Things to do in Pittsburgh

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pittsburgh
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<p>Haha mercymom, don't worry. Pitt-CMU is nothing like Pitt-Penn State. For the mot part we get along (we kind of have to, seeing as how we basically share a campus.) Many Pitt students will go to frat parties at CMU and vice versa. The schools work very closely academically, as well. And the schools are not very competitive because CMU's athletics aren't in the same league as Pitt's, and the schools mostly attract two different types of students.</p>

<p>I have found that The Student Guide to Pittsburgh, which tom1425 just posted, is the best guide to the city. CMU's website does have some good information on Pittsburgh, though.</p>

22

<p>When I was in high school, the saying was if you can't go to college, go to Pitt. ...</p>

<p>I am trying to figure out why everyone thinks Pitt is so great.</p>

<p>BTW, I have a master's from Pitt...</p>

23

<p>Khipper, if I recall correctly, you said you went to Pitt during the Ford administration. So high school would've been late 60s (Johnson/Nixon.) Were there ANY good colleges back then besides the Ivies? PSU was still an agricultural school. As one poster said previously, anyone with a high school degree could've gotten into Ohio State. I think things are a little different now. And you couldn't have hated Western PA so much, seeing as how you WENT to Pitt and still live there (I know my latitutude and longitudes.) Spend some time in Pittsburgh, you might be surprised. And guess what... the steel mills are gone!</p>

<p>Please do not repost on this topic. It is about "Things to do in Pittsburgh."</p>

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<p>Since this is a Pittsburgh thread, not U of Pittsburgh thread, I hope I can lend my $.02 as a CMU dad who's visited the burgh quite often. S graduated '05.</p>

<p>View from Mt Washington is not only the best in the city, it's one of the best vistas (like top 5, really!!) in the entire US as chronicled in Parade Magazine. I can't get enough of it, especially at dusk when the lights begin to twinkle and the air gets cool...and you take the incline and eat up there at LeMont (?if I recall) or Tin Angel. Over in Oakland view from top of Cathedral is also beautiful.</p>

<p>Or walking the bridges (they close roberto clemente bridge I believe) with thousands of other insane Steelers fans. I have Jets tickets so when they are in town I am able to get 4 tickets for each game, which we did several times. Beats Jets games by a mile. Conversly, Pirates games are fun, in a new stadium, but the team's not so hot.</p>

<p>Only a couple hours drive gets you to Niagara Falls where drinking and gambling age is 19. Son had a number of road trips in that direction. If you're CMU person or even not, Carnival weekend, when they race buggies, is great entertainment, unlike anything I've heard of anywhere else. He also road tripped to Cleveland for concerts.</p>

<p>Eating breakfast at Pamela's still can't be beat...anywhere. Especially the one in Shady Side (I swear the crepes are better there). </p>

<p>And I was glad when son had appendicitis in the middle of the night, his Pitt girlfriend (no longer, oh well!) was able to get him to the proper one of Pitt's myriad imposing hospitals for surgery.</p>

<p>I think PSU has more oos students because of its proximity to NJ, NY etc, states which a lot of students flee for undergrad. My nephew goes to PSU because it's 4 hours away vs Pitt which would be 6+ (we live in NJ).</p>

<p>I visit son in NYC often and love it...we live near Philly and that's great too. But something draws me to Pittsburgh...maybe it IS the nice people. I think it's the topgraphy, the rivers and the fact it's surprisingly cosmopolitan. Although it probably won't happen I fantasize about relocating there, or retiring there.</p>

25

<p>2331clk,</p>

<p>There are worse places to retire. Housing is cheap, the East End is undergoind its own renaissance, as is the housing market Downtown, and the healthcare infrastructure is one of the best in the country.</p>

<p>And since you are from the Northeast, you are already used to the winters and constantly changing weather :)</p>

26

<p>This is my favorite thread. Let's keep it going. Anyone have anything else to add?</p>

27

<p>People who have nothing positive to say about Pitt, most probably have never even visited Pitt. I was totally surprised when I first visited Pitt to attend a Pitt tour. The city is amazing. What a great place to choose for a college destination! Pittsburgh has so much to offer and it is very affordable for students.</p>

28

<p>Yes, I agree. I really liked UPitt and Pittsburgh - and I didn't even get to see that much of the city. But the area around the college is clean, and I saw several police officers around.... If more people stopped to consider Pitt, they's have even more applications, IMO...</p>

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<p>Do you think it is because the school does not market itself well enough? Or that people still have an outdated view of Pittsburgh? It's not like the school is struggling. Applications are increasing every year, as are standards. In terms of freshman profile, Pitt holds its own against most other state schools. But I personally think it can do better. What do you think it has to do to compete with schools like UNC, Wisconsin, and Michigan for students? Because academically, I think Pitt is right up there with the top public schools.</p>

30

<p>Well, my guess - and this is just a guess - is that because there's only one application for the U of Pittsburgh, it might influence the USNWR rankings. (If you don't get into the main campus, you're considered for the other campuses if you check off boxes on the application.) And, whether we agree or not, many people base their college selections on rankings..... Maybe the school should consider separate applications for every UPitt campus, like the way UVA in Charlottesville separates itself from its satellite campus, UVA's College at Wise, VA.... I also know that they've done no high school visits in our area, south of the Wash,DC beltway - and these suburbs are growing very, very quickly. I agree most emphatically with you that Pitt is right up there with the major state uni's. The school has a lot to offer bright students, especially in regard to a generous merit $ program. (I wonder how many full and partial scholarships they give out every year???) Anyway, just my two cents....</p>

31

<p>Some of it is the outdated view of the city. When H and D went up to visit last year, my sister-in-law drove down from Syracuse to meet them and visit. H and his sister told me how surprised they both were at how much they liked Pitt and the city, mostly due to that dirty steel town image they had from growing up in nearby states. It was a first time visit to Pittsburgh for both of them. Once they saw it they loved it. On the CC med school threads someone posted a site that caters to premeds and catalogs peoples stats and where they got in, plus the schools stats and who they take. When I looked at Pitt's med school, there were postings from accepted students who interviewed and some kids said things like " the city wasn't nearly as bad as people told me it was" or "the city is really nice and not dirty like people told me it would be". So maybe that dirty steel town image is hard to shake.</p>

<p>Now mind you, I never thought it would be dirty 'cause I knew all about the most liveable city awards. H should have listened to me.</p>

32

<p>fwiw - someone else on CC posted a site that linked to an article on scholarship/aid data on the top 100 colleges or something, and for the record Pitt gives merit aid to only 7% of entering freshmen. so those generous scholarships are hard to come by and if you got one, you should feel quite proud indeed.</p>

33

<p>Pitt doesn't send recruiters to the schools around here and we live about 2 hours away in Ohio. We did get the DVD mailed to us early in the year for recruitment purposes, but that's about all. I know of 3 people including my D that applied there and she is the only one going for sure. One turned it down for Case and the other one is deciding between Pitt and Hawaii. Can't see spending all that money just to live in "paradise". I think the old steel mill image is still there. I know we had it. Maybe the City of Pittsburgh needs to market itself more so that people visit the area and maybe take note of Pitt along the way.</p>

34

<p>And. . . if only Pitt had that in-state tuition agreement w/ Ohio that Ohio has with some state universities in Michigan and Indiana. . . . that would attract more students from NE Ohio, I'm sure. </p>

<p>I wonder if the student who chose Case over Pitt received a better financial offer from Case? </p>

<p>One of my other daughters attends a selective tech university near Boston. As kids graduate there, several have applied to CMU for grad education in comp sci and electrical engineering. Most have turned down CMU, saying the program is top notch but they can't imagine living in Pittsburgh. Their loss.</p>

<p>I think the city does need to market itself more effectively to students.</p>

35

<p>Pitt definately has the money to recruit better- they have a $1.8 billion endowment, which is like 25th among all colleges. That's definately something they can work on. The city is trying to fight outdated views, but old habits die hard. People won't believe how great Pittsburgh is until they see it. So for now, I think word of mouth is the best bet.</p>

36

<p>chrisd,<br>
The guy who turned down Pitt for Case had a full tuition from Pitt and about $20,000 to Case. With Case being around $40,000 for everything he would have been better off at Pitt financially. Also, he wants to go to med school eventually and with the new grad school rankings coming out, Pitt's med school is ranked 15th while Case is 21. I'm thinking that he chose Case for nearness to home because of all the schools he got accepted to that was the one closest to home. He was accepted to Notre Dame, U of Mich, Ohio State and Pitt. Not sure what packages he got from the other schools.</p>

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<p>Forbes just listed Pittsburgh as tied for 10th as the cleanest major city in the world.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/logistics/2007/04/16/worlds-cleanest-cities-biz-logistics-cx_rm_0416cleanest_slide_16.html?thisSpeed=30000%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.forbes.com/logistics/2007/04/16/worlds-cleanest-cities-biz-logistics-cx_rm_0416cleanest_slide_16.html?thisSpeed=30000&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>20 years ago people would have thought this was an April Fool's joke.</p>

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<p>That is a cool slide show, Pat. It looks like Honolulu and Minneapolis are the only 2 US cities that rank higher than Pittsburgh, the rest all seem to either be in Canada or places like Switzerland and Germany. Pittsburgh is in a multi-way tie for 10th place, but in very good company. I see Boston and also Geneva and Bern. I'll have to write down a list. All these cities seem to be given high marks for their industries and mass transportation, too. Things like education, medicine, technology, automotive, etc. Lots of good stuff. The pictures are beautiful.</p>

<p>stowmom - maybe this is why your friend's kid wants to go to Hawaii!</p>

39

<p>OK, here's an interesting Pitt story. When we were up last fall for Parents Weekend, we stayed at the Wyndham and ate breakfast each morning in the hotel, and it seemed that each day there were professors from Pitt in there too, often with visiting profs and scientists. </p>

<p>One morning the guys at the table next to us were math profs and listening to them talk was liking being in a live Numbers episode. They seemed to be recruiting some guy who was also being gone after by either Stanford or Caltech and one of the Pitt guys was talking up the city of Pittsburgh. He was telling the recruitee that when HE was being sought out by Stanford/Caltech (I wasn't listening THAT closely), he decided to stay at Pitt 'cause it was such a wonderful city to live in and so much better than California. He thought Pittsburgh was a great place to raise a family and couldn't imagine living in California.</p>

<p>They were selling Pitt to the new prof as much on the basis of the city as the research opptys at Pitt. It was wonderful to hear all the stuff they were saying; it was all so good in so many ways.</p>

40

<p>Pittsburgh was just named 3rd in North America on the Cities of the Future list by Foreign Direct Investment Magazine.</p>

<p><a href="http://podcast.kdkaradio.com/kdka/430034.mp3%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://podcast.kdkaradio.com/kdka/430034.mp3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.gdi-solutions.com/fdi/2007awards/USA/pittsburgh.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.gdi-solutions.com/fdi/2007awards/USA/pittsburgh.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>