Letter about Placement Testing and Registration during Honors Day vs Pitt Start...

<p>My son received a letter today saying that since he had paid the enrollment fee he could take his placement tests and meet with an advisor and do registration during Honors Day.</p>

<p>If he does this he does not need to attend a Pitt Start session in the summer.</p>

<p>Since we are in NY this would save us the expense of a third trip to Pitt.</p>

<p>My question is - are there any drawbacks to not attending Pitt Start and doing this during Honors Day? Will he be missing out on any social or orientation events that he might regret?</p>

<p>Thoughts would be appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>I seem to recall that during Pitt Start, the students could stay in the dorms overnight and they had several events for the students. Son enjoyed it but I don’t think he would have missed out on anything if he didn’t attend. If money is an issue, I would just register early and get it over with.</p>

<p>You have the advantage of registering early. Take it. There were kids I knew who went with the last PittStart session and there were hardly any good classes left for them to pick from.</p>

<p>I never saw most of the kids I met at my PittStart session again, if that means anything (they probably ended up having different classes/dorms).</p>

<p>I was accepted to the honors college and I am planning on going up to Pitt to visit on Honors Day on april 9th. I already enrolled too and I also was wondering if I could take any tests and get advising for next year’s classes on that day instead of coming up again in the summer. I know you said you received this information in a letter, but did you ask about this ahead of time? Also, who are you meeting with? - an Honors advisor, or the regular advisor?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>We had a conflict for the honors day, so only attended the PittStart. It seems as though there is plenty of repetition at the information sessions at Pitt. I am a good listener and read the Web site, so I don’t usually need to hear the same thing more than once. Ha.</p>

<p>The honors day may be better than PittStart because many of those kids may be opting for honors housing, so they will know people in the fall. </p>

<p>They also have some kind of weekend in the woods bonding program–the name escapes me (Pitt Oddessy?). My daughter attended that and ran into kids from her PittStart session. She is quite the introvert, so we were trying to get her to as many things as possible. It all worked.</p>

<p>I have to say I am very impressed with everyone I have spoken to at Pitt so far. I e-mail them about the Honors Day Registration - afraid there might be a conflict with my flight.</p>

<p>I got an e-mail and a phone call a couple of days later. they appreciated my input and thinking other students might have the same problem they are looking at revamping how they have set up the day to get people out to the airport earlier.</p>

<p>I don’t have a definite answer, but should by the end of the week. But the fact that they cared and are making the effort truly impressed me.</p>

<p>Just hoping DS still loves Pitt after our Honors Day visit!!!</p>

<p>I have been to Pitt/Pittsburgh six or seven times and every single person I have met or encountered has been nice. Not one rude person and many, many helpful people. Just Monday, DD needed a transcript for her summer program and she got it within five minutes of her request. I hope you have a wonderful visit.</p>

<p>I agree that you can safely skip PittStart if that option is offered to you. We did attend and enjoyed it. But as I remember (D is a junior now), Pitt has a wonderful and thorough freshman orientation that takes place in August right before school starts. And each dorm has mixer events so that the kids meet one another. So that should be enough of a “welcome to Pitt.” We stayed for a few days with our daughter and made use of the seminars for parents and took the opportunity to ease into the transition of leaving her there! (She’s an only child, as if you can’t tell! :))</p>