<p>I got into the Honors College, but I'm having misgivings about Honors Housing. </p>
<p>I'm worried that a lot of people there will be pretentious or arrogant, or that I will miss out on making friends with a greater variety of people. Currently, because of AP classes and such, I have had most of the same classes with the same people since I was 11 or 12 years old. College is a time for spreading out, and I'm worried that I might miss out on opportunities for expanding my social circle by housing with the honors college.</p>
<p>Do any current Pitt students have opinions on this?</p>
<p>Not a Pitt student, but I can tell you that the draw for Honors housing for my daughter is to be with students who are a little more serious or perhaps motivated. She really likes to learn and talk about it with like-minded students. One of the other draws is that it is not just for one major, so there should be a nice mix of interests. Some of the other threads talk about how arrogance is not tolerated too well at Pitt, and many students should be growing out of that stage by college.</p>
<p>Jamie: that was the question last year to my knowledge (a two-sided argument essay where you talk about elitism of honors housing vs. opportunities it allows).</p>
<p>And to em: no, the forbes kids are not pretentious, I said this somewhere else, but we just like to study a bit more than party (note: I didn’t say we dont have a life!) but seriously, it’s really REALLY nice in college to live with the group of kids that are in some of your classes, unlike High School your classes are huge & a good study group is essential, plus stress relieving.</p>
<p>Definitely reccomend applying to & living in Forbes, there are obviously tons of perks, but if you’re only worry is that the people are pretentious, then it’s not really something to be worried about :)</p>
<p>The only negative is that there is not enough honors housing to meet the demand of students in the honors college. I think this additional competition among honors college students is divisive and unnecessary. You all deserve to be in honors housing if you want to be.</p>
<p>Why is there continually this shortage? Why would Pitt not add a couple of extra floors (or w/e) if there is the demand? It makes me wonder if they intentionally create the shortage to impart some superiority to the honors housing.</p>
<p>IMHO, it is pretentious to have honors housing that students compete to join, over and beyond meeting criteria for the honors college. </p>
<p>Many students who are eligible for the honors college and have received generous scholarship offers are also considering offers from other honors colleges (Penn State, for example, offers guaranteed honors housing for all four years) and Ivies or Ivy level schools, and will ultimately consider accessibility of peers with similar interests and ambitions, and access to faculty mentors and rigorous classes (those not invited for CS interviews received a letter advising that honors courses are popular and space is limited, so best to sign up early) , more important than overall cost.</p>
<p>lkf: are you a current student or parent of one?? Anyways, I can tell you for SURE that of all the people who applied for Forbes Hall last year, only ONE PERSON did not get in. A few got waitlisted but only ONE didn’t get in (my RA told me this and the RAs work with Honor’s Housing…) My point is, there isn’t really a demand for honors housing…it’s got just enough space for all the people that want to be in it.</p>
<p>frazzled: do you really think <em>having</em> honors housing is pretentious? What about housing based by major (i.e. SPACE floors, business/prepharm parts of dorms). What about LLCs? I don’t think the housing opportunities are pretentious, just a slightly easier way for students to meet peers that they can associate with (whether it be through the honors college or their major).</p>
<p>Not all honors-eligible students want to live with other honors students. It just doesn’t appeal to everyone. I think the question this year is something like should honors housing be offered.</p>
<p>My daughter lived in Forbes as a freshmen in the fall of 2007. The word pretentious was never uttered. She just found a great group of like minded girls and a smaller group of guys to hang out with. She wanted to make sure that she was around students who did take their schoolwork seriously. I can tell you that many more than 1 person did not get into Forbes that year. Not sure if the thread still exists but there was quite the discussion the spring of 2007 about the availability of Forbes housing.</p>
<p>AwesomeOpossum, I am a parent of a student who is graduating. Four years ago, honors housing was in the Towers for freshmen and there was a shortage. When Amos Hall in the quad was remodeled, a floor of that was honors housing and it was inadequate. Furthermore, the upperclass housing was in the Forbes-Craig apartments and has never been enough. Perhaps there is less demand this year. But four years ago, I know of many students who wanted honors housing and deserved it, but could not get in.</p>
<p>Really, though, many honors students don’t want honors housing. (My son stayed in honors housing freshman year, but in retrospect, wishes he stayed in SPACE.) I am simply stating that it should be a perk of being in the honors college. Additiionally, I believe that Pitt should offer it for all four years if they want to compete with the likes of Schreyer at Penn State. There would be absolutely no reason to make it otherwise, unless they are trying to impart some elitism to it by making the honors students compete with eachother. And isn’t that contrary to the entire “community” idea?</p>
<p>lkf: I totally agree about offering honors housing all 4 years, I’m living in Forbes-Craig next year (probably not junior year though, since it’s mostly sophomores and I want to stay with friends/fellow classmates) but I wish other options were provided.</p>
<p>I know that for my year, Forbes Hall became exclusively freshman honors housing (past years had a floor of sophomores and 3 floors of freshman) I guess they understood the need for freshman to be in the honors housing which is why as opposed to other years only 1 person didn’t get in last year?</p>
<p>I know they are sticking to that policy though, so there are about 256 (I think that is the number, though it may be 257) spots availble for students for next year!</p>
<p>agreed, they really need more honors housing. if there had been a better option than forbes craig, i would have stayed in it all four years. it was a great experience my freshman year, and i really hated feeling so disconnected as a soph in ruskin, but forbes craig is so out of the way with no AC and really small rooms. get rid of forbes craig and find a new building altogether, make it more like penn state!</p>
<p>The only hint of ‘pretension’ I noticed this past year occurred during a rousing discussion of Freud within (one of?) the uhc’s book club(s) (Pizza and Prose)-this one kid was definitely ‘putting on airs…’ I think you’ll find that Forbesians/Forbesers/the freshies who reside in Forbes (or whatever you want to call them) are just regular kids. Honestly, you could consider the ‘honors dorm’ a microcosm of the whole student body-there’s thinking, drinking, smoking, hanging out, having fun, and the occasional ‘odd bird.’ Think of Forbes as a regular dorm that may have some perks (my room this year was huge in comparison to the one I’ll have this Fall!)</p>
<p>There is an air of pretension around the whole Honor’s College. To tell you the truth, it is the closest thing to a clique after the frats and sororities. Sure, some of the people are normal, but they never even try to make friends outside of the UHC housing, and participate in UHC events (no matter how lame) like they’d be condemned if they don’t. </p>
<p>The UHC has its perks, but try not to turn into an Honors Zombie. Forbes definitely has bigger rooms. Just don’t let the distance or anything else stop you from meeting other residence halls.</p>
<p>EDIT: That elitist question they asked is an example of the kind of subtle superiority complex a lot of the UHC has. I’m wondering if the reason so few people applied last year is because they wondered “Who do these people think they are??” when they read the essay question.</p>
<p>I think there is now more room for freshman because the sophomore were moved out. The year my daughter applied (two years ago), 135 freshmen who wanted Forbes didn’t get in.</p>
<p>But there were a lot less than 135 sophomores living in Forbes, and matriculation has skyrocketed since then. There has to be some reason that interest in the Honors Housing has dropped.</p>
<p>Another factor is that an SAT of 1350 used to be the cutoff, and now 1400 is. So fewer people qualify for the Honors College and therefore, honors housing.</p>
<p>1- I don’t think the honor’s college has a pretentious air? I think from the outside people seem to think it would, mainly because it’s “honors college” and you have to be priveledged to be in it (not really the case, as according to Doc, who doesn’t believe in the whole SAT cut off thing).</p>
<p>2- if you think the honors college is a clique, check out SPACE floors (my closest example). Also I feel clique is degrading. When i visit SPACE floors everyone is super friendly and part of a COMMUNITY. Not really a clique, i felt invited and welcomed, not at all like an outsider…? I know many people who visit forbes feel the same way</p>
<p>3- “some of the people are normal” <– ? So anyone with a high SAT score and a willingness to live with other intellectually minded people are automatically NOT normal? I personally take offense to that. i agree with whoever said there are one or two oddballs, but I personally think that most, if not all, of forbesians are NORMAL. Thank you very much</p>
<p>4- we make friends outside of UHC, a bunch of good friends of mine are through the theater department and clubs I am in. also “lame UHC events” please explain how a clipper dance cruise is lame. i’d love to hear it. Or perhaps you refer to the interesting and varied friday afternoon lectures? Free food? MESS events? really, I want to hear.</p>
<p>5- honors zombies? really now? really?</p>
<p>6- from people in the UHC i asked that didn’t apply to forbes, it’s because they were (in their own words) simply too lazy to write the essay. also some wanted to live on upper campus, or in towers to get the “towers experience”. I have never heard of someone not applying because they thought it was a pretentious question.</p>
<p>Anyways sorry for that long post but it made me really upset that you think you can judge us based on what knowledge of forbes? Did you live there this past year like I did? I can tell you I’m not alone in these feelings. </p>
<p>Again sorry for breaking down that quote, but I’m really upset someone would verbally bash Forbes/UHC this much, since it was one of my Pitt pull-factors. I just felt the need to defend what I know to be a great community.</p>
<p>I am also an “Honors College student” and have lived in Honors Housing once before. My main problem with it is that a lot of the Honors students treat it like it is a separate institution itself. Sure, it offers classes that are definitely worth taking, but you can’t really be “in” the Honors College. I think this makes a lot of kids insecure, so they have to participate in everything the Honors College offers and live in Honors Housing as often as they can. People move from Towers/Forbes Hall to Forbes-Craig with the same group of people and don’t expand their group of friends. Apparently even the Honors College itself takes this stance, since when I lived in Honors Housing some of my other Honors College friends didn’t receive some event emails (events that in now way required you to live in Honors Housing to participate in) because they didn’t live on the special floors.</p>
<p>The kind of pretension I was talking about is visible in this statement:</p>
<p>So anyone with a high SAT score and a willingness to live with other intellectually minded people are automatically NOT normal?</p>
<p>Let me tell you there are “intellectually minded” people all over Pitt’s campus, a lot not even in the Honors College (shock! how dare I say it?). This kind of naive attitutde, to believe that Forbes will be a magical place where everyone is truly hardworking, friendly, and superior, is what sparks debates about elitism and pretension of the Honors College, not jealousy.</p>
<p>I can understand, panther, where you might feel like the kids that are very connected to the UHC seem like they have an air of exclusivity. I think that is probably true of any group (sororities, sports groups, etc). </p>
<p>I guess I like to think that housing based on common interests or qualities provides a ready made group for incoming freshman and that makes transitions smoother. My son has already “met” other cc’ers and honors kids online and it probably helps him feel like there are many like-minded kids to get to know.</p>
<p>But I also think that most kids are going to meet many kids outside the Honors Housing by virtue of their other interests. I would feel sorry for any kids who limited themselves to just one group. So, I am sure, my son will make friends in Forbes, and in his micro lab, and and on the rugby team and with someone he sees at the sushi stand every day, etc.</p>
<p>I know that the Honors College and the special offerings and opportunities he will have access to is a big reason my son chose Pitt. For high achieving kids Pitt needs something to attract them away from the Ivies and top tier schools. I think the UHC has done a terrific job attracting some neat kids. Forbes is part of that. My son was worried that he would be missing out on the more intellectual atmosphere of Univ. of Chicago, but meeting some of the UHC kids has put those worries to rest.</p>