Campus in general + Honors Program

Hello fellow CC users. I am a rising senior. All you need to know about me is that I would consider myself competitive for some selective colleges eg Vanderbilt and perhaps some Ivy league schools (who knows though :/). Anyways, I am looking at Pitt in hopes that I might get a large merit scholarship. I was unable to take a tour of Pitt when I passed through Pennsylvania a few months ago and only recently found out about it.

My questions are:

  1. What is the campus vibe? Is it more of a big-city feel than traditional liberal arts?
    (If you could compare it to another similar college campus that would be great.)

  2. Is the honors program strong? How does it compare to other honors programs/other colleges in general?

Thank you!

With a 35 ACT and top rank (I peeked at your previous posts) your chances are good for at least 15K/year to full-tuition. There were many 35 ACTs this past admissions season who received 15K/year. There were a few who got full tuition. It’s hard to know what the exact secret sauce is for the higher awards since even a Valedictorian/35 ACT posted that they did not get full-tuition.

Pitt has a walkable urban feel. It is in the city but yet still has an actual campus and a nice big green space at the bottom of campus. I would call it “Boston Lite” as far as city feel—not as huge as Boston, but on a smaller scale it is comparable. Students get a free bus pass for the entire city and most say they use it a lot.

I can’t speak for the Honors program since D has yet to take her first class but she is taking one honors class.

Good luck!

D starts in the fall, so I’m no expert, but here is my take. Honors college is less structured than most places. You can take one or many honors classes, depends on interest and schedule. Honors typically more writing, smaller classes and somewhat harder. Departments have different rules on graduating with honors, not always tied to honors courses. This doesn’t make honors bad, just very different than most places.

Merit scholarships are tough, especially in ultra competitive schools like engineering. A little easier in Arts&Sciences. But full tuition is at least 35 ACT and near perfect grades. There are more $ available to upperclassmen for interships, etc, so if you are in a program where unpaid internships are the norm, this might be $3500 difference you don’t see up front, but could come your way. Plus Pitt stacks scholarships - Ds #2 choice took 1/2 of all outside scholarships to offset the offer they made.

Very friendly city. Folks are very helpful. We asked to meet with a professor and the Head of Dept. came in and spent an hour with us. So nice. And compared to all other schools we visited, this Dept. Head knew how to manage a program.

We saw a play on campus in winter and students were having fun and really engaged. Almost sold out, so lots of interest.

D loved Pitt.

thank you @carachel2. I actually got a 36 in my final sitting for the ACT, so would that help my chances by any significant amount, from what you know?

thank you very much @1art1science!

@ams355 --well I’m sure it won’t hurt!

Just know that there were several perfect scoring, top ranking students who got full tuition. And many who didn’t.

"I am out of state. I received a letter telling me I was nominated for Chancellor’s; I got a $20k yearly scholarship, as well.

GPA: 4.761
Rank: 1/389
ACT: 36
Major/school: Bioengineering, SSOE

Hope that helps. Let me know if I can help more "