<p>Does anyone know how tightly the Pitt honors program holds to their stated eligibility requirements? Their website says students need to have a combined 1400 on the SAT or 32 on the ACT, plus be in the top 5 percent of their high school class. Does the top 5 percent apply regardless of the academic environment of the high school? We’ll be on the east coast in the summer looking at rolling admit/safety/EA/care about demonstrated interest type schools. D1 might be attracted by the Pitt honors program, and I’ve heard that the program presentations are very well done. But if the program entrance requirements for freshman year are inflexible, I don’t want to spend time going to an information session on campus. </p>
<p>If memory serves me correctly, the program requirements are not inflexible. My D did apply early and was offered admission to the Honors program - I believe they mentioned making some type of adjustment when considering the top 5% requirement. Demonstrated interest in the campus and applying as early as possible may make a big difference. It seemed students that applied later this year that met the stated criteria were having more difficulty gaining acceptance to Honors. It is also possible to apply for the Honors program and once at Pitt, even if not accepted to Honors, one can request to take honors courses. It seemed to be one of the more flexible programs. </p>
<p>We did visit Pitt and D attended an “Honors” course there- I would recommend a visit during the school year if possible for your D to sit in on a course and be certain it is the type of experience she is interested in.</p>
<p>Pitt’s honors college is a bit different than the other honors programs I have seen this past year. You don’t enroll in the “college,” but you are told that you qualify to take classes. A student may appeal to take a class through the college if his or her numbers don’t fall into the numbers that you have seen on the Web site. Not all classes have honors sections. And not all “honors-eligible” students take all (or even any) honors sections.</p>
<p>Professors submit proposals each year/semester for honors sections and the honors college chooses which courses will be offered. If you want to look at the course list for fall, just go to the Pitt Web site and look around for registration information. Honors has its own listing in one of the drop downs.</p>
<p>In talking with a current Pitt student, my daughter was advised to take the honors physics class, but not the honors calculus because the calculus included many things that were great for math majors, but not so for physics majors. Additionally, the honors college offers a BPhil degree that requires among other things undergraduate research.</p>
<p>So this may be more information than you wanted, but I would not cross Pitt off the list because of honors college numbers. Pitt wants to fill its honors courses with students who are interested in the subjects that are offered. While we were visiting the honors college, the dean said that the honors college separates the curious from the simply smart. I loved that.</p>
<p>Back in 2007 my son was invited to be in Honors College at Pitt- he had over 1400 on his SAT’s and took a tough course load but was not top 5% of his high school class (his high school was highly ranked in our state - pretty competitive academically).</p>
<p>Thanks very much everyone, this is very helpful and reassuring. MD Mom, the description of curious vs simply smart does sound great! I have no idea as yet if D1 will be interested, but it is certainly worth a look.</p>
<p>I am cyberschooled as well. This is very promising. I am going to apply at “Your Day on Campus”, which is like an all expenses paid minority day. It is on August 17th and Pitt has rolling admissions, so I wonder how long before I hear back… I could cross a lot of safeties off my list if I get in with a decent financial aid package (estimate).</p>
<p>I believe they start sending out decisions in late Sept./early October. And yes, the honors physics class is great due to Dr. Stewart who is the Dean of the Honors College. He teaches the course :)</p>
<p>I think LurkNess is correct in #3 above. Our youngest d was accepted into Pitt Honors with higher SATs but definitely a lower rank - or what would be lower if our hs ranked, which it doesn’t. It’s a well-regarded competitive hs, and she had a challenging curriculum, but I recall thinking at the time that the top 5 percent business had to be more of a guideline than a hard-and-fast standard.</p>
<p>I remember that she applied in late September; received her acceptance letter in late October, which mentioned the Honors College without specifically stating she’d been invited into it. Shortly afterwards, she received a separate letter with the Honors College notification. And about a week after that, a nice merit scholarship. We were always impressed with how well Pitt admissions handled such a large number of applicants. </p>
<p>In fact, we were very impressed with just about everything about Pitt. What a terrific school - excellent facilities/faculty, wonderful opportunities for top students especially, great sports, terrific town. Rolling admissions make it possible to take the edge off of a stressful process - good students can know they’ve got a strong option early on. My ds didn’t end up at Pitt, but they’d happily have gone there.</p>
<p>I have known kids accepted into the honors program with less than 1400 SAT. Everything else looked great, high GPA and rank. We are in a suburban Pittsburgh area district that sends a lot of kids to Pitt.</p>
<p>The SAT requirement for the honors college was recently raised from 1350 to 1400. I have a feeling that was done to cut down on the number of kids eligible for honors housing.</p>