<p>My daughter is thinking about applying for Forbes in the fall as an incoming freshman. However she is not positive if that is where she wants to leave next year. If she chooses to apply and is accepted [as it seems most people are], does she have to take the offer and live in Forbes, or can she choose to live somewhere else? Thanks!</p>
<p>bump… anyone</p>
<p>um about half are accepted. I am not sure about this at all because there was no question where i wanted to live. If i can remember i will ask lute next time i see him BUT i think once you apply if you are accepted they automatically take you off normal housing.</p>
<p>I am not sure though it was a year ago, i didn’t care, and it was fuzzy. It might be that i did send something back to accept the offer of honors housing and i don’t remember. </p>
<p>Sorry i couldn’t be more definite. If anyone who knows for sure wants to agree with/correct me feel free. </p>
<p>I really think that if you are considering honors housing you should probably do it. A lot of people waver because of steriotypes etc and like none of them are all that true and i know several people who regret deciding not to. Just me though :)</p>
<p>The housing contract includes a phone number to call Panther Central with housing questions. Maybe they could help, or direct you to someone else.</p>
<p>My daughter regretted moving into the global learning community thinking it would be academic in nature. The other seven girls in her suite want to stay together, but it wasn’t the right place for her. She did not feel as though she could study in her room at all. She will be in honors housing next year.</p>
<p>CuttingEdge could probably answer this better, but my impression is that for a student who is an academic, learning and school are first and the rest follows, honors housing is probably the best place. The first semester, my daughter took honors physics and honors chemistry and there was No One in her dorm (there probably was a student, but she was not aware of him/her) whom she could discuss those classes with. If you are taking the most difficult classes offered, it is great to have people nearby to bounce ideas and questions off of.</p>
<p>Honors housing may be good for some and not so great for others. My son lived there a few years ago and found it to be very clickish. Also, there were just as many “indescretions” as you would find in any college dorm.</p>
<p>It probably varies quite a bit based on the individual students and the staff in charge. To each his own. ;)</p>
<p>It is indeed cliquish at times and there are many indiscretions… just like everywhere else.</p>
<p>I don’t get the Forbes criticisms. Half the people seem to think that it is a bunch of nerdy kids who never do anything and the other half seems to be worried that it is (gasp) just like a normal dorm.</p>
<p>It is a normal dorm. The culture is similar to the school as a whole. People are a bit smarter/more interesting because it is a self selected group. But we are all still a bunch of a8 and 19 year olds living on our own the first time.</p>
<p>The best part is that it is smaller so you know a bigger % of people in the building but large enough so you don’t know close to everyone.</p>
<p>For those still debating, I don’t think it matters all that much. Your roommate will matter more than the dorm building. And even then… it’s what you make of it.</p>
<p>As far as meeting “smarter” or “more interesting” people in honors housing, I doubt that is true. There are plenty of brilliant students in regular housing every year. Additionally, I think it might be more intersting to meet people who are different from you. Maybe an academic would broaden his horizons to live with an athlete or a musician, or <em>gasp</em> even a hard working kid who is not honors college material.</p>
<p>Look, I shouldn’t have said more interesting. I should have said people I personally find more interesting. I know a bunch of music type people here, hard working people here who struggle in classes, my roommate comes home every night stoned or drunk or both and we get along fine. </p>
<p>Forbes is a cool place. There are cool people here. It is a good time and I would recommend it. That doesn’t take away from the other dorms on campus. I don’t know what it like to live there. </p>
<p>ifk725, I have no idea why the fact that a bunch of diverse but semi like minded people wanting to be in a dorm is suddenly something that is worth attacking with all these comments. I also don’t know why you think you know more of what it is like to live here than I do. Forbes is a cool place. I have no idea why you feel you need to attack a community that is important and cool to a lot of people and hurts no one by existing.</p>
<p>@alantill</p>
<p>When I got my ‘acceptance email’ to honors housing/Forbes back in '08, there was a blurb about my still having the choice to live elsewhere (they know people want to keep their options open… e.g. a lot of the engineering students also apply to live on the SPACE floors, many nursing students might also try to live in the nursing LLC, etc.).</p>
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<p>lol. you probably shouldn’t have said that, because freshmen are generally not old enough to drink and marijuana is illegal. not saying that that’s why it shouldn’t be mentioned, but there are parents on here who would be horrified at the idea of their kids being stoned and drunk or being around kids that are (even though things like these happen at nearly every college).</p>
<p>^^^
Things like these happen at nearly every high school. Ignoring reality doesn’t make it go away.</p>
<p>We parents have no idea that our kids do anything illegal or immoral, Shrizto. Just like we never did anything illegal or immoral. lol</p>
<p>Ok, lets be honest</p>
<p>In Oakland, Alcohol/Marijuana are basically legal. The police break up parties and watch drunk underage kids stream past and let everyone go without citations. I have never heard of someone who was not in a dorm get in trouble for Marijuana. When people do get trouble in dorms it is a slap on the wrist and a dumb class. Sure it is against the law but so is speeding 10 miles/hour over the speed limit. </p>
<p>Ignoring that reality to make people feel better is not going to make it go away. </p>
<p>Now, i feel like this will cause a mass of people to think that this is because Pitt is a party school. Fine, but then so is everywhere all my friends from high school went like Columbia, Dartmouth, Williams, etc etc etc</p>
<p>Forbes is just another dorm with a couple special things going on
The University of Pittsburgh is just another college with a couple special things going on</p>
<p>Does the location/ lack of dinning facility/ no exercise equipment of Forbes discourage anyone from living in the honors dorm? or is no big deal even when it gets cold and snowy?</p>
<p>well then, I guess if someone doesn’t want anything to do with marijuana/alcohol they should get a single. I’m not very aware of the Oakland drug/alcohol scene at all.</p>
<p>Cutting Edge, I certainly don’t mean to diminish the value of the Honors College living community. It is a great experience for many students. I guess I just have a problem with the fact that given the “openness” of the honors college participation, the housing is awarded as some sort of prize. That fact also leads to <em>some</em> residents as feeling superior as if they won something (which they sort of did), and <em>sometimes</em> resulting in a little bit of an exclusive feel. </p>
<p>The honors college and housing is a wonderful way to carve out a little niche within a big university. Like most things, though, it is not perfect in every respect.</p>
<p>I wish it wasn’t awarded as a “prize” as well, but it is hard because there is just not enough space in current UHC housing facilities. Plus you do want the kind of people who are interested in being in that kind of community (not ‘better’ people just the right people for this). I can’t think of a better way to do it off the top of my head. Otherwise the honors college is very much not a “prize” and there is not like list of people in it and people just participate if they want to .</p>
<p>I don’t hear that many people complain to much about the walk. All in all it doesn’t seem to be a big deal.</p>
<p>Forbes is not far from the Towers - just a few short blocks. </p>
<p>I have to wonder why Pitt has moved the honors housing several times. When my son lived there, it was in the Towers. (Then there was part of it in the quad and part in Forbes-Craig. Now it is in Forbes.) Now why couldn’t they make 5 or 6 floors be the “honors floors” instead of 4? Why do they continually select housing that is insufficient? Frankly, with the new buildings on the upper campus, I think they missed the boat by not getting a wing for the honors college. There are a bunch of newer living and learning communities there, and it would have been a good chance to gather everybody together in a single place. </p>
<p>Anyway, good luck to all! I hope it works out well for you!</p>
<p>I am trying to decide between applying for the Honors Housing in Forbes or SPACE Floors in Towers (ChemE is the plan). I have seen both a room in Towers and a room in Forbes and did like the actual living situation in Forbes a bit better. How easy is it to get from Forbes to any fitness facilities? Pitt doesn’t seem to have a defined rec. center as far as I know. How is forming study groups at Forbes? I can imagine I would be able to in SPACE floors, because I would be around people in the same classes. Are there lots of engineers in Forbes? What exactly did people mean by clickish as well? Is that by major, wing of the building, race, etc.? </p>
<p>Also, I am trying to decide between Univ. of Colorado at Boulder and Pitt, any opinions or important info helps!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>