<p>chronome, I cannot speak to the LD issues though I believe we did encounter an office of disability services somewhere. I will tell you we commented SEVERAL times that Pitt would be extremely challenging to someone with significant mobility issues. The hilliness is definitely part of it, we were huffing and puffing up some of them I’m embarrassed to say. Yet the shuttle buses we rode on all had wheelchair lifts. </p>
<p>LOTS of elevators in the cathedral and other tall buildings in a city campus. I’m sure there were ramps we just didn’t notice…ymmv.</p>
Definitely. There are handicap accessible dorm rooms in every dorm to my knowledge. Professors are really good about helping for students with learning disabilities and the like. I’ve heard (for example) that students with severe ADD can talk with professors to get extended time per assignment in order to be able to complete them. The buildings are also very handicap aware in terms of acceptability. </p>
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<p>I wouldn’t say a whole lot, but if you want to, it’s not uncommon. I spent a lot of time freshman year going downtown for various events (Theater, Ballet, Symphony, etc.) I didn’t explore much beyond that. But sophomore year I learned about the other neighborhoods. So I was going to Waterfront or Southside for movies and shopping, Squirrel Hill for groceries, and Shadyside for shopping and food. I still frequent those places a lot as a senior. Until this year, I took the bus (very easy), but now I have a car and drive. Most of the students do bus (and I still bus downtown since parking is a pain).</p>
<p>AO are you currently or have you ever been involved in Pitt Pathfinders? I was on campus this past weekend for “see yourself at pitt” and i thought their job seemed fun! Wondering what you have heard about it or what the process of becoming a pathfinder is? Is it considered work study?</p>
<p>The process is lengthy and difficult (as in, the jobs are very popular and hard to get). You can only apply to join once per semester (they open applications once per semester). It goes a bit like this:</p>
<p>–Download the application, fill it out and submit it
–If the Pathfinders like your application, you get an interview slot. People go CRAZY for interviews, some people will dress up business like, and others go Pitt-spirit crazy. Someone dressed up as the Cathedral of Learning once. It was to show their Pitt Pride.
–If the Pathfinders like your interview, you will begin training.
–At some point in training, you become confident that you can lead a tour on your own (either lower campus or upper campus). You have to create YOUR OWN tour which you then give to current Pathfinders who will judge you on your tour. (Mock tour, essentially).
–If you pass your tour, congratulations! You are a full grown Pathfinder. You can now sign up for slots and sessions to give tours to real groups!</p>
<p>You do get paid for each tour you do. I don’t know how much. Being a Pathfinder is not considered a form of work study.</p>
<p>Do you think you could speak on the benefits of honors housing? As an incoming freshman, I could apply to live in Sutherland honors housing. What is the honors housing like? Do you think it would be a benefit compared to living in the Towers or somewhere with the majority of the freshman class?</p>
<p>I absolutely always recommend honors housing (HH) for people who are eligible to take it. I think the environment in HH is so much better than any other dorm on campus. You’re going to be surrounded by a great, diverse group of kids. I think one of my favorite things about the diversity is that it’s in all forms: different ethnic backgrounds, people from different parts of the state/country (lots of OOS students), different majors. </p>
<p>The best part about being in HH is the sense of community you form. When I was in HH, I never locked my door to my room, or used my laptop lock (still unopened in its box). I used to leave my stuff all over the place and never worried about it. There’s a great amount of trust with all the residents where we take pride in where we live and love sharing and take care of each other. Although the new HH (Sutherland) is bigger than Forbes (which is where I lived), and there are more people, it’s still a very nice community.</p>
<p>I definitely think HH is better than living in Towers or somewhere else. The rooms are bigger/better for starts: you’re in suite style living with an actual lounge on each floor (Towers converted 2/3 of their lounges into bedrooms). You also have a nice big lounge on the first floor, a small convenience store, and the upper campus dining hall (Perch). </p>
<p>Also, like I said, the community is definitely better. You’re surrounded by lots of kids who actually care about academics (whether it be sciences, engineering, or humanities) so there’s always someone to sit in class with, study with, or get help from. And just because it’s all UHC kids doesn’t mean all they do is study. We go out, go downtown, have fun events in the building/lounges, and hang out too. </p>
<p>In Towers, you’ll be in a small pie-slice room. You share a common bathroom with the other 40 people on your floor. You have to wait forever for the elevator. Sometimes there’s a party-stigma associated with your tower (Tower B), which can be annoying and rough. Also lower campus tends be louder on weekend nights than upper (especially Towers Lobby).</p>
<p>Is the building where the freshman engineering floor in HH? I recall something called SPACE for freshman engineering majors which is 1 floor, but I’m not sure if it’s in HH. Did you find a lot of engineering majors in your building?</p>
<p>SPACE used to be 3-4 floors in Tower A, but they moved to Forbes Hall when HH moved to Sutherland. I’d actually recommend HH over SPACE because for your freshman year, you’re taking all generic classes (Chem, Physics, Calc, Electives) that everyone (not just engineering students) take with you. Plus, if you choose to take honors classes, a lot of the kids who take them tend to live in the HH as well. It seemed to me that most of the engineers I knew and hung out with freshman year were in the HH as well, although the ones that weren’t did live in SPACE.</p>
<p>I know that you just answered this question, but I just wanted to clear this up. If you pick Honors Housing over SPACE, or vice versa, you aren’t missing out on anything special? At a campus visit, one of the engineering representatives said that in SPACE it would be much easier to get help on homework and work on group projects. Honors Housing seems like a lot more fun, though. It’s a tough choice.</p>
<p>So I live in Maryland and just yesterday I met someone who attended Pitt and I loved the sound of it. So, I wanted to ask you what you think my chances are of getting in to Pitt and if you think I would receive scholarship aid.</p>
<p>4.56 GPA (all A’s)
All honors and AP classes
ranked 5 out of 500 students
President of SADD
all-county and all-met selection for state softball
NHS member
Interact member
likely captain of Varsity softball team
haven’t taken the SATs yet
and I will get a recommendation letter from a teacher who attended an Ivy League (although I don’t know how much of a difference that makes)</p>
<p>Yeah that engineering rep probably wasn’t a UHC student. Here’s the deal:</p>
<p>If you’re UHC, absolutely do the UHC housing. Many other UHC engineers will be there. This is awesome because either you’ll be taking the honors classes (chem, physics, engineering, calc) together, OR you’ll be taking the regular classes together, OR if you’re in regular and they’re in honors, they can help you! Win!</p>
<p>If you aren’t in UHC, I do recommend SPACE just because it’s a great way to meet other engineers outside of class and be able to easily get together to work on homework and what not (since every freshman engineer has basically the same schedule, you just pick whether or not you do honors, what math level to take, and your elective). </p>
<p>I actually found my non-UHC housing friends would come to Forbes Hall (when I was a freshman Forbes was UHC housing) to do work with us because it was better and more convenient than SPACE. Most of the engineers (not all, but most) who took honors classes freshman year also happened to live in the UHC housing.</p>
<p>It’s really quite welcoming. We have a Rainbow Alliance that meets every Thursday around 8:45-9:00pm and they hold a LOT of awesome events and what not: speakers, movie nights, game nights (which are THE BEST), dances, etc.</p>
<p>There’s also a few gay bars and clubs in the area/close by (not that an incoming freshman would have to think about that soon). But they’re there. I would definitely say Pitt is more LGBT friendly than some other schools, and our Rainbow Alliance Club really is fantastic. You should definitely check them out.</p>
<p>Are you a junior or a senior? I think junior because you haven’t taken SATs. </p>
<p>Anyways, do WELL on them. Aim for a 1550+ (I know it’s rough, but just aim for it!). Keep up your awesome GPA. Try to keep up with SADD and softball (good to have 2-3 activities that you are a leader in, so that’s good!). Apply EARLY (summer, September).</p>
<p>Where your teacher went to school doesn’t matter at all. What matters is your relationship with them. How long have they know you. How many classes have you had? It’s important to get rec letters from teachers that have taught you in your junior and senior years of high school. The classes should be advanced classes, and also aim for teachers that teach a subject you want to learn in college (Engineering: physics and math, Humanities: English and History, etc.)</p>
<p>Also, write an essay for your application. The more extra stuff your application has (rec letters, essay, resume), the more the scholarship committee can learn about you to evaluate you for a scholarship. </p>
<p>If you can keep up what you’ve been doing, I’d say you will definitely at least get the $10k OOS scholarship!</p>
<p>Alright, great! Thanks so much for your help.</p>
<p>Yes, I am a junior. I plan to take the SATs in January. The teacher I plan on getting one recommendation from has taught me AP US History (soph.), AP World History (junior), and next year will teach me AP European History. I have a great relationship with him and he has been helping me research schools and has promised me a wonderful recommendation letter. </p>
<p>Which brings me to a few other questions:
How many letters of recommendation should I get, and is it important to get one from a science or math teacher?
Should I continue on to AP French my senior year, even though I don’t plan on taking French in college?
Will Pitt look for me to take a full schedule my senior year, or will 5 or 6 classes be ok?</p>
<p>Sorry for all the questions, it’s just that no one in my family has gone to an actual university, most have just gone to community college, or no college at all. So, to say the least, I feel a bit confused about everything. Your insight has been very helpful to me already, especially since you went to Pitt, so thanks again! :)</p>