lost the rest of it. Please, do tell me what struggling rival town of Pittsburgh you’re from. Pittsburgh is in the best shape it’s ever been since steel/coal times.</p>
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<p>Again, a few blocks? Please. You’ve spent a few years here (with a chip on your shoulder); I’ve spent my life here. There are numerous safe, affordable neighborhoods. Are there bad areas? Sure. It is a city, in case you forgot. </p>
<p>Also, you’ve forgotten North Oakland, Regent Square, Bloomfield, North Shore, the Strip District, to name a few. All great areas. </p>
<p>I don’t appreciate you spreading blatant lies about a school (and town) that you obviously hold some grudge against.</p>
<p>EDIT:
BIGeastBEAST on the entire field of philosophy:</p>
<p>"I could take a dump in a box and call it philosophy. "What’s that s** doing in that box?“, 'Oh, that’s just my philosophy.” *</p>
<p>Oakland is safe. BEBeast is a WVU ■■■■■ and has exposed the fact he knows absolutely nothing about Oakland, the area surrounding the universities, or how Pitt handles safety issues. Like I said, nine years in Oakland, no one I knew during that time had any safety issues. Zero. Absolutely Zero.</p>
<p>WGMcp101 is a flat-earther. Typical yinzer who can’t see the city for what it is - depressed.</p>
<p>As I said, I worked as an Investigator in Pittsburgh, I’ve seen it all - believe what you want, just don’t let the fact get in the way, lol.</p>
<p>Like I said, Pitt is a good school that gives a good education, I have no axe to grind with it, it has good points and negative ones.</p>
<p>Anyone who doesn’t acknowledge that safety is an issue in the area is living with their head in the sand (or somewhere else).</p>
<p>The negative one is safety - big time. It’s located (as another poster mentioned) only a few blocks from one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Western Pennsylvania, and there isn’t some magical wall that seperates the campus from the Hell District, it is what it is.</p>
<p>As a school Pitt has alot to offer academically, as a city Pittsburgh is in the toilet. A high unemployment rate, shrinking tax base, and an city population that is mostly a tax-recipient economy.</p>
<p>The area around Pitt is not safe. You could go years without an incident or you could walk out side and get mugged your first week there, you can’t predict it.</p>
<p>These things CAN happen anywhere, but THEY DO HAPPEN at Pitt much more frequently. As I said, the administration ignores the problem, because, well…it’s not their problem. If a student get’s robbed at gun-point a few blocks off campus - it’s off campus, let the police deal with it. Their campus safety numbers are a joke, if you include crime committed within three blocks in each direction their numbers would increase 10 fold.</p>
<p>Smoke and Mirrors - pay no attention to the man behind the curtain…it’s safe, it’s safe = joke.</p>
<p>The LIE is perpetrated by peope like WGMCP and padem, who can’t allow themselves to admit that the school needs improvement - hey, once a yinzer, always a yinzer, right?</p>
<p>When you are walking to class homeless people are following you down the block begging for money (btw, does the phrase “got any change, change” mean anything to you?) you can thank Pitt for how well they handle their safety issues.</p>
<p>WGMCP says he’s lived there for 9 years and ZERO safety issues - well maybe he forgot about the 2 kids who got stabbed outside of Hemmingways a couple years ago or the 3 basketball players who got shot at Duq a couple years back (same sort of campus), or any of the DOZENS of homes that have been broken into.</p>
<p>I’ve never had homeless people follow me while I’m walking to class begging for money. I think the only time anything close to that has happened was when I was in the pharmacy and a lady came up to me asking for a dollar… and I don’t think she was begging, she was probably just short on cash to pay for something. </p>
<p>And I have not yet been mugged nor know anyone who has been mugged. I think BigEastBeast is a ■■■■■, because anyone who tries to write something that sensationally is trying to stir up a reaction rather than give you the facts.</p>
<p>I live outside of Pittsburgh (suburb) and I think the truth falls somewhere in between the opinions expressed by BIGeastBEAST and the Pitt students.</p>
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<li><p>One side of Pitt’s campus is only a couple of blocks from the Hill District which is an economically challenged high crime area. If you walk into that area your chances of becoming a victim will increase significantly. However, you would have to be blind and stupid to not be aware that you were walking into a tough neighborhood.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes - most of the crime that is experienced by Pitt students does occur off campus. I don’t think that it is common, but Pitt is located in an urban area and there is crime. Whether Pitt’s administration should include off campus crime in it’s safety stats is a matter of opinion, but I doubt they are any different than other urban campuses in that regard (not counting off-campus crime stats).</p></li>
<li><p>My wife went to Pitt in the late 70s and never experienced a crime. My nephew and niece are both current Pitt students (one a senior and the other a sophomore) and neither have ever experienced a crime… living on campus.</p></li>
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<p>4, My daughter will be attending Pitt as a freshman in the Fall and I would not consider allowing her to go somewhere that I thought she wasn’t going to be safe.</p>
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<li>The city of Pittsburgh has some problems. Compared to other major cities though the overall crime rate is not very high and is limited to only a few pockets of the city. Yes - one of them is only a few blocks from Pitt, but it isn’t as though the City of Pittsburgh Police department and Pitt Police are not aware of them and diligently attempting to protect the students. UPMC is one of they cities largest employers. It is in everyone’s best interest that their employees, patients and students are kept safe on AND around the Pitt campus…IMHO.</li>
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