<p>Thanks, AwesomeOpposum! Thankfully my son did the essays and turned in LoR in June. He just sent in an Activity Resume after reading some of these posts. Aside from these things (and his transcript and test scores), I don’t think there’s anything else that he can send. Keeping our fingers crossed!</p>
<p>I will post in an Accepted Student forum but I wanted to say here that my son received his acceptance letter in the mail today with admission to the Honors College. The letter said that if he qualifies for any scholarships he’ll receive another letter from the scholarship committee at a later date. He’s happy!</p>
<p>I tried to search for this answer here as I’m sure this topic must have been covered already but I am having trouble finding answers. Is the Honors College worth it? Will it give you that much of a leg up on the competition when you are job hunting? I’m wondering if the payoff is worth the time/effort/stress put into it.</p>
<p>The honors college is not “exclusive” like many other colleges - basically it allows you to choose honors housing (you still apply for that separately but…cough, cough…you get it if you want it) and it allows you to take honors courses without getting special permission to (and having to prove a certain GPA to get permission). So, for example, my dd took honors organic chem - it was a much smaller section (like 32 students vs. 120 in a regular section) and the prof was great, but your GPA doesn’t get any kind of boost like it might have in HS for taking an honors section - and the work most likely will be harder and more in depth. As a UHC student, you can choose to take honors courses or you can choose to just take regular sections - there are no requirements to do either. So, don’t know what the “stress/time/effort” you mention is.</p>
<p>amandakayak: “stress/time/effort” = " and the work most likely will be harder and more in depth." Is it worth taking the harder courses that will require more time and work from you? You mentioned that there is not GPA boost. So, I’m asking what the ADVANTAGES of taking honors courses are. From what I’ve been reading it doesn’t seem to make much a difference to employers when hiring. Aside from one having a deeper knowledge than his peers in a given subject area, are there other advantages?</p>
<p>As someone who interviews students for full-time engineering positions, I will offer my opinion that it can make a difference if a student has Honors College on their resume. It depends on how the student took advantage of the opportunities of the Honors College.</p>
<p>If a student can expound on their experiences within the Honors College, it certainly is a plus and shows potential employers that the student is someone who is willing to go above and beyond the minimum requirements. Conversely, if a student earned admittance to the Honors Program and didn’t participate in any of the offerings, it would show a tendency to rest on their past successes and would be best left off a resume.</p>
<p>My first piece of advice to you and your student is to wait until you attend an accepted student presentation by the staff from the Honors College. They will explain things in great detail and you’ll most likely hear from Honors students that didn’t take one Honors class during their time at Pitt. But those same students utilized other areas of the Honors College to perform research, service projects, etc.</p>
<p>My son and I discussed the pros & cons of taking Honors classes after attending the presentation. He needs to apply to a pre-Physical Therapy undergrad program for his 3rd & 4th years. GPA is critical so I warned him not to get in over his head unless he has a passion for a specific course offering.</p>
<p>Going back to your original question: Is the Honors College at Pitt worth it? There really aren’t any downsides. And if you take advantage of even a few of the opportunities, you’ll have something to discuss in a 30-minute interview that just might be the thing to differentiate yourself from the crowd.</p>
<p>Fauster, that’s exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for! Thank you so much! </p>
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<p>Aside from a deeper knowledge, I know for me it was nice to be in “intro classes” (Physics 1, Chem 1, Engineering 1) which were MUCH smaller than the regular intro classes. Regular chem 1 can easily be 300-400 students, which can be overwhelming for your first semester of college. Instead, my UHC Chem 1 class was 120-ish students, and UHC Chem 2 (in the spring) was 48 students. It made it much easier to interact with classmates and the professor when learning (as you mentioned) more complicated, in-depth material.</p>
<p>Also for me, a majority of the regular classes that I would have been required to take my first year were material that had already been covered in my high school classes. By taking them again in college I would have essentially wasted a year of tuition on not learning any new material. Instead I was able to expand my knowledge, complete requirements, and meet other motivated students that I otherwise wouldn’t have. </p>
<p>And as others have said- being involved in the UHC goes beyond taking class. You can live and participate in the community as well- living in the freshman dorm or upperclassman housing, being involved in their clubs (literary clubs, book clubs, movie nights, etc.) or just going to events they host (Labor Day BBQ, Thanksgiving dinner, etc.) </p>
<p>AwesomeOpossum - Kudos to you and the information that you have provided. We just visited Pitt this weekend with my daughter who is a rising junior and Pitt seemed like a great fit. She is interested in pursuing engineering.</p>
<p>FWIU the honors Calculus is closer to real analysis with proofs than the General Calc. Is this true?</p>
<p>Also - was it your impression that when students left engineering, did they leave the school also or just change majors.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
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<p>Yes, UHC Calc 1/2 (fall/spring) is HEAVILY proof-dependent (i.e. homeworks are proofs, exams are proofs, proofs invade your dreams). I had credit for Calc 1/2 through my AP and so didn’t bother to take the UHC equivalents because I didn’t want to deal with proofs, instead I directly enrolled in Calc 3 when I got to Pitt. If proofs don’t scare you and you need to take Calc 1/2 and Calc 3, it’s a great course.</p>
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<p>Most students either switch departments sophomore/junior year (when they realize their original engineering track wasn’t for them) OR switch from SSOE into A&S. I knew of very few people who left the school- almost always this was due to financial reasons instead of not being a good fit.</p>
<p>@curiousinpa - also useful to stand out when looking for research opportunities - might have helped my dd secure a
long term position in UPMC.</p>
<p>How is Pitt’s reputation out west?</p>
<p>@wwsj123 It depends on what you mean by reputation and who you ask. If you ask someone on the street about Pitt, they will probably have never heard of it unless they follow college football or basketball. Even a manager hiring engineers will probably have no direct experience, ie current or former employees, from which to form an opinion. HOWEVER, it really won’t matter. They will know that Pitt is a reputable state university with an ABET accredited program in engineering and from there it will depend mainly on your classes, your GPA (especially in your major), and your activities. Furthermore, I would think that anyone in bioengineering would recognize Pitt’s strengths in that field.</p>
<p>I work for a large engineering research firm in the west (not in California). Most of the people I work with have PhD’s and a few have an MS as their highest degree. I know much more about where people got their graduate degrees because that is far more important. We have PhD’s from all over the country and a large majority are from state schools with well-known engineering programs in my field (not bioengineering) but also from MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Cornell etc. However, their undergraduate degrees are much more varied. Basically the undergraduate school really does not matter. However, we do pay attention to the undergraduate GPA even when hiring PhDs, although we may be unusual in that regard.</p>
<p>It is true that most people will get jobs in the vicinity of their college (especially if their terminal degree is a bachelors). At least in engineering at a state school, this probably has more to do with the fact that the majority are originally from that area and that most of the recruiting companies will be from that area. If you want to go out west, you will have to initiate more of the contacts with potential employers yourself. The only disadvantage you may have is that it would be more costly to fly you out for a western interview but I don’t think that would be a major hurdle with a larger company (and many of those will recruit nationally anyway).</p>
<p>If you want more information, I’m sure you can contact Pitt and get a list of companies that typically recruit there.</p>
<p>Is there any difference between Prestige Application vs very special invitation (Refer to below email content) </p>
<p>"I have a very special invitation for you …</p>
<p>You are invited to apply to the University of Pittsburgh with several exclusive benefits!</p>
<p>Because I am so interested in seeing you apply, you will be able to enjoy …</p>
<pre><code>An admission decision in just three weeks, once all completion materials are submitted
Priority scholarship consideration
Priority consideration for the University Honors College
Priority review for guaranteed admission to select graduate/professional programs"
</code></pre>
<p>@STEMFamily</p>
<p>Thanks! The goal is to move out to California. I’m 99% going to graduate school and if I do my goal is to go somewhere out West so I can settle there. I’m more concerned with how going to a state school like Pitt would affect grad admission as opposed to going somewhere ultra-prestigious like Rice or JHU.</p>
<p>@wwsjl23 I think your GPA, courses taken, and a professor recommendation will be far more important than the undergraduate school. Most of the people I work with who have PhD’s from well-regarded schools have their undergraduate degrees from state schools that would not be considered at all prestigious, just solid engineering programs and Pitt fits that just fine. The best thing to do besides getting good grades is get to know your professors and, even better, do research with a professor, so you will have a good recommendation.</p>
<p>And IMHO, the only school I would consider to be ultra-prestigious for engineering might be MIT but I don’t think even that is going to overcome lower grades or lack of a good recommendation.</p>
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<p>From the looks of it they appear to be the same (the 3 week turnaround makes me think it’s essentially a Prestige Application).</p>
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<p>As a side note (this is coming from someone in graduate school) I would not be 100% set on going to school in any particular region as an absolute cap. The important thing with graduate school is that you are paired with a good advisor/professor as well as a good project. Depending on the field you want to go into and research, the professors who are most well-regarded in those fields may be at universities not where you expect them (for instance, the top two American Professors (and some of the top world researchers) for the topic /field of my Masters are both Pitt Professors). Just because schools like Cal Tech and Stanford exist out west doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to be conducting your graduate research there.</p>
<p>Can you please share the Prestige Application email content?</p>
<p>Hey guys. Does anyone know how much the cross-registration program between Pitt and other schools of the PCHE program is? Thanks!</p>