Yes, DD just completed her freshman year in Engineering. She opted for no honors her freshman year afterall. Her comment was that she might should have considered the engineering seminar in honors and done it because they did do some very interesting things in the honors sections. But, she feared the rigor would be too much for her. The rigor of freshman year did surprise her. The average is around a 2.9 for all freshman engineers after the first semester. And, this is out of a very high stat entering class. In addition to all the academics, they are adjusting to managing their time, figuring which extra-curriculars they have time for, and adjusting to living away from their family. It is tough to make these choices regarding honors sections not knowing how the student will feel as the semester progresses. All that said, I don’t think either choice is really so critical that it affects the end result or primary goals the student might have.
I’ll close by saying her freshman year at Pitt was a great success. She thought the academic advising was great, grew so much in the freshman engineering paper and conference assignment it was astounding. She mentioned she was very impressed by faculty and has a ton of respect for her fellow students. She loves the city and already can’t wait to go back in the fall. The fact that she loves it so much, given the very high rigor of the program, really means something. Pitt Engineering is doing a lot of things really right.