DD has narrowed her decision down to three. She was accepted into the Honors Program and Pitt and loved her visit – the city, the overall feel of the campus, the friendliness and authenticity of the students…
However, she came away from the school feeling that it might not be the best choice for her given her strong interest in humanities and writing. It seemed that most all of the prospective students and current students that we met were into STEM fields. I would imagine that at such a large school my daughter would find her niche, but based upon her visit, she wasn’t feeling it. Just wondering if anyone has any experiences that would help in figuring out if Pitt would be a good fit for her.
My ds’ two roommates (for 3 yrs) were writing majors actually - one is now writing for cartoon network and other is working for him on script development. Pitt’s program is known to be quite good - I would look for details on the website for those depts for details. My ds was the oddball non-humanities kid in that apt!
Writing is one of Pitt’s strengths in the humanities, along with philosophy (which is one of the top programs in the world) and some others. Pitt is very well regarded in creative writing, poetry, and has one of the nation’s foremost programs in creative non-fiction which is a burgeoning academic field.
The English department is located in a pretty awesome space too on the 5th floor of the Cathedral of Learning, one floor below the Humanities Center which is even more impressive. The English department’s home on the 5th original served as the university’s main library and parts have been recently remodeled, like the part that now serves as the English Commons Room.
Pitt is currently engaged in a “Year of the Humanities,” so while Pitt is certainly renown for some of its STEM programs, it isn’t like its humanities are an afterthought.
Thank you both. That’s very helpful. My daughter was also accepted into the Honors Program at Emerson with a significant merit scholarship, making it less expensive than Pitt for an out of stater. Pitt gave her some merit aid (and also accepted her into the Honors Program), but still not as much as Emerson.
After reading all of this, I am leaning toward Pitt since it looks like she would have more opportunities – both in and out of her major. However, I am conflicted. At Emerson, I sense she would have smaller classes and that there are more benefits from being in Honors than at Pitt.
Did you ask for reconsideration of merit award given the other award? If Emerson is viewed as comparable competitively, awards have been adjusted in past - but what it hinges on is net COA - not award $. It’s an easy process and they respond quickly.
My brother went to Pitt some years ago (15ish) and was a creative writing major. He has actually earned a reasonable living writing, and loved Pitt. Honestly, since he was my closest contact from Pitt, I didn’t even realize that Pitt was so strong in bioscience! Now my D is going to go to Pitt to do biological mathematics, so I’ll learn that side a bit better.