<p>I was accepted to U Pitt a few days ago and realized I know almost nothing about it. I was also told that I am a solid candidate for the honors college (32 ACT, 4.05 GPA, IB Diploma). I'm from a suburb in Wisconsin. What is the environment like? Concrete as far as one can see? Cost? What are the benefits of being in the honors college? Reputation? Rigor?</p>
<p>If someone who knows something can enlighten me, I would really appreciate it.</p>
<p>I just went out to visit the other week and i thought it was amazing.<br>
First off with the honors college they offer you special classes that you take honors instead of normal. These classes cover more material, but only the students in the honors college may take them. This makes your class sizes much smaller. </p>
<p>As for the campus it's a mixture. There are some large lawns and parks and there are a lot of buildings. The campus does stand out from the rest of the city, you can definitely feel you are on campus. Idk if you visited other city schools where like the campus was masked by the city, Pitt isn't like that. Plus the rest of pittsburgh is minutes away and there is lots of crap to do there</p>
<p>"only the students in the honors college may take them"</p>
<p>That is incorrect. Any student may request permission to take an honors course and it is almost always granted, according to admissions folks at the session we were at. It also seemed that there were limited honors courses available in the sciences. Anyone with any input on that?</p>
<p>For example, here's what the Honors College is offering for the Spring 2008 semester. You can see for yourself if any of them interest you.</p>
<p>UHC</a> Courses</p>
<p>I wouldn't necessarily say that there are "limited honors courses in the sciences." There are definitely honors courses in both General Chemistry 1 and 2 (with labs), honors Biology and Biology lab courses, honors Organic Chemistry and Organic Chemistry lab courses (class size is ~7 students), and there's an honors Neuroscience course.</p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptance. As a student who loves Pitt, perhaps I'm a little biased, but I really love both the campus and Oakland. Oakland is a suburb of Pittsburgh, so Pitt isn't right smack-dab in the middle of the city. However, it's particularly convenient because the entire city is one (free) bus ride away. Oakland feels like a suburb. And it's definitely not a sea of concrete, either. Pitt seems to do an admirable job at maintaining campus aesthetics--including maintaining gardens, etc. Try to Google some photos or check out the promotional photos on Pitt's website. If it's at all feasible, I would recommend visiting. It's a bit pricey for out-of-state students--you can find the exact tuition rates at ::</a> College Planning Made Easy | Inside Source for College Admissions Requirements. There aren't any real benefits of being honors qualified. You are eligible for honors housing, which I suppose can be viewed as a perk. You are also eligible to take honors courses, but most non-honors freshman can enroll in honors courses regardless and any student with a 3.25 can take an honors course. Pitt has a solid reputation. Check out the link below. Science classes at Pitt are not to be taken lightly. It is definitely possible to do well in them, though. In my experience, the non-science classes that I've taken have been easy.</p>
<p>Pitt's reputation:
University</a> of Pittsburgh: News From Pitt</p>
<p>Oakland:
[Oakland</a> (Pittsburgh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_(Pittsburgh%5DOakland">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_(Pittsburgh))</p>
<p>The ranking from usnwr seems a little convoluted. In what category exactly does Pitt rank 35th and 12th? I couldn't find it.</p>
<p>you get to take classes in a building that resembles Hogwarts.....that's why the honors college is cool haha</p>
<p>the rankings that divel are referring to are US News "world" rankings which are stupid and don't even correspond with their US rankings, but in the "world" rankings, Pitt is 35th overall (too high) and 13th among public universities (there are 13 public schools in the top 35??)</p>
<p>There are lots of classes held in the Cathedral of Learning, not just honors classes. And anyone can sit and hang out in the "Hogwarts"-like ground floor.</p>
<p>When I first saw a picture of the building I really wanted to go there so I could run around yelling "Harry Potter! Harry Potter! You're in danger Harry Potter!" in a british accent lol. I think I've decided against it because I'd rather wait a little longer to have people think i'm crazy, but you never know, it still could happen. Besides, I called my Ap physics classes after school double physics for a month and it was highly entertaining. As a side note, never try doing double physics. Two and a half hours of having an incompetent teacher try to teach you physics is extremely painful, especially if the other three people in your class end up bailing on you.</p>