<p>the other school only interviews on that day of the week too. I decided to go on the reschedule list. They offered me another interview for the following week, but I have another interview scheduled on that day already. Will have to go back on the reschedule list. Im guessing I probably wont be offered another day. They stressed that they have an overwhelming number of applicants.</p>
<p>Daughter’s school finally sent LOR packet Monday, and today she received her first interview invite, Pitt. Neither of us realized how quickly these could come in!</p>
<p>Woohoo!! And so it begins for the kid from Georgia. Pitt is a great school.</p>
<p>Pitt is also know to waitlist. D. went there to interview, she was waitlisted and withdrew, she said she did not see herself going there. She said that student body is a bit different from Med. School to Med. School. She did not feel she was fitting there. Good luck, maybe your D. will like it there, and this is the only important thing after being accepted.</p>
<p>Pitt does use the waitlist extensively. As to the personality of med schools and student bodies of med schools…strangely enough there really are some that give off a very distinctive vibe (to some students). I think my kid would lump Pitt into a category with Baylor and Case. You’d think that with the similarities there wouldn’t be such a difference in “feel”, but my kid certainly reported such a difference. </p>
<p>My (limited) remembrance of her Pitt experience was that she loved the facilities and felt their hospital system was truly impressive.</p>
<p>curm,
" think my kid would lump Pitt into a category with Baylor and Case."
-my D. has opposite opinion, excluding Baylor, she did not aplly there.
Also, location was my D’s priority #1. She did not care for the city either. Again, strangely enough, Cleveland is fine in her books (but not beautiful Chicago downtown). Everybody is just so different.</p>
<p>Agreed. At it’s best the interview trip provides insight and some understanding of what life will be like for 4 or 5 years. At its worst, it provides an inaccurate view . Bad cab ride, crappy interviewer, nasty hotel, stressed students immediately prior to a final, happy students in a de-stressing time (if there are any of those lol). When possible , D stayed an exra day just to walk around and try to capture a sense of the place. </p>
<p>Maybe a re-hash of my D’s feelings about Baylor and UT-Houston is in order. You can throw a rock from one and hit the other (and MD Anderson and several other hospitals). Lots of shared resources but different “feel” according to my D. </p>
<p>Baylor students were more academically focused, Houston more people focused. Baylor had a higher percentage of super-impressive high achievers. Houston had the higher number of socially adept kids. My kid felt her academic peers and betters were at Baylor, but the social group she aspires to (she’s more of a nerd and was never in any danger of being voted “the most popular” in high school or college ;)) was at Houston. </p>
<p>She came away pleased with both, being able to see herself at both, but the focus of the appeal was substantially different. Huh. Maybe this wasn’t as helpful as I thought it would be when I started typing. lol But dangit. I typed it with a broken hand, so I’m hitting send anyway.</p>
<p>In the end, if they have a choice, it’s all about what their gut tells them and what they are really looking for both academically and socially. We’re going through that right now as S is finalizing his list for residency applications. In his case he wants nothing to do with cold climates so his list looks likes a big U starting in DC crossing the SE and SW and ending up in California.</p>
<p>As to the Pitt and Case discussion…</p>
<p>Having grown up halfway between both cities and with most of my family still there here’s my take:</p>
<p>While both Pittsburgh and Cleveland have undergone major revitalization, Pittsburgh never dropped as badly as Cleveland once did. Both cities have been badly and undeservedly maligned by outsiders who have retained images of the rust belt from the 70s. Downtown Pittsburgh underwent a major renaissance and is actually a very nice place to live. Downtown Cleveland also has had a renaissance and is a nice place to go to a game, concert, show, restaurant etc but the city itself is still much more of a bedroom community with the suburbs being much more desirable than downtown.</p>
<p>Pitt is in a much nicer and safer neighborhood than Case. Pitt’s campus certainly has a bit more of an urban feel than Case due to the parks, museums, Severance Hall etc that are in close proximity to Case but you can safely walk to a lot more things to do from Pitt than you can from Case.</p>
<p>Pittsburgh is a great town with lots of fine restaurants and amenities near the school. One could survive in Pittsburgh without access to a car if they had to, not so at Case. Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods remind me a bit of those of Chicago (though on a much smaller scale) each with it’s own distinct personality. Shadyside was once home to several of the best jazz clubs between New York and Chicago and still has a very vibrant jazz scene. Squirrel Hill is about 40% Jewish and is one of the most desirable places to live in the area. Both are readily accessible from Pitt’s campus</p>
<p>With a car, the southeastern suburbs of Cleveland are wonderful and within a 20-25 minute drive from Case one can be in the rolling hills of Amish country or in the heart of the best retail and restaurant scene in Cleveland along Chagrin Blvd and into Beachwood.</p>
<p>Like I said earlier, it’s all about what scratches the itch…both have pluses and minuses and the good news is that both are VERY good med schools.</p>
<p>^That is why Second Look event is very important when making final decision. I agree with you completely. In addition that D. did not care for city, she had her worst experience traveling there. She had to wait for student host for close to 2 hrs (after driving for 6) in her car in a dark and her host was not even responding to her calls. She was desparate, I was keeping her on a phone, just to make sure to know what is going on and we were advising her to start looking for hotel. It ended up OK as D. is not so easy to get into complete panicky mode, but this episode turned her off even before interview started. Interviews were fine though as all of them. D. actually enjoyed them, she even enjoyed them in HS, going to bs/md interviews. So, she had experience and knew it is OK.
D. see huge benefits in staying with current Medical student despite of her negative experience. She actually regretted staying with her best friend at one of them as her friend was UG student there, D. said that she missed another chance to learn more about type of Med. students at this school.
Anyway, the best luck, and who knows your D. might love it the best.</p>
<p>eadad,
I bet that my D’s mind was going exactly thru the same points. She loves to have a car (impossible in Chicago, we do have limited resources), and she felt as uncomfortable in Chicago as she felt in Pitt. But while she was accepted at Norhtwestern, she did not even wait for her possible status change at Pitt. It is possible that her negative experience completely ruined her perception of school.</p>
<p>Pittsburgh is not an easy city to navigate for the first time with all the bridges and tunnels that are access points but it’s 1000 times better than it was 40 years ago. Driving in at nighttime for the first time would not be a fun experience.</p>
<p>Pittsburgh’s airport is much much nicer than Cleveland Hopkins though with much easier access to rental cars and easier to get into and out of either heading into the city or northwest suburbs. Hopkins could use some major renovations but sadly, you can’t do anything about the area it’s located in.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input. I was born outside of Pittsburgh and spent every summer there growing up, so I have a feel for the city. I personally love it and the people there. </p>
<p>Other good news, my daughter just got interview #2. My purse feels lighter already. :(</p>
<p>^Congrats, your D. is on a roll!</p>
<p>Where? Where? Spill.</p>
<p>Okay curm, spilling. GWU</p>
<p>Great news, GAmom</p>
<p>adding to the pitt and case discussion, will be heading to both places soon. will try to use public transportation at both places. hopefully i can figure it out haha. i hear that cleveland has the rta which stops at the airport and on campus. pittsburgh has an airport bus that stops near the school</p>
<p>Tell her “good job” from Uncle Curmie. Y’all can start the decompression now. Her school’s bizarre committee letter situation is (or is fast becoming) a non-issue. ;)</p>
<p>^^
Big, love to hear your input after Pitt. </p>
<p>Curm, yeah…all that stress on the letter timing. I know her school has a great track record, but the lateness gave me many grey hairs.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Academics aside, after spending a couple of days in both Cleveland and Pittsburgh and then questioning everyone she knew who was further down the med school pipeline there was no question that in her opinion Pitt won the quality of life competition. How she would actually live day to day and what a school’s location offered outside of the academic arena became very important once she was lucky enough to have choices. She seemed to know how much give and take there could be between what she wanted style-wise in a school and what “extras” she needed to be happy. Interestingly, it wasn’t just about being in an urban environment. She thought Dartmouth was the greatest and believed that she would really enjoy going there and living an outdoorsy life again.</p>
<p>It is often hard to make this work but my daughter found it very beneficial to budget extra time when she went to interviews. It gave her the opportunity to meet more people and to explore the area around a school where she might be living for four years. She did not plan on going to second looks and having spent more time initially made her feel better equipped to make decisions about a school and a location.</p>