Does he like college towns? Always impressed with Michigan (I tend to love Big 10 schools) and always love Bama, great options! Pitt is very different from them both. I am not familiar with Rose-Hulman.
Daughter loves Pitt, the city, the pre-health options, and especially the BPhil program. But itās also the only school of 14 to which she applied where sheās received a decision. Itās also our state flagship so she knows a lot more about the school.
It will really come down to the strength of the program, the fit, and the money. I suspect there are many accepted into the honors college in the same boat, waiting to hear back from the March/April 1 RDs, since the honors college has such high standards. Iām interested to see the HC yield this year.
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We are OOS and daughter planning to come for psychology.
She currently got Rutgers Honor college, UIUC Honors, Ohio State Honors, Purdue honors and AU honors. She likes the campus of Pitt and the Honors college
She might pursue pre health so we are considering Pitt.
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Congrats on the very nice collection of acceptances and with honors!
My OOS S22 is thinking industrial engineering for a major. Pitt honors is in his top 4 right now. We are doing a flurry of admitted student day visits during his Spring break, last week of March. UMich, ASU honors, Pitt honors, and Mich. St. honors. With merit, COA at Pitt looks to be similar to UMich (in-state for us). We had a quick visit over the summer, and we all really liked the urban campus. I think Pitt honors has some advantages (in addition to the standard honors adv. I like the idea of the OCC and the flexibility of multiple ālevelsā of honors involvement), but need to learn more on these upcoming visits. I think S22 will do best in a more collaborative environment, vs. ultra-competitive. I am not sure how we will best assess this, but will try on our visits.
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He doesnāt seem to know what he wants or likes. Weāve been to Ann Arbor for various things over the years. Not a lot, but it doesnāt seem to have made a big impression on him. We are considering another trip to Alabama. We went when they were still on break in January, so seeing with students would be good. Rose-Hulman is tiny and somewhat isolated. But he went to a 2 week camp there and loved it.
Hi All,
My son has been accepted at Swanson for the BioEngineering program. WE just received the acceptance on the portal, but we donāt see any financial package. Do they send it later?
Do they also decide on merit based aid at the same time or do we need to apply separately?.. We will not qualify for any financial aid.
Would like to hear from fellow students/parentsā¦Thx!
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@Winky1 Gosh I wish I was as optimistic as you 
S19 is getting an excellent education at Pitt but to me the biggest negative is the ācampusā and the horrible and dangerous traffic on 5th and Forbes. I grew up in Pittsburgh, hung out in Oakland, went to a nearby college, and always considered it a rather unsafe area for traffic and crime. S19 witnessed the beautiful Pitt senior young lady who was hit and killed by the PAT bus his freshman year. He saw the entire tragic scene outside his dorm window. And this is not the only fatality on 5th and Forbes. Unfortunately, these streets are smack in the middle of everything at Pitt and students are forced to cross them multiple times a day. There has always been talk about putting some skywalks in but that seems to have little traction.
Negative#2 Advising-pretty terrible. Lots of turnover with advisors and you donāt get one in your major until junior year. So freshman year, you could be a STEM major and have an Anthropology advisor who tells you not to take chem1, bio1 and physics1 in one semester, then you get really behind and have to take classes over summer. This is what happened to S19. Terrible advice. She also left the advising department without informing her students.
Negative#3-Off campus housingāmost of the more affordable off-campus housing options close to Pitt are on pretty dumpy streets and are pretty dumpy, old houses. There are nice new buildings such as SkyVue but these are very pricy.
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For our son, he remains on the waitlist for honors at Pitt. He has received honors and substantial merit from two other private schools, making our OOS costs comparable. These schools, if ranking matters (not saying it does) are higher than Pitt. But he is interested in neuroscience (possibly pre-med) and Pittās program is internationally recognized. He loved the set up in Pittsburgh. And to be honest, having never been to Pittsburgh before, we all thought the city was just awesome! But it will be hard to choose Pitt for him with other definitive offers on the table. It would be different if he was not waitlisted for the Honors program. He is going to remain on the Honors waitlist even with a commitment elsewhere and play it out till the very end. Our thought is that once the play begins you have to see it through to the endā¦this way he will not wonder about what ifs in the future???
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My son is still undecided. He wants to be an engineer (civil or mechanical). Heās gotten into honors and some merit aid at Pitt, making it our least expensive choice. Heās waiting to hear from one school and (assuming he gets in) if they offer merit aid that could make them a contender. Of the other schools heās gotten in to his top choices are Case Western, WPI and RPI. He rows crew and has been recruited to row at WPI on their D3 team (everyone else is just a club sport) and he had a great conversation with that coach, loved the program. He really liked the school and students he met and it felt like the best fit. But, right now itās the most expensive and heās afraid that if he decides not to be an engineer then his choices are really limited. RPI gave great merit aid, but same problem if he changes out of engineering - plus he didnāt much care for Troy. Case is pretty high on his list. If it werenāt so much more expensive than Pitt would probably be #1. Strong engineering school, smaller size appeals to him, location appealed and, frankly, although they send way too many emails, theyāve done a better job of marketing to him. He knows exactly what their engineering program looks like, what the cool options are, how they support engineers with getting coops and future job placements. While some of that information is findable for Pitt, it hasnāt been easy and itās not as obvious. With Case itās been right in his face, with the school making it really clear how they can help support him to be successful at school and in the future.
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Good approach. And i think that there will be openings in honors, i really do.
@caz0743 , ive admitted i do love pitt. Im sorry your son witnessed that accident. Tragic. Fifth and Forbes to me are part ofcthe urbaness. Like high street at Ohio State. Shops, restaurants, and cars. You gotta like urban to like Pitt for sure.
I think of the older off campus homes the same as i do fifth and forbes, as part of the urban fabric of the area. I actually like seeing the older homes a row houses and being able to tell in the 1920ās-1960ās, these were turn of the century booming industrial urban neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. Hardly any garages because the middle class would have taken public transportation. Dan Marino, Andy Warhol, Bruno Sammartino grew up in South Oakland! Jeff Goldblum grew up in Squirrel Hill. Love it. Yes, I really am optimistic about this school! Genuinely
Advising sounded terrible foe your son! Thanks for sharing so we all know what to prep our kids to seek out. I cant imagine advising is that horrible across the board. But sounds like your son got a doozy!
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Squirrel Hill, Shadyside= nice. Historic, renovated homes elsewhere in Pittsburgh=nice.
Rundown, graffitied homes with safety bars in South Oakland=not nice.
Lol. Polar opposite takes 
But honestly, that is why college visits are so key. Different aspects of schools appeal to some and not to others. Some people notice things that others do not care about at all. Itās an interesting process that I like very much. D22 is 3rd kid to go to school in 6 years, so researching/visiting schools has become a hobby without me trying for it to be. And often times a great merit scholarship allows for a different perspective than if one was paying a higher price.
I continue to be impressed by the students who have committed to Pitt and who are weighing their options. When other possible schools in the running are shared on this thread, I am super impressed with the options and with the sifting through of info that people share.
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Thanks, everyone, for responding. This is all so helpful!
My son is also waiting on decisions from some T20 reach schools but knowing the chances of getting in are slim, we are starting to think more deeply about the options on the table.
I am from Pittsburgh and we live in NYC so to be honest, Oakland and the greater city of Pittsburgh area seem chill and easy to navigate to us (though I realize statistically it may not be as safe as NYC) and my son loves the urban campus and all the other things to do in Pittsburgh - Primantiās, Carnegie Museums, Warhol, Mt Washington, sports (go Steelers!), Schenley Park, etc.
Location and campus set-up is a plus for him. I guess itās all relative. I have seem some dumpy Oakland apartments but nothing like where I lived in Manhattan when I had my first job in the city making penniesā¦
Being in a different field myself, I donāt think I realized how strong Pitt was in the science/medical area before starting the college search. My son wants to be a bio major (possibly go on to med school but not sure) and also has a strong interest in the Classics (which heād like to do as a minor). Pitt seems like a great place for this course of study.
I do worry about some of the challenges that may be common of a larger public school as it relates to advising, getting ālost in the crowdā and getting into courses. I was imagining that being in honors would help mitigate those challenges but that may or may not actually be the case.
@caz0743 Thank you for sharing and I am so sorry that your child witnessed that accident. That would be traumatic for anyone, let alone a young college student. I would like to think that what your child experienced in advising is not common but this is exactly the type of thing Iām interested in knowing about and so appreciate your perspective.
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FWIW - I had four parents PM me, separately, about their advising experiences after I raised the question a few weeks ago. It was a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly. One issue with college forums is that parents can be (understandably) defensive about the school to which they are sending their child and loads of their money, and that tends to stifle some of the discussion.
I hope I am not stifling the discussion, because I do not mean to if I have come off that way.
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Not at all. The comment wasnāt directed at you or even at the Pitt threads, specifically. Itās just something Iāve noticed across many of the college-specific forums. Parents in those donāt seem to want to discuss the cons side of an applicantsā pros/cons list or tease out possible tradeoffs between programs. I find the feedback and comparisons more balanced (if less specific) when reading chance mes or the college visits threads.
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We need to book a hotel for an admitted student day. Any recommendations?
Yes. The Oaklander is new and higher end or Wyndham is more of a regular hotel. Both right across street from side of the Cathedral of Learning.
Thank you!
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