Pitt vs. Boston U

<p>I'm going to be a political science major, and I want to become a lawyer. I want a lively campus with school spirit, but things to do near the campus, and maybe internship opportunities. I know both Boston and Pittsburgh are big college towns, and I like that. I also like an "at home" campus. Not in the middle of the streets. Like, to have a city around it, but have it be its own campus. I'm from outside of Philadelphia, and I don't want to go to a school like Temple or Penn. Let me know if you don't understand what I'm looking for in a campus. I've seen Pitt a little, but not BU. Where should I go?</p>

<p>I would say that both Pitt and BU have city campuses with streets running through them. Pitt’s campus is more compact with BU’s more stretched out lengthwise. Look for the campus maps on their websites, and you’ll get an idea. Neither have a lot of green space, but Pitt has more green than BU and also has a giant park next to it. But BU has the beautiful Charles River alongside it. It’s interesting, of all the schools you mention in your post, I would say Penn has more of a separate campus than the others.</p>

<p>hey - so a bunch of my best friends go to BU so I’m there almost every weekend, I applied to both pitt and BU and I decided on pitt for a few reasons. Though BU has a lot of spirit, they don’t have many sports except for basketball (and they aren’t really that good haha) and hockey. They don’t have a football team and those games are pretty big at pitt. Pitt is also a bit bigger, I’m not sure if you want a really large school, but if you do then that’s another plus for pitt. Both schools are organized similarly as in they’re both mostly organized around a central street (fifth for pitt and commonwealth for BU). As for your specific major I’m not sure which school would be better. Another huge factor is money (I don’t know if that’s an issue for your family) but BU is MUCH more expensive. For instate tuition for pitt in comparison to tuition to BU it would probably be minimally a 30 thousand difference. I know pitt is upping their tuition a little, but BU is 52,000 which is a lot of money. Hope this helps :)</p>

<p>Good posts above - you really need to visit BU and make a “feel” comparison as both are quite similiar. I felt BU has more bustle due to its proximity to Comm Ave and to me Pitt has more of a campus feel. My S is visiting both one more time to see which he likes the best. Pitt’s tuition is cheaper for us (even OOS) but not by a huge margin (about $5K/year because of scholarships). COL is higher at BU, both for room/board and living off-campus. I think both are quite similiar but you should consider what BU can offer you to justify the cost difference.</p>

<p>My DS also like both Pitt and BU - for us it came down to a mainly financial decision - Pitt gave him a lot more money than BU.</p>

<p>As to campuses - even though both are city-centric Pitt’s feels more campusy to me. Maybe because it seems to me that the Catherdral of Learning and the green space around it is a center/focal point. There really is not a similar feel to BU.</p>

<p>My son went to visit his friend in Boston one weekend, and when he came back I was afraid he was going to feel he made the wrong deicsion - but he was even happier with Pitt. One of the big reasons is the free public transportation in Pittsburgh - they do not have that in Boston.</p>

<p>thanks guys! I’m goin with Pitt over BU!</p>

<p>Congrats on becoming a Panther!</p>

<p>Son went to both campuses this past week and their admitted student days and chose Pitt. He felt they were pretty close academically but liked the city of Pittsburgh a little better, probably because everyone is quite friendly (unlike here in Maryland/DC) and it cost significantly less. I was sort of interesting that at the Pitt honors day event last Friday there was more than one person trying to compare Pitt and BU. One even asked Dean Husted about it during a Q&A session. Well, one more for Pitt.</p>