<p>Which would be better for a freshman majoring in engineering?</p>
<p>From previous posts it seems that demand for honors housing is greater than supply so that might factor in.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pittsburgh/408820-forbes-hall.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pittsburgh/408820-forbes-hall.html</a></p>
<p>Son stayed in honors housing and met some nice people, but in retrospect wishes he stayed in the SPACE housing. To each his own, I guess! :)</p>
<p>There are several considerations here. First, when D was a freshman, honors housing was in Towers, so if she had an engrg analysis project say, and the rest of her "team" lived in SPACE, then it was no big deal to go to the other tower and work til 2 am and go back to her room w/o leaving the bldg essentially. As the parent of a girl, I personally wouldn't be comfortable knowing she was traipsing back to Forbes from Towers at 2 am alone. And those analysis projects are many and time consuming.</p>
<p>Second is that obviously SPACE is all engrs so you aren't going to meet too many people who aren't engrs, esplly since almost all your classes will be with engrs. Even tho' you take math and maybe english or something, the engrg schedule is pretty tight so they have sections of stuff like math (calc) reserved for the freshman engrs so it fits in. As a result most of the kids in your calc class will be engrs, even tho' it's in the math dept. So if you'd like to meet kids in other majors (my D did), then honors housing certainly helps facilitate that.</p>
<p>That said, D wound up meeting her closest friends in the honors physics class, which is the best thing ever. There is only one section of honors physics, so everyone and anyone is in it. As a result, her best friends are in all kinds of majors.</p>
<p>The kids D knew who lived in SPACE did form very close friendships from that experience and a lot of them went on to either campus suites or off campus apts together, so SPACE has its benefits too. I would suggest checking out the options with your campus tour if you visit before making a decision. I think you can (and should) apply for both and see what you get. A fair number of people don't get in the honors dorm, so the decision may get made for you.</p>
<p>SPACE sounds like a good choice. I can't remember exactly how it was said during our visit, but got the impression from the eng dept that students in SPACE seemed to acclimate/succeed percentage wise more than those not in it. Might as well go with the odds.</p>
<p>one of my best girlfriends is a chemE living in Forbes. there are so many other engineers here, she's never had a problem finding people to work on the analysis projects with that live right on our floor. i definitely think it's a lot more fun to live in Forbes with all the diverse interests we have.</p>
<p>oceangirl, Thanks for the info on Forbes. How are the honors activities outside of class?</p>
<p>You don't hear about the honors activities unless you live in Forbes. My D is in the Honors College, but does not live in honors housing and she never hears anything about the honors activities.</p>
<p>you're definitely right, it seems that honors kids outside of Forbes don't get too much info on the activities...I rarely see anyone else come in for stuff we do. I have to say though, we have so much fun with activities. I've done Free Zoo Day, Light Up Night downtown, the talent show, and went to most of the Stewart Cup activities. The Stewart Cup is a team competition with people from Forbes & Forbes-Craig competing for $2,000 prize. We've done all kinds of sports, games, puzzles, and more as part of the competition, and it's a lot of fun.</p>
<p>There is also an a cappela group, a music group and an Honors Community Health Club (which has quite a few members from outside Forbes too). There really is so much to do; I love it!</p>
<p>there is a big disparity at Pitt b/w honors kids and regular students. They like different things haha.</p>
<p>In terms of comfort, which is better? I've seen a Towers dorm, but I have never seem a Forbes dorm.</p>
<p>The rooms in Forbes are definitely larger than Towers. The honors program does foster a very nice living community with lots going on. All reports indicate that living in Towers is a blast but maybe can get too noisy? More kids, more activity= more noise. Towers gets the nod for convenient location but Forbes can't be called inconvenient. Our student has had a very positive experience in Forbes and will be living in Forbes-Craig next year. We both were looking for ways to make the large school smaller and this was the ticket.</p>
<p>hmm do you really have to write an essay to get into forbes hall?</p>
<p>You have to answer 2 questions to get into SPACE, 300-500 words in all.</p>
<p>You have to write an essay or answer questions to live in any of the living learning communities.</p>
<p>When do we know if we got into the freshman honors dorms or not? anyone know?</p>
<p>I believe in July</p>
<p>"Regarding Your SPACE Application at Pitt" email today that said app was being reviewed and Housing makes the final decision in early June. Is this good news, bad news, or no news? Any comments?</p>
<p>No news, it's just letting you know when you'll know.</p>
<p>Son got the same email today. The application said they would inform by May 26th if you were accepted into SPACE. I guess it takes time for housing to assign room/roommates so that info wouldn't arrive until June.</p>