Pitt vs Penn State

<p>I was thinking of considering one of these, but I don’t know too much about either. Which school would be better for someone like me?</p>

<p>I don’t drink, I don’t care much (at all actually) for sports, I’ve lived huge cities all my life but I like a suburban atmosphere (e.g. hated NYU) and I’m not sure how rural life might suit me; I am an intl, I won’t have a car and I plan to stay on university housing for most of my undergrad years. Oh and I am undecided about my major but possibly psycholoy but definitely not medicine, hard science or engineering.</p>

<p>Smelly, are you still interested in both these schools, knowing that you’re likely to be paying full price for either one as an international?</p>

<p>^I’m still interested because I don’t know any place which would give me merit money and we won’t qualify for even a penny of financial aid and to be honest, we don’t really need it, altho it would be nice. Do u know any unis which do give merit money to intls?</p>

<p>If you don’t need financial aid, then you should just choose the school that is the best fit for you. </p>

<p>I thought that most schools wanted International students because they will pay the “full freight”.</p>

<p>Are you able to visit campuses?</p>

<p>

Pitt’s honors college has a different philosophy and is set up completely differently than Penn State’s. Pitt’s is more open and integrated with the rest of the university, allowing anyone to take advantage of their programs if they are motivated to do so. In any case, Pitt has been much more productive in helping to cultivate major fellowship and scholarship award winners, with three Rhodes Scholars in the last five years, along with scores of Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, Udall, etc.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Drinking and football are a huge part of Penn State’s culture (and this is evidenced by the correlating Princeton Review surveys). Sports and drinking are found at Pitt, but on average, they are not nearly as a big a part of college life, which probably has to do with being located in a city. </p>

<p>Penn State has a large, sprawling campus in a suburban/rural setting. State College is a nice college town, but geographically isolated. However, that setting may fit better for what you are looking for. Pitt’s campus is condensed and very urban, not as urban as NYU though, e.g. is has large lawns and is adjacent to a very large, wooded park.</p>

<p>Penn State has a larger percentage of undergraduate international students. Both schools have programs and clubs for international students.</p>

<p>You absolutely won’t need a car at Pitt, and are discourage from bringing one. Public transportation in the city is free for Pitt students, as are many of the city’s cultural amenities. You likely won’t need a car at PSU either, although I’m sure they are much more prevalent, being located in a much more spread-out and rural environment. </p>

<p>Campus housing is not unlimited at either school. At Pitt, is only guaranteed for two years, though they are building more housing to try to bump that up to three. Penn State doesn’t guarantee housing either. A higher percentage of students live off-campus at Penn State (64%) than do students at Pitt (55%).</p>

<p>Both Pitt and Penn State have good undergrad psychology programs. Penn State is better known in engineering and hard sciences. But if your interests drifts into fields within the sphere of psychology, like neuroscience, Pitt is the better place. It is much better known in neuroscience, psychiatry or any biosciences if that is the direction in which you are heading, as it is one of the largest centers for bioscience funding in the US (#5) and its psychiatry/psychology has been ranked among the top for published research impact (including #1 in 2002). The undergrad research opportunities in these areas are also better at Pitt.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Is this something new? My daughter, now a senior, got three years of guaranteed housing.</p>

<p>Actually, I think the two year guarantee is old. Undergraduate housing is currently guaranteed for three years at Pitt. Penn State only guarantees housing for freshmen students (and even then it gets tight).</p>

<p>I’ve never visited the Penn State campus, but I assume there’s lots of land to build on. Why aren’t there more dorms? Pitt has an urban campus, and raw land is at a premium, so I can understand that.</p>

<p>LNM - Good question. I have no idea why there aren’t more dorms at PSU.</p>

<p>Hard to answer for PSU. They must not think there is enough demand from students to warrant building new housing. It’s certainly not a problem with land or cost.</p>

<p>Pitt’s was at a three year guarantee, but dropped down to a two year guarantee this year. They added 50 beds to Lothrop Hall (renovated a floor previously filled with medical offices) and are building a new residence hall as part of the Bouquet Gardens complex with the intention of getting that back up to a three year guarantee. Demand for university housing just keeps increasing at Pitt, and admissions has apparently been underestimating the expected acceptance rate of those offered admissions, hence some students being put into the Wyndem Gardens hotel this year. Pitt is also eyeing a location for a dorm across the street from the Towers on a parking lot adjacent to Bellefield Presbyterian Church, although being located in the Schenley Farms National Historic District, I’m not sure how they’d build there. Personally, I think they should buy the old Schenley High School building and turn that into a classic college-style student community residence.</p>

<p>97% of Pitt freshman stay in university housing, up 7% from a decade ago despite 14.5% increase in undergrad enrollment. Not bad for a school that really didn’t have any student housing at all until 1956.</p>

<p>I’m glad Pitt is building something as part of Bouquet Gardens. Thanks for the info. I never understood why that development was so low-rise, lacking a taller building that would give the university more units of much-needed housing. I figured it was a zoning issue. How big will the new building be?</p>

<p>Answering my own question: 155 beds.</p>

<p>[Pitt</a> plans for $17.6m housing expansion by fall 2011](<a href=“http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10219/1078349-56.stm]Pitt”>http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10219/1078349-56.stm)</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Read more: [Pitt</a> plans for $17.6m housing expansion by fall 2011](<a href=“http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10219/1078349-56.stm#ixzz0wp4pe26E]Pitt”>http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10219/1078349-56.stm#ixzz0wp4pe26E)</p>

<p>Bouquet Gardens was designed to blend into the residential neighborhood of central/south Oakland and serve as a gradual transition between the neighborhood and institution, as opposed to plopping a giant institutional building right next the houses. In fact, Pitt made a couple of design changes to acquiesce to suggestions/demands of various neighborhood groups (and actually, the building they are starting is smaller than they originally would have liked). Dealing with the neighborhood for a space-starved institution like Pitt is a very tricky deal, and there is a lot of historical bad blood from the 1960-70s when Pitt became public…although that has been largely smoothed over in the last decade and a half.</p>

<p>I can see that. Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense. We here in NYC have seen similar battles concerning expansion plans of NYU and Columbia.</p>

<p>By the way, the Pitt housing website still states that incoming freshmen are guaranteed three years of on-campus housing. I don’t know where the assertion that the guarantee had been reduced to two years is coming from.
[Selection</a> Process](<a href=“http://www.pc.pitt.edu/housing/process.html#guarantees]Selection”>http://www.pc.pitt.edu/housing/process.html#guarantees)</p>

<p>QuietType</p>

<p>It came from a [this</a> Pitt News article from February](<a href=“http://pittnews.com/newsstory/university-approves-residence-hall-renovation-expansion/]this”>University approves residence hall renovation, expansion - The Pitt News). However, you are certainly correct in that the housing office website still lists a 3-year guarantee, and I’ve found [University</a> Times articles](<a href=“University Times | University of Pittsburgh | University of Pittsburgh”>University Times » $46 million in capital projects approved) that talk about the necessity of building the new housing to maintain that guarantee, so perhaps The Pitt News got it wrong, or that Pitt ended up avoiding having to reduce the guarantee, which is a great thing.</p>

<p>BTW, the other housing facility they are looking to build will have ~500 beds.</p>

<p>thanks a lot wgmcp101 </p>

<p>I’m curious, so is the pitt campus similar to Columbia/USC’s campus? And also, which one is better for English/humanities?</p>

<p>I’ve visited Columbia’s campus and I don’t think Pitt’s campus is similar despite both being urban. Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus is way smaller than Pitt’s main campus, probably about 1/5th the size, and it doesn’t have architecture that is as distinctive (though perhaps that’s just because Columbia doesn’t have any buildings like the Cathedral :P).</p>