<p>Pitt has had 3 Rhodes Scholars in the past 5 years. Their honors college is very prolific in producing national academic scholarship winners such as the Rhodes, Marshall, and Goldwaters. As far as students at Pitt, I think you’ll find the spectrum of from partiers to bookworms. Obviously there are some pretty serious students at Pitt, but there are plenty of opportunities to blow off steam both on and off-campus. It is in a major city after all. It’s not like your relegated to only making friends of one type or the other. However, greek life is bigger at W&M.</p>
<p>As far as research, the experiences and opportunities at W&M would not be able to compare to a major research-intensive institution like Pitt, and Pitt is in the national top 10 overall and in the top five in med/biosciences. This is true for any comparison between similarly situated schools. Smaller schools just don’t have the larger graduate research component to offer similar access to the cutting-edge research, laboratories, equipment, faculty…or even the variety and amount of course offerings. As far as being on your own in finding a lab at Pitt, you will have help finding a lab through your home department or the honors college. [Undergraduate</a> research](<a href=“http://www.undergradresearch.pitt.edu/]Undergraduate”>http://www.undergradresearch.pitt.edu/) has been a big component of education at Pitt for a long time. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t be proactive about it. You want to find a lab doing research that interests you and has a good vibe about it. If you aren’t really that interested in the work being done, you won’t do as well with it, and worse, you might end up being miserable. Therefore, if there are cool labs outside of a undergrad psych or neuroscience department, say the Dept. of Neurobiology or Dept. of Pyschiatry in the med school, then there is nothing wrong with shooting out some emails to see if they are interested in taking on an undergrad. I did it both ways. I did unpaid undergraduate thesis research in the Dept. of Neuroscience and also did what ended up being a student employment job in the Dept. of Pathology in the med school. Both provided very different experiences using very different techniques. My undergrad thesis work ended up published in a major journal. While that is something that can really help differentiate your med school application, no one can guarantee that would happen for every undergrad, but you have a better chance at it the earlier you start working in a lab (the more time on a project the better) and at a school like Pitt where high level work is undertaken with the explicit goal of such publication.</p>
<p>Another thing I would recommend is that for pre-med, consider neuroscience instead of psychology as a major. If psych is something you definitely have more of an interest in, do it without hesitation (just like lab work, you want to be interested in your major!). However, neuroscience will typically expose you to a higher level of biology coursework. Either W&M or Pitt will prepare you for MCATs no matter what your major, but having a strong neuroscience department like that which exists at Pitt will cover topics that often give medical students fits (because they have to learn them so fast)…things like neuroanatomy and neurophysiology… and then when you get to med school these topics will be mostly review.</p>
<p>Despite any of the above, the bottom line is that you only get to do undergraduate school once. You have two very different choices. Pitt is very urban with all the cultural and social opportunities that are present in a big city…and Pitt really encourages its students to take advantage (see [PITT</a> ARTS](<a href=“http://www.pittarts.pitt.edu/]PITT”>http://www.pittarts.pitt.edu/)). W&M will be a lot more like your classic smaller town collegiate village setting and experience, and as someone who appreciates history, I really like its setting. Your success will be mostly on you, not where you go. Therefore, go where you think you’ll be happiest the next four years. Both choices are excellent and neither is wrong if you go where you’ll thrive and be happy, and I’m sure you’ll thrive at either.</p>