<p>LoveLife, after you take your SATs and get your scores, you can post in the Parents’ Forum and ask for help finding a college. As a first-generation college student, with hopefully good SAT scores, you might be in a position to get financial aid from private colleges. I’m a big Pitt booster, but you need to cast a wide net if you’re looking for scholarship money. To get help from the parents, you’ll also need to know approximately what your family’s finances are.</p>
<p>LurkNessMonster- Okay, thanks for the advice. My family is middle class and I don’t see myself receiving a significant amount of financial aid. My parents said they’d give me approx. $20,000 and the rest is all me, so I defnitely want to get some aid. My mom says she wants me to go to school where I want to go, and somehow we’ll figure out how to pay for it, so that’s reassuring. She’s always said that she would scrub toilets for me to get an education.</p>
<p>Do you live in the Pittsburgh area? I’ve only been up once, and that was last year for a playoff game, so I didn’t get to really see the city. Although, from what I saw, I basically fell in love with it.</p>
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<p>Are you looking to study in the humanities in college? If so, this is a great teacher to get recommendations from!</p>
<p>I usually sent 2-3 letters of recommendation. I was applying to Engineering, so one was a Chem teacher, and the other two were Latin and Theater/English. I wanted to show that I was a well rounded student, but also that I was particularly strong in the area that I wished to study.</p>
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<p>I think if you like French and are good at it, AP French would be helpful. If you get a 4 or a 5 on the AP, you can redeem it for college credit at a college you go to. I think Pitt requires at least 1 or 2 semesters of language for the School of A&S (someone back me up?) so having AP credit would mean you wouldn’t have to take a language class in college and would free you up for other opportunities.</p>
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<p>Pitt is looking for you to challenge yourself. So I would definitely recommend taking as full of a schedule as possible. If you have to have a study hall class, that’s fine, but I would really recommend not taking it easy senior year.</p>
<p>Actually, I plan on applying to the School of Nursing. My issue is, my biology teacher retired and my chemistry teacher was awful. Currently, I am in Zoology, so she would be only science teacher who I would even consider to ask. So, I think my math teachers would be the best option.</p>
<p>Next year, I plan on taking AP Lit, AP Calc, AP Bio, AP Euro, maybe AP French and honors Physics. So if I take those, it will be 7 classes. I truly do not want to take Physics, but it looks good on my transcript, so I feel it’s necessary.</p>
<p>Make sure you apply early for nursing! Pitt has a great program, one of the top in the country. If you search this thread, you’ll find quite a few posts about it. By the way, I don’t live in the Pittsburgh area. We’re New Yorkers. My daughter is a 2011 Pitt grad though, so we were there often enough! Are you in-state for Pitt? Best of luck.</p>
<p>Ahhh, New York! So jealous, I love New York! :)</p>
<p>But no, I actually live right outside of Baltimore, so a lot of my friends don’t understand why I’d want to go to school in Pittsburgh, considering our big rivalry in football. Haha. But I consider myself a little more mature than that and wouldn’t let something like that keep me from going to such a great school as Pitt.</p>
<p>Plus, there isn’t any school in Maryland that I like. University of Maryland is a great school, but the neighborhood is awful. There’s always something on the news about an incident.</p>
<p>Anyway, my mom is taking me up to Pittsburgh to visit in the spring and I am sooooo excited. How did your daughter like it?</p>
<p>LiveLife–we live north of Baltimore and my daughter loves Pitt. She did not want to saty in Maryland and got about equal merit offers from both Maryland and Pitt.</p>
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<p>If you could get your Calc, Bio, or Physics teacher to write you a rec, that would be best. Or your math teacher you have this year would be good too. For the Nursing program I definitely recommend at least ONE Science teacher for a recommendation.</p>
<p>I recommend keeping physics, you might not like it, but you’re right that it looks good on the transcript, and doing well in it will DEFINITELY help you.</p>
<p>I will look into it; I’m definitely planning another visit up to Pitt since I’ve been accepted plus I got a scholarship offer. Thanks for your help!</p>
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<p>I think that AwesomeOpposum is correct about a language requirement in Arts and Science though I am not sure about nursing. I do know that with four years of high school language, my daughter tested into Pitt’s fourth semester of the language she had taken in high school, which is as high as they will let you go. SOOOO, the advantage of continuing with your language class would be that it should help you if you end up at a university with a language requirement–or if you would change your mind about your major and have a language requirement later. If you take French your senior year, you will more likely remember more of it for any testing that is required.</p>
<p>Okay, that’s what I was thinking.</p>
<p>Also, my neighbor is a Nurse Practitioner, whom I’ve known since I was a baby. Would it be beneficial for me to get a rec from her as well?</p>
<p>Thanks! :)</p>
<p>LiveLife98 - we live in Ellicott City, MD and my S is a freshman at Pitt. Some of his observations: he loves Oakland and being within walking distance of many neighborhoods. He has gone downtown for First Night and a couple of Occupy events and has had no major bus problems. When he came back here he really missed being able to walk around a city. UMCP doesn’t really match up there. The weather will be a little more cloudy and rainy than in B’more but he doesn’t mind it all that much. The food is really good around campus too. Pitt has a top ranked nursing program and with all the hospitals right on and around campus, the opportunities are tremendous.</p>
<p>Oh wow, thanks for your input! Yeah I’m definitely sure that Pitt is my #1 choice. It’s located just far enough away from home where I will still be able to come home if need be. One of my relatives attended Pitt and described Pittsburgh as “the perfect entry-level city.” Probably because he lives in NYC now. I’m definitely in agreement with your S with how convenient it’d be to walk around the city, too!</p>
<p>Thanks for your help! :)</p>
<p>Southwest flies directly to Pittsburgh from BWI and if you plan ahead, you can get the $59 fare. I, however, have only managed that once.</p>
<p>Okay thanks MD Mom! 
When do you think the best time to visit the school would be? March?</p>
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<p>No. You want rec letters mostly in an academic setting. The fact that it’s a person who happens to be a neighbor and only really knows you on a personal level already would make a rec letter suspect (unless you do volunteer work or something with them). The nursing school is a highly competitive academic school, so you want to show them your academic skills. Get a bio/calc/physics/chem teacher to write a rec, it’ll look MUCH better.</p>
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<p>I visited Pitt during my HS spring break (early April I think), it was incredibly warm out, the campus was oddly empty (and I don’t remember why…) and our tour guide was wonderful. I recommend that you NOT visit from December to the end of February-- it’s brutal cold, grey, and just not a fun time to be walking around outside for the most part. March would be fine too, but avoid the first full week–Pitt is on spring break and you won’t get a good feel for the campus when it’s dead.</p>
<p>We visited for the first time in February. It was a cloudy, chilly day–just the kind of weather DD was looking for.</p>
<p>I got cards in the mail with info on admitted students days. </p>
<p>There is UHC admitted day on March 30 and ASD on March 31, Most conveniently placed events. </p>
<p>There are other dates as well.</p>
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<p>If you can make those, go. But really, just pick a day that you have the time to go out, tour the school, talk to a professor or two, and get a good feel for the place (take 2 days if you’re not from Pittsburgh or nearby).</p>
<p>I am nowhere near Pittsburgh, so this will be a multi day ordeal. there are other days, too. but I would rather go on an arranged day, IMO.</p>