<p>Would anyone care to comment on the safety of the University of Pittsburgh and/or the Oakland area? After reading about Pitt, it seems like an excellent fit for me. Its strength in the health sciences as well the UPMC seem like amazing possibilities. Although, I have a very protective family who'd sleep much better knowing I was in a rural area. ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for your time.</p>
<p>Rural area. . . my oldest daughter graduated from Ohio U, in small town rural Athens Ohio. Her car tires were slashed in a public business parking lot.</p>
<p>My youngest daughter is a Pitt freshman. I think that it's as safe as any urban campus, use your "street smarts!"</p>
<p>Pitt is a pretty safe campus. It is an urban campus and you have to be smart when going out but it is not like your life is endangered walking between buildings at night. There are some places I would not walk to alone at night and that is a reason for the saferider sytem proveded by the university and other safety precautions as well.</p>
<p>I live in Pittsburgh, about 2 miles from the Pitt campus. I have been here for almost twenty years. Compared to other similarly sized cities, Pittsburgh is above average to excellent for crime. Check the stats vs. Baltimore, Cleveland, Detriot, DC, Philly etc.</p>
<p>Campus is in a great location: near Schenley Park, CMU, Museums, main Carnegie Library for Pittsburgh. As a student, there are unlimited opportunities to enjoy the city, just depends on initiative.</p>
<p>My son was at CMU this summer, and returning from movies at Schenly park, at around 10:30 p.m,and out of the blue this gang of kids came running by. His friend was knocked down to the grass, kicked in the gut, even though there were lots of people around. By the time our kids got a sense of what was was going on, these scoundrels had scattered.</p>
<p>I wouldn't recommend Schenley Park at night. :(</p>
<p>I think you just have to use caution wherever you go...The area around UPitt is "upscale", and seemed a lot safer to me than other urban campuses...I saw no vagrants/panhandlers, no debris in the streets, no smell of garbage in the air....I believe you can also check on crime statistics on the UPitt website....</p>
<p>Here is another site to check on security and crime at various colleges:
<a href="http://www.securityoncampus.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.securityoncampus.org/</a></p>
<p>That's my argument: any location can have and will have its problems, but if one is precautious, most situations can be avoided. Of course, this doesn't apply all the time. Thanks for all the replies... much appreciated!</p>
<p>People have horror stories from every college. Crime is not reserved only for cities. However, sine there are more people in cities, there are more crimes, it's simple statistics. Pittsburgh has one of the lowest crime rates of any major city. I went to school at Pitt for three years after spending two at Penn State, and I witnessed more violent crimes at PSU than Pitt (2-0).</p>
<p>Wow, seriously? With the entire town made of students, I'm surprised that PSU has much violent crime. Can you elaborate?</p>
<p>PS - My son is at Pitt and there is only sporadic violent crime, which usually involves people who are not students.</p>
<p>I never personally saw a violent crime at Pitt, but you do hear about stuff that happens in the city. Again, it's part of the territory. As long as you stay out of the bad neighborhoods at night, you'll be fine. </p>
<p>As far as what I witnessed at PSU, there were two big incidents (along with dozens of alcohol-related incidents): After a Penn State football game, I once saw someone wearing a Michigan T-shirt get get the s*** beat out of him by a group of PSU students. Obviously, he should've known he was going to get picked on, but the kid was getting beat up so bad I thought he was going to die. I found a police officer not too far away, but of course by the time the officer got there, the kids were gone. The second crime I witnessed was outside of a frat house. I think it was some kind of hazing, but I prefer not to go into details about that one, it's a little graphic. And I suggest not parking your car anywhere near the stadium during a big game. I cannot tell you how many cars I've seen trashed.</p>