Pitt Start 2014

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pittsburgh
1

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>Even though my S doesn't go to PittStart until June 16,with sessions beginning Monday, I thought I would start a thread to discuss PittStart and share impressions. </p>

<p>My S is in Dietrich school of arts and sciences, so both days are mandatory. This drives a few questions for me.</p>

<p>Is there enough to do to keep parents busy for two days?</p>

<p>Any sessions that are musts for parents? Conversely, did you attend any that were not worth the time?</p>

<p>Any outstanding restaurants or sites that you saw?</p>

<p>Did you do the nationality classrooms tour?</p>

<p>Academic / Advising questions.</p>

<p>My S intends to go pre-med with a neuroscience major. I assume the Pitt Start advisers see this all the time.
Do you get an adviser from your major or just from your college? He wants to take (or at least mumbles "yeah, that make sense" when I encourage him to seek them out) some/many honors classes. </p>

<p>Did you /your child get most of your/their requested classes?</p>

<p>Any other tips?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance. </p>

2

<p>@Dave_N , my co-worker and his son attended a PittStart session in May and gave me his favorable impressions. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the specifics well enough to answer your questions. I do remember that they finished with the advising session early in the afternoon on the second day and were able to head out of town well before rush hour traffic.</p>

<p>My son and I won’t be attending his session until July 14th - 15th so I look forward to your comments.</p>

3

<p>@Dave_N - I just came from Pittstart. So I am answering some of your questions. It was well-organized. My main suggestion for your child is to be ready with classes he wants to take if he wants the advising session to go smoothly. Mine was done in 10 minutes. It helped since we were able to leave for home quickly. I got 3 of the 4 classes I wanted. But the class I didnt get was GE so I substituted another GE class. Slots are randomly assigned so when it was my turn some of the classes were closed so I had to pick a different lab/recitation class.<br>
My parents got bored. Most of the sessions were repeats. They enjoyed the dinner on first night as they met other parents. As for restaurants, try Spice Islands if you like Asian food. </p>

4

<p>Go to Pamela’s! Loved their pancakes :slight_smile: It’s a Pitt thing, everyone knows about them. They only take cash though. </p>

<p>Pittstart was amazing for me, not so much my mom and sister (Haha they stayed in the hotel for a bit while I went with friends, then we met up for the sessions that we felt we should attend together). </p>

<p>I recommend going to the financial aid meeting together, seeing as there are things both you and your son need to do for that. Also make sure you go to the premed meeting! Though they basically told us “hey stay focused freshman year, get your bearings. Don’t lose track, you’re basically on your own the first year” ._. Lol I guess they’re right, freshman year is all prerequisites. </p>

<p>As for classes, I got everything I wanted! @illini1349‌ I have to disagree with you. Though I had my classes that I wanted picked out from the wishlist, the son should realize he won’t be taking all of them and he might even take a class not on the list. Haha my advisor told me straight up “maybe you don’t want to double major” :)) </p>

<p>You don’t get an advisor from your major until, I believe, junior year. This is because the student doesn’t actually declare their major till then. You don’t want to commit to something for life too early.</p>

<p>Now for the honors classes… Don’t push him to do it. Unless he genuinely enjoys the class, I advise not taking honors classes. This was said in the premed session as well. College classes are already hard, honors classes go into extreme depth. He shouldn’t take an honors class just to fluff his transcript- one honors class won’t be the deciding factor for med school (paraphrasing what the speaker said). Also many honors classes wouldn’t be a smart idea. If he’s going to take one, I suggest it ONLY being one. Again, only because they go sooo into depth.
He’ll be adjusting to college life, and the workload of college classes, many honors classes freshman year might/would definitely be too much. His advisor would talk him out of it anyway (They have to sign off on your classes before you can actually go to the computer lab and sign up for them).</p>

<p>As for general tips:</p>

<p>There’s an app that they’ll have you download. It has the student agenda and the parent agenda. I found it extremely helpful. Plus if you fill out the survey on there you get a free tshirt. </p>

<p>I opened up my PNC bank account while I was there, but that’s not necessary. The id card we get while there can also be used as a bank account card. I just chose to open a separate one because of the virtual wallet which is great for college students. (Has a spend, reserve, and growth account so you can really manage your money).</p>

<p>Don’t feel the need to stay with your son 24/7! I know I made tons of friends while there (literally tons). Don’t deprive him of that by keeping him attached to your hip. Hopefully he’ll be staying at the towers? That’s honestly where the socializing begins. </p>

<p>I hope I helped! message me if you have any other questions! I’m also majoring in neuroscience (and minoring in philosophy) on a premed track so hopefully I can help. </p>

5

<p>Here’s a hint my son passed on to me. Roommates for the overnight stay in the Towers are picked from the person in front of behind you when getting your ID picture taken. He ran into an acquaintance in line and they were paired together for the night.</p>

<p>The Parent Panel session was good although there wasn’t enough time for everyone’s questions to be answered. The panel started off answering common questions from the moderator then started taking questions from the parents until the session ended.</p>

<p>My son met with his adviser at 5:00 pm on Day 1 - luck of the draw. That will get us on the road earlier tomorrow.</p>

6

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<p>This is the only part I am going to disagree on you with. Many students (myself included) came from rigorous high schools which went in depth with material to begin with. Both semesters of freshman year I took 3 UHC courses out of my 5. I was fine. Many other students took 2-3 UHC courses per term as well. They were fine. If you, as a student, like the material and want to take the honors version, don’t let the advisor stop you because they think it would be too much. Only you know the workload you are capable of. And if 2-3 UHC courses is too much, you have the first two weeks of term to switch your schedule around and add/drop classes to your liking.</p>

<p>I really hate the discouragement of taking more than 1 honors course. If I hadn’t taken 3 (Engineering, Chem, Physics) I would have been extremely bored with my classes my first year. At least with the UHC classes I was able to learn new and interesting material instead of just rehashing the material I had already learned in high school.</p>

<p>Just wanted to throw that out there.</p>