<p>Does anyone know how difficult it is to maintain a 3.0 for the scholarship? I have heard for some schools -- it is VERY difficult thus kids losing the scholarship. S will be heading into Engineering at Pitt and we can't afford the out-of-state tuition without the scholarship.</p>
<p>My son is in engineering and has found that the difficulty of the work is not really the issue for him. Rather, it is the relentless quantity of work. Engineering students with high gpa's don't really get to party as much as some other students. They get their share, for sure, but much time is spent on studying together and doing group projects. There are also weekly problem sets for many of the classes, which are collected and graded. The key thing, I think, is to stay on top of things on a daily basis. (He has 4.0 and all of his roommates and friends have over 3.0, so "no", I don't think it is all that difficult to keep scholarships).</p>
<p>We were wondering the same thing. LFK: Thanks for the answer.</p>
<p>Ditto here with engineering. The bio engrg kids seem to have the most work (volume), but that is after the first year when they all pretty much take the same stuff. There is a LOT of work in bioe. Time management skills are a must.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input!!! One other question: would you recommend the retaking of Intro chemistry, physics, Calculus BC at Pitt? S has received 4's and 5's on his AP exams on all those subjects but I have heard that the college courses are different and much harder.</p>
<p>S is planning on retaking them, probably as honors courses. Has anyone done that and regretted it?</p>
<p>Here is our thought on retaking them: if they are harder than the AP courses, then he will have a good foundation for the higher level courses. If they consists of what he has learned already, then it will be an easier intro into college courses. Does that reasoning make sense? And, yes he would take the honors courses.</p>
<p>That's our reasoning as well. I've read posts on other forums containing warnings not to skip calc courses because missed material makes it harder later on. When we brought up APing out of courses, the Pitt freshmen engineering staff said they like to talk to students personally to figure out what level they should take.</p>
<p>The engrg advisors are great. Usually what they recommend is what you should do, and they do make an effort to personalize their advice. Our D's hs only had Calc AB, she got a 5 on the AP test (and also did well on Pitt's placement test). She skipped Calc 1 and did just fine. Her only regret was not taking Calc Honors.</p>
<p>otoh, she repeated the physics, but as Physics Honors. This was a wise choice as her hs physics stunk. Also Physics Honors at Pitt is awesome and not to be missed.</p>
<p>Do they do the advising during PittStart? Another issue: the housing -- Forbes (honor) or SPACE in the Towers?</p>
<p>Son took all of the introductory sequence, even though he could have exempted them, and is glad he did. Some familiar material is welcome when there is sooo much to do and living adjustments to make. Also, there will be material not covered in high school.</p>
<p>Re: the Honors classes</p>
<p>Physics honors was great and totally worth the 5 days per week.</p>
<p>Computer programming honors is the top level of three and was recommended for those with fairly extensive experience. It's curriculum is completely different than the other two levels.</p>
<p>The engineering analysis honors class was good and not too much different than the regular class.</p>
<p>Calculus honors was regretted my some people. First of all, it is two courses packed into one and many kids did not do very well. Also, calc is taken in the math department and not the engineering school. This is a generalization, but many people have negative things to say about the math department. Finally, it is the policy of the math department that a student may not get more than one letter grade different than the grade they get on their final exam, and they stick to it. So even if you have an A or a B going into the final and you flunk the final, the very best you can get is a D. Maybe it depends how confident a student is in test taking.</p>
<p>So if they have never taken a computer programming course -- they should take the basic intro course instead of honors?</p>
<p>Maybe they changed some of the courses for freshmen engrs from year to year, but last year when D was a freshman, all she took was honors engrg analysis. She didn't take a separate computer programming course. There were only two options for analysis: regular and honors. In that class they learned matlab and other programming languages. The honors class compacted the programming work from two semesters into one (fall) and then spent the spring working on projects (hers rqd almost no work, so it meant a free semester time wise). She had no programming experience at all going in and did fine. </p>
<p>This may depend on the kid and how they have done on the various placement tests the engrg dept gives them at Pittstart. They also take some online placement tests in the spring before they get to Pittstart and then the advisors go over the results with them at Pittstart and make their recommendations. They are usually on the money with what they recommend, and they will err on the side of making the first semester easy 'cause they don't want you to do badly grade wise.</p>
<p>These comments are about the engrg school/advisors. The engrg school has a lot of tests/procedures (like the online placement tests) that are different from other depts at Pitt and seem to be more comprehensive and personal.</p>
<p>As far as the math classes go D did take regular Calc 2 first semester out of concern about that honors Calc1/2 combo class LKF mentioned above, and yes, some students who took it (honors combo) did complain a lot about it. As far as I could tell a lot of the complaints had to do with the fact that the honors combo calc relied heavily on proofs and the complaining students didn't like the proofs.</p>
<p>As it turned out D found regular Calc 2 too easy/boring and taught herself using the proofs in her book. Her advisor recommended honors Calc 3 for the spring, but she didn't do it for some reason and regretted it. She wound up teaching that to herself using proofs from the book also.</p>
<p>otoh, D's friend in bioe got an F in Calc 3 that spring and had to take it again over the summer (at Pitt). The friend got an A in the summer class and moved on to the next math this fall for bioe. So how you do in math at Pitt may depend on both the student and the teacher, and that may say something about math at Pitt, idk. We'll see how this semester works out.</p>
<p>Oh, I apologize for my faulty memory! I guess the engineering analysis WAS the same as the computer programming course. They used to have three course choices for Engineering Analysis: #011, #111, and #711. I think the #011 was the regular class, the #111 was designated as honors and the #711 was intended for those with extensive programming experience. (S took 011 first semester and had no trouble taking the 111 second semester - also 111 had a better teacher at that time). Honors Calc #235 was a compacted form of #220 and #230. And I am sure I am correct when I say that pretty much everyone loved the honors physics class #475 and #476 with Doc!</p>
<p>It has been a few years though, so things might be different today.</p>