University of Pittsburgh too small ??

<p>Hello, I have never visited Univ of Pitt due to some financial reasons and also I live quite far from it but I took the virtual online tour that's on the website which gives only one side of the story...So my question is Is the 143 acres area one lump where different buildings are located or are the buildings spread around...what I mean by that is like one science building in one corner and then you walk a few streets and then goto to the art's building... Do you get the University feel or do you feel like walking around in a city to goto classes ? </p>

<p>Also Univ of Pitt has like 28k students ? Maybe this sounds dumb Isn't the number of students quite high for that area ? Do classes and libraries feel crowded ?</p>

<p>I suggest you look at Pitt using Google Satellite map setting - zoom in close enough and the buildings are listed. You will get a better perspective on the size of the campus.
The number of students has no bearing on how crowded classes are. A larger university will have more professors, more class sections and more libraries/study areas.</p>

<p>The only way to really get a sense of the campus is to visit. Almost all of the buildings are contiguous. It’s a fairly dense campus - you can get from one end to the other in 10 minutes. It feels urban because there are some major streets running through campus, but everything is close by. There are green areas too. It’s the best of both worlds.</p>

<p>Pitt never feels as large student or space was as it technically is. As southeastmom said, it takes no more than 10 minutes to walk across campus. Upper campus is a bit of a hike but definitely not as far away as some more spread out campuses are. I have friends who have walked from Frick to Cathedral in 10 minutes and been fine. You may have to walk down main streets to get to class, but in no way does it feel as if you’re walking through downtown New York or anything close. Being in the city and easy access to basically everything is one of my favorite parts about Pitt!
There are a lot of students here but I really never felt overwhelmed or as if there are actually 20,000+ students here. After your first semester you practically see someone you know everytime you go to class, to dinner, etc. There are some big lectures but really only for intro classes and the like. Hillman gets crowded during midterms and finals, but that’s typical of any university.</p>

<p>I went on a tour (after my son had enrolled) with a friend and her daughter that was considering Pitt. They had fallen in love with Penn State, but they really liked Pitt. They said it was amazing how compact it was, and laid out well. They liked the convenience of the retail on Forbes Ave and also like upper campus because it was a bit quieter. I’ve been to Penn State and Cornell for comparison, and they are more spread out and have generally shorter buildings. Pitt in general has a lot taller buildings, thus being more compact. One thing I really admire is the architecture represented at Pitt. Several different styles from the Cathedral to the Pete, but all beautiful buildings! As far as the overall size, I would never call it small (my college had about 2500 total), but it is amazing how when we visit we always run into people we know!</p>

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<p>THIS is the thing I always emphasize. I used to worry that Pitt (at 17k Undergrads) was too big for me. However, almost every time I would go out on the street to walk to class I would see someone I knew! The campus feels smaller because of the compact size, and I’ve never really felt like I was in a swarm of students (even in the big classes, it helps to sit in the front).</p>

<p>Compared to rural universities, Pitt is compact. This is not a bad thing, it is a lot easier to get from dorm to class to lab to gym and back again. The med center area on the western edge of campus is really overgrown with buildings (as most med centers are) but it spreads out some as you head east.</p>

<p>Does it feel like walking through a city? In some places yes, in some places no. It is urban but it is less urban than, say NYU, but it is going to feel a lot more urban than most giant state schools. Along the East-West axis of Forbes and 5th Ave, yes, it feels urban. Along the North/South axis, from Schenley Park to the upper campus, not nearly as much. </p>

<p>As far as 28K students, 10K of them are professional or grad students. They won’t typically be in the same places you are. I don’t think Pitt feels overcrowded, but some buildings in the middle of the day are certainly more crowded than others, but not anymore than in any other similarly sized campus. Some areas are pretty underutilized so there is always places to find lots of personal space.</p>

<p>Pitt’s lack of a traditional campus layout (due to 5th and Forbes Ave bisecting the campus) is made up for in the buildings that make up the campus. You might want to check out another photo tour of the campus’ buildings at [An</a> Introduction to the University of Pittsburgh and its facilities](<a href=“An Introduction to the University of Pittsburgh and its facilities”>An Introduction to the University of Pittsburgh and its facilities)</p>

<p>wgmcp101 - great website – thanks for sharing</p>

<p>If you want an enclosed traditional campus, Pitt, GW, NYU, BU are not for you. There are plenty of schools that have this. My kids all thought that was the way they would go until they visited some of these schools, and found they liked the campus intertwined with the city just as much. There are advantages to both.</p>

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<p>Great point! Pitt was actually the antithesis of what I wanted in a college (large, public, “city campus”) but I ended up falling in love when I visited! (Fun fact: I almost withdrew my CMU application after visiting CMU and Pitt). You’d be surprised how manageable the campus/city are, and the size makes it kind of nice in my opinion: large enough that you don’t feel like your surrounded by the same people all the time, but small enough that you’re almost always going to run into someone you know when you go out to walk to class or eat.</p>

<p>OK thanks everyone for replying and cptofthehouse for giving me some examples of universities that are blended in with the city. </p>

<p>Looks like I won’t be able to get the traditional college experience at Pitt…Actually I didn’t mean University of Pittsburgh is small…I meant the land area is small for the number of students but after reading the responses above, I figured its not… :)</p>