<p>UPitt has very small engineering program (totally 2000 students undergraduate). Industrial engineering department at Tech has 1000 students in comparison. UPitt should not compare with school like Ga Tech. It is a school similar to UGA where large number of students are liberal art students while only selected numbers of student who major engineering or undergraduate business. By the way, Pittsburgh engineering has 82% male/female ratio. </p>
<p>So here is question for OP? If BME does not work out, what do you want to study next. If you want to study another engineering major (such as Industrial engineering) or undergraduate business, Ga Tech is the logical choice. If OP wants to study English or Art History, Pittsburgh is probably good choice. </p>
<p>Another option is go to West Virginia engineering in state. It is probably cheaper option. West Virginia rated 100s range in engineering. If OP does well, he/she can still go top graduate school or transfer after two years at West Virginia.</p>
<p>“Penn State is the flagship for state of Penn, can UPitt attract top students from the state?”</p>
<p>Compared to Penn State-main, Pitt-main’s freshman admission numbers are better for middle SATs (1720-2020 vs 1630-1940) and GPA (3.86 vs 3.55), so I guess “yes” is the answer to your question. Penn State-main also receives a portion of its upperclass students after they spend a year or two at one of its 19 branch campuses, which in some ways serves as a sort of feeder system. The difference in admission scores is even greater if the numbers are averaged across the entirety of both systems (Pitt has four regional campuses). Students of both universities receive the same university diplomas regardless of campus.</p>
<p>Pitt is extremely well regarded in most all med, bio and health-science fields, which is also the other half of bioengineering.</p>
<p>And to answer the question about scholarships, Pitt does award a nice amount of financial aid. It is 39th in US News’ best values ranking despite being the third highest sticker price in the nation for a “public” (PSU is the second highest and Temple is up there too; PA has poor subsidization of its major state-related research universities), and this is primarily made possible by Pitt’s approximately $2 billion endowment. However, its Chancellor’s Scholarship, likely equivalent to GT’s Presidential Scholarship, is extremely competitive. Chancellor Scholars have won Rhodes Scholarships at Pitt three of the last five years.</p>
<p>It does have a lot of serious students, but I’m not sure they care as much about learning as much as they care about working. I love to learn. But somehow I don’t connect learning and Georgia Tech together.</p>
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<p>Why you would ever turn down MIT is beyond me. I would never do that and I personally don’t know anyone who did that. Gatech likes to brag it is the MIT of the south but it certainly didn’t feel that way while I was there.</p>
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<p>Tech is NOT a personal school. Not quite sure why would say it is a private school- it’s the most bureaucratic place I’ve ever been to in my life.</p>
<p>jim, how’d you know the op lived in west virginia? that’s kind of creepy.</p>
<p>“jim, how’d you know the op lived in west virginia? that’s kind of creepy.” </p>
<p>What?!!! The OP posts his information in one of his older posts. It took two seconds to find it out. Since deadline is coming up, I just try to help him out.</p>
<p>“Why you would ever turn down MIT is beyond me. I would never do that and I personally don’t know anyone who did that. Gatech likes to brag it is the MIT of the south but it certainly didn’t feel that way while I was there.”</p>
<p>How about for costs (Hope is free for in state) while MIT costs fortune for middle class? How about students don’t like cold and want to live close to home? If you just do a quick search on some posters in GT forum, you would quickly find several of them turned down Ivy/MIT for Ga Tech. </p>
<p>“Tech is NOT a personal school. Not quite sure why would say it is a private school- it’s the most bureaucratic place I’ve ever been to in my life.”</p>
<p>Why you take second part of sentence and make comment on that? I know that you are not happy with Ga Tech, but come on.</p>
<p>“Ga Tech attract a lot of OOS/international student (close to 40%) so it has private school/national school feel and it is very rarely for public institution.”</p>
<p>Here is my comment. Most other public schools (including UGA) got 90+% from in state students. Ga Tech does not. It attract large OOS/international students. So its students makeup has private/national school feel.</p>
<p>If I were OP, I wouldn’t pay OOS for UPitt since you have West Virginia Honor College as cheaper option. I would only pick Ga Tech if you are very sure what you want to major. If you are not sure, I would suggest go to West Virginia Honor College and then transfer later. Also, if OP did well in undergraduate, there is no reason he can not get into good graduate school or transfer after two years. In general, I don’t like paying OOS tuition for state school. </p>
<p>OP, did you apply West Virginia Honor College at all?</p>
<p>Hey man I was exactly in your shoes a couple of days ago. I also was deciding between Pitt and GT for BME! I have decided to commit to GT though for many reasons: the BME program is slightly better (arguable, but it is neat that the major also works with Emory), the Co-op program looks very appealing and is definitely something to look into, the girl to guy ratio did not seem that big of a factor when I visited the campus (I saw plenty of good-looking girls), they also have division I sports, weather, and GT actually has a nice green campus to escape to.</p>
<p>OK guys I finally decided. At first I deposited to Pitt, but then I slept on it and today I’m changing my mind.</p>
<p>I’m going with Georgia Tech, and withdrawing from Pitt.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the help, if it wasn’t for the informative and comprehensive responses I got from everyone here, I wouldn’t have been able to make this decision. So for anyone who is going there, I hope to see you this summer.</p>
<p>In the end I thought GT is the better school and will help me more in the future when it comes to transfers and grad school applications. The only thing is I’m gonna miss snow and cold weather, but it’s no matter. :D</p>
<p>PS: I did apply for WV and got accepted into Honors. However, WVU is a division 3 school, its not even ranked and I dont believe it comes near GT or Pitt in anyway. Even though I would be going to WVU for free, I think its worth to pay more and go to a big city and get a better quality education and prestige.</p>
<p>Deniz…i’m so glad to hear you chose tech i ended up on this discussion board because i’m going to tech in the fall as a freshman too but i was intrigued by this thread because i live about 15 minutes from Pitt. a few of my best friends are going there and my dad went there and i’m REALLY familiar with the school. so i read this whole discussion and both schools are awesome but i think tech is better haha well congrats and maybe i’ll meet you in the fall!</p>
i ended up on this discussion board because i’m going to tech in the fall as a freshman too but i was intrigued by this thread because i live about 15 minutes from Pitt. a few of my best friends are going there and my dad went there and i’m REALLY familiar with the school. so i read this whole discussion and both schools are awesome but i think tech is better 
haha well congrats and maybe i’ll meet you in the fall!</p>