Ok so you are really going to let the lack of honors at Pitt keep her from attending Pitt?? That’s just… ridiculous. How much are you going to go into debt to pay for these other colleges?
Pitts honors program has up until this point been really a vague concept and now all of a sudden they are making it some weird super highly selective club. Trust me. It’s not a big deal to be or not be in honors. Your daughter will be PLENTY busy in regular Pitt classes. Plenty. And if she’s a superstar she can just use all of her AP credits and get further ahead. Mine takes zero honors classes. Zero. Despite being in honors. Why? Because 17-19 hrs of academic load plus an on campus job in the engineering department plus an officer position plus an engineering competition group plus a social organization keep her plenty busy. Her friends (who almost all have research positions or pending co-op or internship offers) all say the same. They may have taken ONE honors class but that’s it.
IF she is turning down Pitt for other affordable choices without private loans then cool. But if she is having to turn to private loans or you to Parent loans because she’s miffed about the honors decision then it’s time for everyone to put on their big kid underwear and move forward. Pitt with no debt is a no brainer.
If the other schools are all affordable with minimal debt then cool. Forgive my rant lol. But honors at Pitt is not a big deal and I don’t foresee it being a big deal until they slowly change the program. And even at Engineering orientation one of the lead
Advisors actually says “stop with the honors this and the honors that. It’s enough to be here and in engineering.” Most employers simply don’t care.