Feedback on Indiana, Rutgers, Pitt

Parents Forum
1

<p>S has gottten the "fat envelope" from all 3-still waiting on some other schools, but nice to see that he has some good choices.</p>

<p>I would love feedback from parents who have information about any of these schools. We have already visited all 3 and he likes all 3. He wants to go back and do an overnight at some point (which may have to wait until Spring break in April). IU has an established overnight program, as does Pitt. The person I spoke to at Rutgers was not sure, but we know people there who have offered to host him in their dorm.</p>

<p>Any information on quality of life and academics would be appreciated. S is thinking of majoring in East Asian studies/East Asian Languages and cultures (different schools call this different things) and minoring in business. A good study abroad program is a must for S. We are on the East Coast. Rutgers is in-state for S-about an hour from home-Pitt is a quick and cheap plane ride on Southwest. We know of a couple of students at IU-it is a 2 hour flight plus a little over an hour's drive from Indianapolis airport, and they seem to have been able to get home whenever they wanted freshman year. Therefore, none seem to be a problem in terms of access.</p>

2

<p>D auditioned for music performance at Indiana a couple of years ago.Very nice facilities,very friendly students/faculty/staff.It was pretty easy to get to Bloomington even in the dead of winter,but the shuttle wasnt cheap.The boy we know from NY who attended there drove his car out after freshman year and then drove back and forth for the summers and winter break,about a 12 hr trip.
Your S may be interested in the fact that Bloomington has a Tibetan restaurant (we ate there..it was very good) and a Tibetan monestary (sorry I dont know if they are called that....).</p>

3

<p>S has an acceptance from IU, and I am an alum. I think the quality of life is really good at IU. There is the right mix of great academicis, good DI sports and lots of partying. I don't think my son will wind up there, but it would be fine with me if he did. My daughter was also accepted for music, and has lots of friends who DO attend IU. All are very happy. D chose another school, but says she would have been fine there.
My niece just spent a weekend at Pitt. She has been accepted there. She had a good time and likes the campus a lot. I don't think there is quite as much going on there as at Penn State, but Pitt seems to be a very popular option, especially for the stronger in-state kids who want something a little smaller than Penn State.<br>
I still feel that Rutgers loses too many kids on the weekends, although S's college counselor thinks it is a great choice for in-state kids.</p>

4

<p>Ethnic restaurant availability is another must for S-good to hear about the Tibetan restaurant! S is hard to quantify=as he puts it , he is "Abercrombie on the outside," and has pretty eclectic tastes-loves trying out different restaurants and is a real movie nut.
Like our good CC friend Carolyn, I have visited LOTS of schools with my 2 college apkicants in the last 3 years-guess I have to gear myself up for a couple of more road trips :)</p>

5

<p>Rutgers grad and 18 year Pittsburgh resident here. No help on IU, sorry.</p>

<p>Academics, I would rate Rutgers over Pitt for most programs. Also advantage from a $$ perspective for you since you are in state.</p>

<p>New Brunswick is not the best college town, but you are an hour bus trip from NYC.</p>

<p>Pittsburgh is a small town masquerading as a big city. People are nicer/friendlier than metro NYC, including New Brunswick. Lots of cultural variety on and off campus and food of just about every variety (although not sure on the Tibet thing...)</p>

6

<p>My son is a freshman music performance major at Indiana. He loves his classes and was happy to find that the college is very supportive of students, which is something he did not necessarily expect in such a large university. The dorms are fine, except noisy (but what dorms aren't?). There are several theme dorms, which makes it easier to meet kids with similar interests. My son has had no trouble making new friends. The food is not particularly good. However, there are LOTS of ethnic restaurants in the area, and prices are not bad at all. (We ate at a nice Greek restaurant while there, as well as a Chinese one, and there were a lot more.) There is a LOT of partying going on, according to my son. He found this to be a real distraction at first. However, without too much effort, he has managed to find friends who are not into parties and alcohol, which has helped him stay serious about studying.</p>

<p>I know IU does have a study abroad program, although I do not know the details. My son was most interested in the program in Austria which is geared toward music majors, but I know they have programs in other countries, as well.</p>

<p>My son has taken the Bloomington Shuttle to and from the Indianapolis airport several times. The cost is up to $25 one way now, but it picks students up right on campus, so it is very convenient.</p>

7

<p>Can't speak about Rutgers, but I was accepted to IU and Pitt as an undergraduate...</p>

<p>I personally chose Pitt over IU due to the area of the campus. I really wanted to be in a city, and IU was too far away from Indianapolis in my opinion...</p>

<p>Well, that stated, I know a lot more about opportunities at Pitt! Here are my opinions on your concerns as I know them...</p>

<p>Pitt has an excellent study-abroad program. They used to be the school that sponsored Semester at Sea, but dropped the program last year I believe. That aside, they do offer a lot of other opportunites, including the Nationality Room Scholarships for Summer Study Abroad. I was lucky enough to win one of these scholarships in 2003 for my summer field camp in Ireland. They are fairly competitive, depending on country of choice, and range in value from ~$1000 to $5000 and can be used for any aspect of your study abroad program/research. I personally knew two students who chose to study abroad East Asia. One was completed research in Mongolia and the other in China, they both spoke very highly of the opportunities and preparation they had for their programs.</p>

<p>The other program I would like to inform you about is the dual-business major at Pitt. I entered as an undergraduate interested in this program (but changed early on due to my dislike of economics, not the program) in which you can choose a dual major in both CAS and business. This is not a double major, but a dual major in which you can choose a primary major in CAS (East Asian Studies in your son's case) and have a secondary major with the same degree in the business school.</p>

<p>Transportation to and from Pittsburgh airport is fairly straight-forward (I never had to do it...but had lots of friends who had) and only includes a city bus ride from campus that is free with Pitt ID (may have changed...I graduated in '04) and takes about 45 min to an hour. My fiance says the schedule is a bit strange, but it is doable if you don't have a friend willing to drive you to the airport (which can be a pain to get to...though much easier since the tunnel construction is completed).</p>

<p>If money is a consideration, please understand that Pitt raises tuition by large increments each year. This may have changed last year, but I know it was becoming a bit crazy my junior and senior years with tuition increasing by over 10% each year. I never had problems dealing with the financial aid office though, they are pretty nice there and aren't a million hoops to jump through.</p>

<p>Please, don't hesitate if you have any questions about Pitt to PM me...I know quite a bit about Pittsburgh, stuff to do, where to live, what classes are like, etc. </p>

<p>Again, the reason I chose Pitt over IU was pretty much completely due to the fact I wanted to be in a city and secondarily because I visited IU on a pretty crappy weather weekend.</p>

8

<p><a href="http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=642&tid=64481700&sid=&style=2%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=642&tid=64481700&sid=&style=2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

9

<p>IU has the best basketball program, with Pitt second</p>

<p>Historically Pitt has the best football, followed by IU (at a distance), although Rutgers did have a winning season this year</p>

<p>The Rutgers football chant when I went to school was:
"We have better SAT scores!"</p>

10

<p>When I went to RU we had an undefeated football team. It was 196? something. Can't remember. We beat Columbia with Archie Roberts at RU and were nationally ranked.</p>

<p>BTW, RU is going to a bowl game this year to play Arizona State. Oy!</p>

11

<p>Tsdad,</p>

<p>The final game against Princeton happened during my tenure there. RU was stopping the series to become a "big time" program. Only took 25 years to get toa bowl game since.</p>

<p>Got a brother in Madison. Strange to see farmland within a city's limits.</p>

12

<p>One Friday evening this fall the whole west side of Madison smelled from manure. It was everywhere you went. UW has Tutor-style cattle barns that run right along University Avenue and it's possible that a manure truck was loading up. Someone also suggested that one of the local farmers had put the stuff out on his fields that day. It was gone by the next morning, thankfully.</p>

13

<p>Thanks for all the terrific replies (and the manure story!). Looks like we have people who can speak to all 3 schools, all of which have a long, proud history :) Funny, I was up in Princeton on Saturday and didn't see a cannon-could have been absconded to the banks of the Old Raritan?</p>

<p>I would be interested to hear if any of you have any feedback re: whether or not any of these schools tend toward the "suitcase" mold. I don't want S to be one of the few kids in the dorm over the weekend. His older sister goes to school 45 minutes away-she came home a lot her first year-now we don't see her nearly as much. She said that a lot of freshman went home on the weekend at her school.</p>

14

<p>Well twenty years ago Thursday was a big party night at Rutgers. Since it's a state school and not that large a state geographically many kids went home.</p>

<p>Anyone speak for the past two decades?</p>

15

<p>Although some of the students may do this at IU, my son hasn't mentioned this being a problem. He always seems to have kids to hang out with on weekends.</p>

16

<p>I never smelled manure in Madison unless I was in the barns or very close. That said, the smell from the Oscar Meyer plant could be nasty when the wind came out of the east.</p>

17

<p>bxian:</p>

<p>Pitt does have some students that go home a weekend here and there and there are some students that commute from home (very small minority). I never had a problem with my friends going home, we normally just went home for special occassions or breaks. Since Pitt is in the heart of Pittsburgh, you always have something to do, even in the summer!</p>

18

<p>IU has a great college-town feel and lovely campus. My daughter spend a summer there while in HS and really liked it; she probably would have gone there, but got lured away by the sirens of NYC. (No pun intended.) It has one of the finest music schools in the country, so there's no shortage of quality concerts and recitals.</p>

<p>Pitt, obviously, is a more urban campus. Its proximity to CMU (with a few smaller schools not far away) and the big Carnegie museum/auditorium/library complex make the Oakland area a good one for students.</p>

19

<p>Duquesne University is the other big school in Pittsburgh.</p>

20

<p>I wonder if any of you can comment on how easy (or tough) it is to get to your classes at these 3 campuses. I went to a LAC where you rolled out of bed and had no more than a 10 minute walk to class. I must admit that when we visited Rutgers and took the tour that they do using their bus system, the whole concept of the bus system was a huge turn-off for me. Is it possible to have classes that are all within walking distance at each of these schools?</p>