<p>Penn State U or U of Pittsburg?</p>
<p>which is better for pre-med students? and why?</p>
<p>You want Pitt, no question. The city of Pittsburgh is a hub of medical activity. UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical School) is one of the most respected med schools in the country, and that trickles down to undergraduate education. Pitt is very strong in all of the sciences. There are a ton of hospitals in the area where you can find an internship.</p>
<p>Thanks. but do you know why the Penn State U has the higher ranking? I mean is penn state more competitive than pitts or somethin?</p>
<p>Penn State is good for engineering and business and such.
Pitt is better in the humanities. </p>
<p>This is the usual distinction. </p>
<p>But I'll second Pttpnthr's comment. Pittsburg is a great city for anything medical.</p>
<p>Please don't follow those stupid US News rankings.</p>
<p>Yes, heaven forbid that anything objective might clog your thinking.</p>
<p>By the way, Pitt's med school is very highly ranked by US News (15th in research and 18th in primary care) while its undergraduate school is quite close to Penn State's (57th vs. 47th.) If you do very well at either you will have a good chance at med school admission.</p>
<p>Lol. If it were objective, I wouldn't have any problem with it. </p>
<p>Looking at the rankings... Pitt does outrank PSU in just about every category (including selectivity, money, and class size) except Peer Review. Looking at the methodology... Peer review asks college leaders to grade other colleges on a scale of 1-5 and counts for 25% of the total ranking. Since when did college leaders become experts on OTHER colleges? They are paid to improve THEIR college, not to evaluate others. Honestly, how well do you think the president of NYU knows the University of Arizona? Do you think Princeton's Dean of Admissions spends a lot of time around the faculty of Texas? Definitely not an objective ranking. </p>
<p>If you look at it, the schools that score the highest in peer review (outside of the elites) are just the biggest and most well-known jock schools. Michigan ties <em>Penn and Duke</em> with a 4.5 but Dartmouth a 4.4? Huh? Wisconsin a 4.2 but WUStL a 4.1? Texas a 4.1 but Emory a 4.0? Indiana, Purdue, PSU, and Minnesota a 3.8 but Tufts a 3.7? Arizona a 3.6 but Wake Forest a 3.5? Lehigh a 3.2, less than UMass, Oregon, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa State, and Virginia Tech? Utah at 3.2 outscores Pepperdine, at 3.1? Want to talk LACs? How about Smith over Haverford? Reed over W&L? Earlham, Pitzer, and St. Olaf over Lafayette? How about some school named "Gallaudet" over Bentley? Or two CUNY schools over Simmons? And don't think I'm just mad because my school scored poorly on the peer review. Pitt tied <em>Wake Forest and Case Western</em> and outscored Rochester.</p>
<p>Objective? Are you kidding me? And even with the "objective" stats, do you know how easy they are to manipulate? US News is absolute ********. Pick the college that is the best fit for you. That is how you will be happy and successful. Not by going with what some stupid ranking tells you.</p>
<p>This is simple: if you want to wear a blue and white sweatshirt for the rest of your life, go PSU. If you want to wear the BLACK AND GOLD OF THE WORLD CHAMPION PITTSBURGH STEELERS, go to Pitt (with an H, please). Pitt supposedly also has a football team.</p>
<p>How often does this conversation come up:</p>
<p>Interviewer: Ah, I see your alma mater placed 43rd in the US News Rankings the year you began attending.</p>
<p>You: Uh, yeah, I guess it did.</p>
<p>Interviewer: But the school across the state placed 36th.</p>
<p>You: Oh, it did? Cool.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Well, why didn't you attend there?</p>
<p>You: Well, I thought that State U was a better fit for me that the U of State. I really didn't pay attention to rankings when I was looking at colleges.</p>
<p>Interviewer: FIT?! We don't care about FIT, Mr. Smith. We here at ACME look at US News rankings, and rankings only. I'm sorry, but we are going in another direction. Sure, you got a 4.0 at State U, but Joe Smith got a 3.3 at U of State. We've obviously got to go with him.</p>
<p>You: But sir, that makes no sense.</p>
<p>Interviewer: His school ranked 36th and yours was 43rd. What's there not to get? He's ranked higher than you. If you go to the 29th ranked grad school and come back in two years, we will hire you. Good day.</p>