This year they do have students in a dorm at Carlow I believe. (It’s literally right down the street from Pitt) I haven’t heard anything from my daughter about how that went, since she is a sophomore this year. I would guess they are trying to get their numbers back down to where all freshmen can fit in the dorms. Hopefully that won’t be as big of a problem next year because so many of the kids move off campus and the larger classes will be juniors and seniors by then. Just so you know, Pitt will guarantee housing for 3 years. However most kids who don’t win an apartment in the lottery system often move off campus. There are lots of off campus apartments that vary significantly in price and quality.
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I always like to say that for my daughter’s last two years we moved her from one slumlord house to another. Her apartments were, IMHO, kinda yucky but she didn’t seem to care!
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I can pretty much guarantee you have a better deal at UMD than you will get at Pitt! Congrats to your son on his acceptances. His PSU merit is even unusual. I know sometimes kids don’t want to go to their in-state schools but trust me it’s almost always the best of all deals!
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oooh i got something like that this year!
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Students are not in hotels this year.
They did use dorms at Carlow, though.
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Haha yes I know. I have one at at Temple!
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Some of the places in South Oakland are not where I would want to live, but it doesn’t seem to bother the students. To be young again and able to live one sleep anywhere….
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The scuttlebutt from my niece is that, to confirm another poster, they don’t seem to using the hotels but are using Carlow. She also said they converted some of the communal areas in Towers to quad dorm rooms.
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Yeah South O is historically the partyingest place of them all. But my daughter’s digs up in North O we’re not much better. She didn’t care and they were reasonable!
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When my family visited campus in the summer we toured the Towers. It wasn’t great, but my son thought it was fine. I had no idea housing was such an issue. I didn’t realize housing in general was bad and that they didn’t have enough space.
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Housing is bad at lots of schools, due to the post-pandemic return to campus. I have a sophomore at UMass, and they housed some students in a hotel in Amherst this school year. They simply have more kids seeking to live on campus than they’ve ever had.
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In the big scheme of college housing issues, Pitt’s isn’t severe. They have added capacity for next year so I would be surprised if anyone has to be at Carlow again.
They seem to be using one of the local high rises (Bridge on Forbes) for housing for athletes. They offer it to everyone, probably at the same price as the high rise offers it, then assign the remaining rooms (probably all in the contract) to athletes. The building is adjacent to campus and very, very nice.
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Bridge on Forbes and SkyVue are 2 of the few very nice housing options in Oakland. Bridge on Forbes 1 and 2 BR are sold out and the 3 BR will be part of upperclassman housing in the fall. Towers A/B barely have enough room for one let alone 2 people but the location is prime and the cafeteria right downstairs is a bonus. Towers C are all single rooms. There definitely are larger, nicer dorms, like Irvis, Panther and Nordenberg Halls. I would not want my child in the Carlow dorms as it is a long walk, along busy Fifth Ave. to the cafeterias, food choices as well as the classroom buildings.
The upperclassman apartment style Bouquet Gardens are decent in a great central location on campus. My S19 is a senior still living in on-campus housing. He has a complete meal plan and does not cook even though they have a small kitchen.
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Thanks so much for the detailed information. It’s really helpful.
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my daughter is a current sophomore. Last year she was placed at Residence inn Bigelow–about 20 minute walk to campus. It was a leased hotel Pitt used for freshmen housing (now graduate housing) Was it what she wanted? no. Was it a great location for freshmen? No. But it was a huge two room apartment with a kitchenette. And there were frequent shuttles and buses. At the end of the day she made great friends, and ended up loving her time there. I think many, many campuses have housing issues. My youngest is a high school senior and at least 3-4 of the schools she is interested in have housing crunches–including using hotels and more off-site location. Many colleges misjudged yield during the covid year. I think housing, while important, is more important to parents than kids.
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Are others still waiting on admission decisions? S23 applied in late October, with his SRAR completed in early November. Strangely, the document center has a letter dated 11/9 that says SRAR needs to be completed. But he also has an email that says that his application is complete. He reached out to the admissions counselor and she responded that they have a high volume of applications and to be patient, but this seems very late!
Yes, true about housing crunches. There are some schools of great interest to my daughter that might be written off due to the lack of guaranteed housing. Sutherland is also a nice dorm in upper campus that has a cafeteria on the bottom floor. I really don’t think the Honors College was that beneficial for my daughter outside of her being able to live in Sutherland and Irvis Freshmen and Sophomore year.
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Has anyone who was asked to submit mid year grades received a decision yet?
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also waiting, although submission date wasn’t till 12/1
My freshman wanted Bigelow. It was available as a selection during the housing process, but then Pitt decided to switch it to grad housing a year earlier than originally planned. She is in Sutherland (East). She was happy with Sutherland, and was familiar with it, as her class of 2020 sister had lived in Sutherland (West).