| Campus is nice enough. You'll want to check out buildings that are relevant to your son's intended major. If you want to know which building is which, you can ask here or on campus.
As far as hotels, the Holiday Inn near Fifth Ave is the closest but probably the most expensive in the area. When picking a hotel, opt for places closer to downtown or on the South Side (south of southern river).
If you have a car, check out Squirrel Hill (take Forbes Ave East) and the University of Pittsburgh area (take Forbes Ave West from campus). The later is also in close walking distance; most students bus to Sq. Hill. The park behind campus (Schenely) is very nice.
You'll probably notice that Pittsburgh is kinda run-down, but CMU is maintained very well.
For the record, the Cathedral of Learning has ~40 floors, but the floors above 36 are not accessible to the public. There's also a Pamela's in Squirrel Hill on Forbes Ave, and as was mentioned above, they have awesome breakfast.
The Union Grill (on Craig St.) was featured on the Food Network for its signature dish - the Turkey Devonshire. It's pretty damn tasty.
Besides all that... you should talk to as many people on campus as you can. |