<p>I admit to not knowing a lot about the business school (especially at the undergraduate level) but I know the graduate school is very well regarded (I think one of the top in the country for “value of school” or something) and I imagine that does carry down into the undergraduate level as well.</p>
<p>Usually, how many people are there in first year engineering classes? 60? 70? Does these number get smaller when we move up to take soph, junior and senior classes ?</p>
<p>Thanks for everything you’re doing here! You’re a huge reason as to why Pitt is now a front runner for me 
anyway, I’m not in UHC, and I was wondering if there’s any way I could increase my chances of being able to be in honors housing?</p>
<p>What is a typical weekend like at Pitt? (Don’t hold anything back, please.)</p>
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<p>Depends on the class. The UHC classes are smaller for freshman than the regular ones.</p>
<p>Regular Chem 1/2 are about 300-ish students I believe. However recitation (which is once a week) is generally limited to 20-30 students, max. As is the lab for Chem 2. </p>
<p>UHC Chem 1/2 varies. My year it was 120 for Chem 1 and 48 for Chem 2. But it’s definitely smaller.</p>
<p>Physics 1/2 is probably also about 300-ish students (maybe less?). UHC Physics 1/2 was about 60-70 the year I took it.</p>
<p>Engineering 1/2 is about 100-120 students a class? They may have pushed it down to about 80-90 per class because of the size of the rooms they use. UHC Engineering 1/2 was also about 80-ish students, so no difference there.</p>
<p>Calc 1/2 I never took at Pitt so I’m not sure of class size. Calc 3 was about 60 students for me. </p>
<p>And depending on the major, the classes can get significantly smaller. I was in MEMS (Mechanical Engineering/Materials Science) so out sophomore year we still had combined classes of about 60-70 students. Junior year we branched out and my Materials classes were no more than 20-25 students each.</p>
<p>And also electives can be small- I had classes of 7 in engineering for certain electives and labs. My arts & science electives could also be small- my Shakespeare class was maybe 25 students, my film class was maybe 30 students max. </p>
<p>But other departments are big in nature and they want big-everyone together-classes. ChemE comes to mind. They have these huge departmental “pillar classes” that everyone takes together every term so you’re guaranteed to be in a big 90-ish person class every semester. However, you really get to know your classmates well, so even being in a big room of 90, you’re gonna make a lot of good friends and study groups.</p>
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<p>Are you coming in as a freshman? The UHC freshman dorm is actually massive, and I know <em>in the past</em> they have had trouble filling it. If UHC housing really appeals to you just shoot the head of UHC housing (hhousing[at]Pitt[dot]edu) and ask for permission to apply into housing. Generally they will say yes and send you an application.</p>
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<p>Hahahaha. I’m laughing because I don’t have any exciting stories for you, which I think you’re expecting. A typical weekend at Pitt is <em>whatever you want it to be</em>. I emphasize this because I think people incorrectly assume Pitt is a huge party school. Here’s the deal- if you want to go out on Friday/Saturday you can easily find somewhere to go (either a frat house or a private house party, typically in South Oakland) but if you don’t want to do that there are a million and one other options that many people do.</p>
<p>One of my favorite “clubs” is called PittArts. They give you free or reduced tickets for loads of arts events in the city (opera, ballet, plays, tours of museums, glassblowing, ANYTHING) and a lot of times it’s free to:</p>
<p>–go to event
–get bussed there and back with the whole group (on a big yellow school bus)
–get lunch/dinner/food of some sort
–do the activity (if it’s something like glassblowing) or talk to a performer (for something like the opera/ballet)</p>
<p>I mean it’s generally something that easily would cost $100+ per person and it’s free! I was a huge fan of this and was going to an event at least once a week or every other week. I also liked exploring the other neighborhoods using the bus system (since you ride for free with your ID). My friends and I used to go to the movies a lot. I was also in a club sport so we had at least one weekend practice I had to go to.</p>
<p>I’m also a big homebody- I have no problem sleeping in, watching TV, baking something, and generally just hanging around being lazy on the weekend. It’s a good time for me to catch up on stuff, read a book, take a look at my homework (typical Sunday night), etc. </p>
<p>Also in general- there’s always some sort of club-sponsored activity happening on the weekend: guest speakers, movie showings, a dance, etc. You can always find something to do on campus that isn’t alcohol related.</p>
<p>I can’t emphasize the uniqueness of Pitt Arts and Pitt’s public transportation program enough. I’ve been at schools all over the country and I’ve yet to see anything at another school (except maybe neighboring Carnegie-Mellon) that offers the size and scope of opportunities combined with free city-wide access to public transportation. Considering the advantages of Pitt being located in a fairly major city (as opposed to a suburban or rural college town), I am personally unaware of similar opportunities existing elsewhere, at least in my experience.</p>
<p>If one doesn’t take advantage of this, they will be missing out on a very special part of their education.</p>
<p>Yes PittArts is very special. My son goes about once a week as well. He especially enjoys the Symphony where they may hear a talk by the conductor or one of the musicians and enjoy free dessert in addition to the concert.</p>
<p>Thanks Awesome Opossum and southeast mom. PittArts sounds like a great program! It’s good to know there are so many opportunities.</p>
<p>thanks for your input!</p>
<p>though i did get accepted to swanson but my sat score did not meet the requirement for UHC. it seems to me that UHC classes are far more smaller than the regular classes. would it feel akinda “out of place” or an “outsider” for not being im the UHC?</p>
<p>also do you know how many freshman engineering students are in UHC by chance?</p>
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<p>Not at all because the UHC is all about being a community, not being a physical building or something with concrete boundaries. However, be aware that the UHC classes are smaller because they are much, much harder than a typical course. For example, I took AP Chem in highschool and go a 4 on the exam and took UHC Chem 1 and UHC Chem 2 and very little material in the UHC Chem courses is something I had seen before in my AP Chem class in high school. The classes are much more in depth, theoretical, and cover a lot more material than a regular course. Be prepared for that when signing up for a course.</p>
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<p>Like I said, there’s no concrete number because the UHC is all about participation. However, about 85 or so freshman engineering students will take UHC classes their first year (Calc, Chem, Engineering, Physics being the options of the core curriculum) so you will see some familiar faces through all of those. As an example, I took UHC Chem, Physics, and Engineering my first year, but not Calc because I came in with credit for Calc I and II and instead of repeating those as a UHC course (with heavy emphasis on proofs, not my favorite thing at all) I just jumped straight into Calc 3 (and many “UHC” engineering students did the same).</p>
<p>AwesomeOpossum: You are in fact, ‘Awesome.’ However, I sure did not like the Possum’s I saw in Hobart, Tasmania:-) Thanks for spending your valuable time in providing detailed answers to so many questions! You are a blessing, and I hope readers of this forum, who actually go to Pitt or other schools, will help future readers like you do. Thanks.</p>
<p>My son has interest in BME or Mechanical and you already noted elsewhere that Pitt research opportunities may be compelling. </p>
<p>Question: Thanks for comparing Pitt and Purdue. Any thoughts on Pitt vs Penn state for engineering (we have not visited either schools; Peen is pretty rural and may be comparable to Purdue).</p>
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<p>I will be honest in that I don’t know a <em>lot</em> about the Engineering Program at PSU. Since I’m not from PA, it’s not a common school that I have friends (from high school) at. However, I do believe that PSU has limitations in its departments for the different engineering majors (i.e. must have a certain GPA to be allowed into X engineering type vs. Y engineering type, A engineering major only lets in 60 students per year, B engineering major takes 40, etc.). I have mentioned before that Pitt SSOE has no limitations for its students, which I always found nice- it allows for collaboration instead of competition.</p>
<p>In terms of opportunities, I personally think they’d be easier to have access to at Pitt, especially since we are in a “major city” compared to the “countryside” of PSU. We have Pittsburgh and the surrounding suburbs with some great co-op/internship companies (First Energy, Westinghouse, MSA, Siemens, Verizon, US Steel, Bettis/Bechtel all come to mind) with loads of industry connection right here in our building. This is in the form of professors who work full time, industry paying for classes to be taught, or collaborative research. That is a <em>major</em> advantage to students here who want to be involved. Plus if you do decide to do co-op, you can still stay in the area and take 1-2 night classes during your semester of “work” and attempt to graduate on time or get a minor/certificate that otherwise would have been hard to do.</p>
<p>If anyone else has input- please let us know! Especially someone who may have toured both schools or has a friend/friends at PSU Engineering!</p>
<p>As a side note, I will say this: I am IMMENSELY jealous of the PSU Nuclear Engineering department (full major, as opposed to the certificate here) since they have their own research reactor on campus! So cool!</p>
<p>…an unsecured nuclear reactor, as a 60 Minutes expose once pointed out. But Westinghouse’s world nuclear reactor division is based in Pittsburgh metro and I know they employ a lot of Pitt engineers.</p>
<p>PSU has some things Pitt will never have on campus such as a fission-based nuclear reactor and stock animal husbandry research facilities. Such are some advantages of being in a rural setting.</p>
<p>I’m a soon-to-be-junior and my lottery number is in the 2000s. How good of a chance do i have to get Bouquet Gardens?</p>
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<p>In your group of 4 the lowest number is in the 2000s? Are all 4 students juniors? There are only 172 apartments in Bouquet Gardens. Athletes get first pick, so let’s round down to roughly 160-165 apartments. All the juniors in groups of 4 who have a number better than you get to pick first. 160*4 students is 640 students who need a number better than yours. </p>
<p>I would say you have a small chance, but being that low might hurt your chances. It also depends on how many juniors decide to move off campus, go to Ruskin/another apartment, etc. It varies from year to year.</p>
<p>Hello, is it possible for a double major and then a minor to the side? And what are the pros and cons? I was thinking of doing a Neuroscience and Chemistry Double major, with a science education minor to the side. </p>
<p>I also hope to pursue graduate school, and ultimately end up a high school science teacher, so what would be the best path to take in Grad school? Will I still be able to tackle research opportunities?</p>
<p>I was recently accepted under the SSOE in Materials Science and Engineering, so what is the ease of switching majors before freshman year as well? (I am a senior in high school).</p>
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<p>The double major is fine because both are in A&S. However Neuro and Chem are big majors so you need to check with all the class requirements each major requires and see if it is feasible to finish both in a reasonable amount of time (whatever that may be for you, 4-5 years). Especially keep in mind that Chem requires Chem, OChem, and PChem with labs. And Neuro has many courses (not sure about labs) as well. The minor is easier to do because it probably requires much fewer classes- but again you need to see how they fit into the schedule. As an A&S student you will also have gen-ed requirements that will take up space (so if you want to do the double major + minor I recommend trying to come in with a lot of AP/outside credit that you can apply towards Pitt). </p>
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<p>I’m not a teacher or on a teaching track so I can’t tell you much, but I will say if you like the idea of research and teaching I’d recommend a Ph.D. (even if you’re teaching at the HS level). Some of my best HS Teachers were Ph.D.'s in their field (Bio, Chem, Physics) who <em>really</em> knew the material they were teaching and had a true passion for it. Plus the Ph.D. opens up the opportunity to teach at the collegiate level if you desire to do so, which a Master’s would not let you do.</p>
<p>As for the research- at the graduate level you would be able to if you get a research-based Master’s degree in a science field. If you are lucky, you can even have the Master’s paid for through a grant or research-fellowship. Definitely do not pay your own way through graduate school. It can be much more expensive than college with more responsibilities.</p>
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<p>Contact Admissions. Like, right away. Tell them you want to switch to A&S as a possible science major. You don’t declare for Engineering until March/April and A&S declare in sophomore year by the spring, so you have loads of time to decide on the majors within A&S. But talk to admissions ASAP. You want to make the switch before you sign up for the summer PittStart so that you can immediately sign up for A&S classes towards the degree instead of Engineering classes. It should be an easy switch as the requirements for SSOE admittance are stricter than A&S.</p>
<p>Hi AwesomeOpossum,</p>
<p>I applied for main Pitts however did not get in and was instead accepted into Bradford for nursing. I was wondering whether it is easy to transfer after two years, because I know Pitts is totally different than PSU, which I got in for nursing as well. I was leaning more towards Pitts because I wanted to be in an urban area, but Bradford does not offer that. So as of now I don’t know which school I should pick, because if transfer is easy than I guess I don’t mind being at Bradford for two years. Whether I can get into Pitts main later on matters a lot. (I’m from California btw)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>