I will say this about advising at any large university - don’t expect them to hold your hand. My S19 goes to a LAC and the advising is stellar. I told S22 not to expect the same experience. He needs to be on the ball and understand what he needs to do. If he has questions, we as parents are here to assist, because we want you graduating in 4 years!
My nephew would tell you advising at Penn State is horrid, but he didn’t do his part. Obviously, there are bad experiences, but to me it seems kids don’t take the initiative in many cases.
1 Like
We are deciding between Pitt honors and CWRU for psychology major , will pursue pre med
Any inputs anyone one has on pros and cons for either
Will it be easier to get better GPA at Pitt ?
@caz0743 You get an advisor in your major during sophomore year when you declare it. I agree freshman advising may not be the best, but students can take the initiative to get specific information. Each department has its own website with publicized advising hours you can seek out, in person or by Zoom. My daughter is a Bio website and has dropped in to talk to Bio advisors several times. Also, kids get tons of info online now, from Rate my Professor to Reddit, etc. There are ways to make informed choices.
My son didn’t declare his majors until entering junior year. He is a double major with a minor and a certificate. He does 100% of scheduling himself, just shows up for the advising appointments that are required. I work at another university and I KNOW advisement can be better.
My D22 just received acceptance into the Guarantee Physician Assistant Program!!
5 Likes
Ahhhhh!!! Congrats!!! My D18 got this her year!!! 1 of 5!! Congratulations!!
1 Like
I think it really is one of Pitt’s greatest weaknesses. My daughter has a generic advisor that while not terrible is not really helpful. This spring the advisor couldn’t even manage to find the correct course schedule my daughter needed to take for the dietetics program. She started telling her the courses she was taking weren’t correct. Thankfully my daughter had the correct recommended courses and could show it to the advisor. She meets on her own with the nutrition advisor. It really seems to be a waste of time and resources. I’ve heard horror stories from other parents. When we visited Penn State this fall for a younger sibling, I was much more impressed. The food science advisor is a faculty person whose only job is student advising for the entire department. It seems to be a much better method. Really wish Pitt would learn from other institutions.
2 Likes
Sounds like there is definite room for improvement. Not all kids are able to take the bull by the horns when they are young and learning this all for the first time. Its not intuitive naturally for everyone. I certainly wasnt organized like that.
1 Like
Son just accepted today at CMU Mellon College of Science. I guess he’s doing that instead of Pitt Honors? Is there anything I’m missing (other than price)?
My S19 had the same decision to make. He chose Pitt Honors which is costing us near nothing with his merit scholarship… but CMU was full pay $75K a year!
He is a rising senior and has had the most incredible experience at Pitt as a Neuroscience/Philosophy double major (Chem minor). His research is at the Med School and Children’s Hospital. CMU is known for grade deflation so he was concerned about that applying to med schools. He’s killing it with a 4.0 at Pitt… in a lot of honors courses, too.
My S19 will have zero debt from undergrad and med school.
You really need to explore his major and see if CMU is worth the ticket price versus Pitt. To us, it was not in the Mellon College of Science school. If it was CS… no doubt CMU would have been!
4 Likes
Thx for this. Our son did not receive any $$ from Pitt and we are out of state so while there is a price difference, it’s “only” $30k/year. Certainly still something but not as extreme as it could be.
Yes, grade deflation and how it might impact graduate or medical school is def a concern that he should consider. Thanks for bringing that up!
Sounds like he has had incredible opportunities at Pitt. Is your son by any chance in the GAP medical BS/MD program?
He was invited to apply to the MD GAP as a freshman applicant but he did not. He is going for MD/PhD and you could not do the GAP with this track.
He is also very open to leaving Pittsburgh as we are from here. 
2 Likes
Congrats to your son!
My D is thinking of accepting Pitt Honors admission. Does your son think joining Pitt Honors is benefiting him in general? Is it helping him with research or other opportunities?
He will tell you 100% no! He has found both of his research projects (which are amazing) on his own. One was through the First Year Experience in Research program in 2019 and the other project was a tip from a professor. Do not expect anyone in the Honors College to find a research project for you. As it exists today, the Pitt Honors College can give you information (on their website as well) about things such as the Fulbright Scholarship and Brackenridge money available to not just honors students but any Pitt student. The advisors are sub-par and probably not even in your major. Look at their bios on their website.
I can tell you with certainty that just “saying” you are in an Honors College sounds cool but at Pitt literally anyone can take enough Honors courses and graduate with some sort of honors distinction if they want to. Other colleges may have a completely different honors model. If your child is interested in writing a BPhil, this is probably the only benefit of being in the Honors College as they provide the opportunity… but you must still come up with the idea for the BPhil!
My son’s 3 roommates are consistently on the Deans list, amazing students and non of them applied to the HC… and one is the son of a pretty famous surgeon. As a rising senior my son will tell you he would have taken honors courses even if he was not “in” the Honors College.
1 Like
Sounds like your son formed an awesome friend group! Reminds me of my own undergrad years. Pitt has a lot of excellent students who are not in the HC but I also think there can be an intellectual benefit for some kids to be guaranteed to live and socialize with similarly focused / high achieving students, especially freshman year. There are pros and cons to that, but for my daughter she definitely considers it one of the selling points of Pitt Honors. As your son’s story shows, you can still find that outside of the HC — but one basically has to find something that is already baked into Sutherland.
She’s also planning to do the BPhil, so again, there’s something you could work your way into later but having it a ready option to start probably makes it easier.
1 Like
@akbsmd21 My freshman is in Honors and the number 1 advantage I see is priority registration. Honors students register before other students and she has always gotten all of her first choice classes. General registration is not until this week and I see parents posting online that the classes in their kids’ “shopping cart” show up as full before it’s their turn. I would think that is very stressful!
3 Likes
We are down to decision time, and I think it’s looking like S will end up at Pitt. I know he’s gonna be fine and will do great things and find his people, but I’m happy to hear any further reassurances from those familiar with Pitt.
He had said all along that he wanted a smaller college, but he is really taken with the urban Pittsburgh location and the exciting options for business students. (He wants to study international business, so the Pittsburgh location and study abroad opportunities are appealing.)
He’s a highly motivated student and has sought out diverse internships/volunteer experiences but he’s also super quiet and reserved. We feel like he’s been overlooked for opportunities/recognition in high school in favor of kids who are more extroverted and assertive. One of my concerns at Pitt is that he’ll kind of continue to blend in to the masses and that he’ll need to find a way to seek out internships and other opportunities (and they won’t just fall in his lap). He is in the honors program, which I think will help make by making a bigger school seem smaller and providing just a few more adults for him to connect with.
Any other words of advice I can share with him? Or general reassurances for me as mama bear?
It looks like it’s Pitt for my S22, as well. He wanted a not-too-big school in a city where he could study materials science but have the chance to explore some humanities courses, as well. He also wanted a good study abroad program that engineering students could participate in. Pitt checks all the boxes. He applied to a lot of reach schools (Rice, Northwestern, Wash U, CMU) and struck out, but he seems happy with PItt Honors. We’re going to the accepted student day on the 8th.
1 Like