<p>Has anyone heard anything about their application for HC housing in Forbes? Waiting for this is worse than the actual acceptance! Also, anyone headed for Pittstart June 4th?</p>
<p>I wouldn't sweat it too much, kschmidt. Pitt really caters to their Honors College students, and I know they allot a ton of rooms for HC housing.</p>
<p>Well, my daughter was turned down for honors housing. I am really surprised. We are OOS, and I thought that the university was trying to increase diversity. She received an e-mail today, which conveyed the bad news and said that a snail-mail letter would also be arriving. The e-mail said that the supply was limited, and there just wasn't enough space for all those who wanted it.</p>
<p>Wow, LurkNess, I'm sorry. I really though they had a lot of space.</p>
<p>That is a shame. As much as I like Pitt, and as good an experience as my son has had over the past two years, the honors housing was the single sore spot for us. (Well, that and not getting more scholarship money!) I have ranted on other threads that I thought the honors housing was run badly, unlike the honors college in general. </p>
<p>But don't feel too bad LNM. The students my son has been living with are all better students than many of the honors housing students. The honors housing community has nothing to do with grades or achievements or talent...it has everything to do with being a social popularity contest. Some fabulous students live there, but they live other places too. Your daughter will have an excellent experience anyway and will meet lots of nice people. :)</p>
<p>Negative on the honors housing here, too. I appreciate your comments lkf725 that the honors housing may not be all it's cracked up to be. But....we had hoped for the smaller unit inside the larger university. Had hoped for a group of students that for the most part put their learning first. Liked the idea of early move in, additional orientation, being in the loop, if you will for honors activities. All those pluses seemed to potentially outweigh the negatives that might come along. This honors housing was key in the decision process for my daughter. I'd be lying if I said that the enthusiasm level has not taken a dive.</p>
<p>Don't worry too much bluejay, there are great students everywhere and many are better than those in the honors housing. They find eachother, as my son did. The Towers are the very best place for freshmen to meet and my son met lots of good friends who did not live on honors floors. Even with freshman honors housing, the kids tended to gravitate to others in their own schools and majors in subsequent years. </p>
<p>(bluejay, I'd send you a pm if it was an option)</p>
<p>Don't get too down, guys! The Towers are a great place to stay. Air conditioned, carpeted, unlimited bandwidth, roomy lounges with big screeen TVs... they're nothing to sneeze at. You'll still have a great experience at Pitt!</p>
<p>Well, I think Pitt should offer an alternative to the 35 kids who got the same e-mail my daughter did. (And of course there could be more disappointed honors students too.) Some of our kids are traveling far from home to attend Pitt, and it would help to have a built-in community waiting for them. Adjustment to college is tough enough.</p>
<p>Trust me, LurkNess, your daughter will have a sense of community in the Towers. They are all freshmen; everyone is experiencing things for the first time. The Towers have a food court, a gym, and there are always tons of activities going on. 25% of freshmen last year were OOS, and I don't think that they all were in honors housing. Your daughter will be fine. The honest truth is that all colleges are suffering a housing crunch. I have heard of several large universities that have had to room RAs with students, and convert study lounges into large, supplemental housing. We all can't always get what we want, but at Pitt, the alternative is still great.</p>
<p>But - are we sure that students who didn't get ito Forbes/HC housing will get into Towers??? I think PC lets kids know where they'll be living in July (?)</p>
<p>Wow, I'm kind of glad my daughter chose the Nursing LLC instead of the Honors housing. I hope she gets in there. At least the odds are better. Hopefully our kids will all be fine where ever they are placed. I know it's tough when they are from OOS and no one else they know will be going there. We are going through the same thing.</p>
<p>I agree with LNM though. How tough would it be to designate another floor or two in one of the Towers to be honors housing? The kids have to live somewhere anyway, so why not put them together if they want to be together?</p>
<p>Maybe parents should direct such inquiries and suggestions to the HC. They hold out the honors housing community as bait and people come, so they ought to deliver.</p>
<p>LBP, all incoming freshmen are guaranteed housing for their first three years. And I think it would be a good idea to discuss this with the HC.</p>
<p>we thought that the housing wasnt that difficult .... and like Blue Jay we turned down Cornell and aren't too happy with this turn of events. Interestingly though my son wanted to room with another student who had not been given Honors College status, so he encouraged his friend to apply anyway to Honors Housing so they could room together. Well the non Honors Colllege student was accepted into HOnors housing and my S wasnt. GO figure :/</p>
<p>megnut - that's strange! I thought you had to be in the HC to live in Honors housing. Have you questioned the HC about that issue? Didn't the Honors housing application go out only to HC students??? Could it be that the non-HC student requested Forbes on his online application - and noboby followed up to see if he was accepted into the HC??? (Or am I all confused???)</p>
<p>Meg Nut, if I were you, I would be on the phone with Pitt pronto to figure out what happened! Something must have gone wrong. You're telling us that the non-honors friend filled out the special application and wrote the essay, and the committee put him into honors housing?</p>
<p>I found out:</p>
<p>a) About 135 kids were rejected from honors housing.</p>
<p>b) The resources don't exist to create a second "honors outpost" in Tower B or whatever.</p>
<p>c) I'm going up the food chain at Pitt to see if I can change things! (If my kid lets me; it's really her thing.)</p>
<p>Any other suggestions?</p>
<p>I wonder if this has anything to do with the date that the housing application was received??? I also wonder if they're trying to balance the number of females-to-males in Forbes???</p>
<p>The male/female ratio is entirely possible as an explanation. Last year there were four floors of honors housing in the towers and it was 2 female, 2 male. I think they do go for a 50/50 ratio. If any of you are doing engineering, I'd see about applying to SPACE, the engrg floors. It will actually be more convenient for you than living in Forbes and "commuting" to the SPACE floors for all those group projects they give you in fresman engrg. When everyone was in towers it didn't matter so much. The engrg kids are all smart and the same kind of camaraderie exists, sharing the same goals, etc. The towers is really a very convenient location for a freshman if you get it.</p>
<p>btw - life will not come to an end if you wind up somewhere else. D's best friends are kids she met in her classes, and they lived all over the lower campus. She spent a lot of time in other dorms and going back and forth. While the honors floors were good for the initial adjustment, it's not like her life began and ended there. And her friends who didn't get in honors did just fine where they wound up. So well, in fact none of them signed up for honors housing for this year. </p>
<p>That said, I think it's a great idea to talk to UHC and let them know how you feel. Maybe it will put some heat on them to open up more options. It looks like they just don't get it about how impt this housing thing is to people. But do look into SPACE. They have a great time there too. The ratio is 3:1 boys/girls.</p>
<p>My recollection is that SPACE had openings all the way into June. There is a separate app and you can call the engrg office about it. There were 4 floors (3 boys, 1 girls).</p>
<p>I don't think it has anything to do with the date the application was received. We were never told "first come, first served." Each application was read by the six people on the committee, I was told. What they were looking for exactly, I don't know.</p>
<p>As far as gender balance, I don't have any idea. But it seems to me that boys were rejected, too, right? Just from what we know from this board.</p>
<p>I do think we should discuss this with the HC. After all, our kids are the high-stats achievers that Pitt is trying to attract. My daughter received scholarships from four universities and is NMF, and other kids turned down Ivies to attend Pitt. I intend to follow up, nicely but persistently, to try to arrange equivalent accommodations. If anyone wants to join me, please send me a PM. </p>
<p>If Pitt really wants to make a large university feel small, and with the honors college emulate the feel of an elite LAC, the administration has to do better with housing.</p>