<p>In my essay i need to say that something is heavy, i was going to compare it to something at the school, such as a common statue or something along thoese lines....does anyone know a good example, that everyone would recognize? thankksss</p>
<p>The Cathedral of Learning is the tallest building on campus and the most visible landmark in the area.</p>
<p>yes the Cathedral of Learning is good. I love pitt.</p>
<p>The bronze panther statue?
<a href="http://www.pitt.edu/commencement/visitors/tour.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.pitt.edu/commencement/visitors/tour.html</a></p>
<p>Looking for comments on electrical engineering program. Are the engineering facilities up to date? Is there a clean room? Do profs encourage undergrad research? Do students go on to grad school? Anything?</p>
<p>momhippo,
Many undergrads do research along side the grad students. My son and all of his present and past roommates (and most of his friends as well) are doing undergrad research (MechE, CivE, Biochem, and Neuroscience) and planning on grad or med school. Pitt Engineering gave the best tour of any of the schools we visited, and the facilities seemed to be clean, up to date (as far as I know) and bustling with activity. I think that Pitt has a very good retention rate and I do think that they really care about the success of their engineering students.</p>
<p>lkf725,
We just came back from a terrible engineering tour at another university. It was so bad that it's off the list-- reinforced the importance of visiting. Arranging a visit to Pitt next. I've read before that Pitt profs seem to care about their engineering students. Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>Of the several tours they give, I think that the best ones were either the Honors College Day or the Day for Accepted Students. One of them had us break into small groups of about 10 to 15 people and we rotated through the labs, where each lab had somebody waiting for us to explain/demonstrate their work there. Very cool. Everything from chemical to civil to the auto racing team to biomechanics to the senior design lab. We went on another tour of a different college where a student led groups through halls of closed labs where we were told to peer through the windows and what sort of work would be done there if people were present. Not so impressive to a novice like me.</p>
<p>Good luck. If you don't get the big tour now, go on it later.</p>
<p>Ha, you almost described our last engineering tour at a big-10 college, except the ME lab was dark because the lights weren't on and we were told to look through a small window in the locked door to try to see the machines inside. It cost a lot of money for us to get that lousy engineering overview and tour. Live and learn. We'll be more cautious the next time we fly out to visit a college.</p>
<p>Haha, yeah I know. I think some places are more oriented towards giving a good undergrad experience than others. Also, I think some colleges just think they are all that special that they can treat you like crap and you will still be happy to pay to go there. :rolleyes: Maybe you should call and ask the freshman engineering office at Pitt which tour takes you through the labs so you don't waste your time.</p>
<p>What's on the upper campus? Where is engineering?</p>
<p>Benedum Hall is the engineering building. It is conveniently located O'Hara Street about a block up from the Towers.<br>
<a href="http://www.umc.pitt.edu/tour/tour-118.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.umc.pitt.edu/tour/tour-118.html</a></p>
<p>The upper campus has some newer dorms, frat houses, the Peterson Center, the VA Hospital and the medical-related schools (medicine, denistry, nursing, pharmacy).</p>
<p>My daughter's living in an upper campus dorm. Fabulous dorm, and there's the great work-out of walking up and down tons of steps to her classes! I can laugh, cuz I don't have to do it! She has several sophomore engineering friends who live there also (Pennsylvania Hall). </p>
<p>Ikf725, your comments about colleges that think they are all that special. . . reminds me of our tour up Forbes, at CMU a few years ago.</p>
<p>Honestly, engineering programs need to be doing everything they can to attract and keep students--a lousy tour would be the easiest thing for them to fix up!</p>
<p>chrisd: I got a chuckle when I saw your state because that's where our lousy engineering info session & tour happened. </p>
<p>lkf725: Thanks for the answers. I'm in the process of arranging an engineering tour w/ Pitt.</p>
<p>lkf725: You were right about the engineering tour at Pitt. It was great. We didn't get to do the upper campus tour- ran out of time. They seemed to really care about the success of their engineering students. </p>
<p>The campus looked very lively with lots to do. Very impressive!</p>
<p>I'm glad it was a good tour, momhippo. I do think they care about getting everybody through the program that wants to graduate. The profs and TA's have, in our experience, been extremely available and helpful with the technical material and problem sets. There are also general writing labs to help engineering students out with papers, as well as a very accommodating engineering library staff. I don't know what other schools you are considering, but for the price, I don't think you would be disappointed with Pitt and the Oakland campus.</p>