My D loves Pitt and Pittsburgh, and while not that much into football, went to the games to support her friends who are in the Pitt band.
There is not just school spirit that centers around sports. Her friends and her are proud of their school and happily wear their Pitt attire.
Having a seat reserved in the pharmacy school was a huge advantage for her, and Pitt has a very good program. That’s what mattered most to her.
As for the weather, Pittsburgh is always a few degrees warmer than our town, lol.
As far as I know, the Pitt basketball game tickets are harder to get than football. Football season tickets for students are only $25, and there are busses that take them.
I finally caught up! Such a great feeling. I was a week behind and never thought I’d get back on track.
For those of you with kids who have committed, are you getting a lot more attitude from them? My son has this “why are you bothering me about my work?!” attitude that he never had before. And “I’ll let you know when I’m coming home and if I’m doing something with my friends.” I can’t say a word these days. He has at least one foot out the door.
Yea we are getting some “soiling.” But also I think S18 is showing some early signs of wistfulness. Just last night I noticed him looking at me with a grateful eye as I served him a dinner plate after he’s returned from play rehearsal.
Not sure if it is senioritis, but I suspect our DD is putting a little less time into BC Calc. and Physics homework. I base my suspicion on the amount of time she is . . . WATCHING THE BACHELOR!
@mommdc Wow $25 for Season Tickets to all the football games at a major ACC school. That is a gift… D will most likely be attending Ohio State and I am not even sure she can even get into one game for that amount let alone any game… She was never much of a Football fan although a star athlete herself. But once she visited her good friend at UGA this past season and got to see and feel the overall vibe of how the school and the town come together, she realized how much she would appreciate it for the next four years.
@stemmmm, so far not much “soiling the nest” here. If anything I’d say S has given us less attitude this year, but he’s getting a lot more sleep and downtime this year so he has fewer reasons to be crabby. It’s funny though, on the occasions when he is insufferable H and I agree that S moving on to college is a good thing. Initially we felt guilty for looking forward to S leaving in those instances, but now we’re OK with that being part of our complex feelings about the situation. It’s OK to simultaneously be sad and happy and relieved when S leaves.
@AmyBeth68 , my son didn’t end up doing the Chancellor’s application. It did not seem likely that he would get it and he was pretty burned out on applications for anything.
As the Pittsburgh resident on this list I can add some flavor to the discussion of Pitt, school spirit, Pitt sports, and the city as a place to live.
Pitt is major institution with a very good engineering school, as well as an outstanding world class medical center and all that goes along with that for undergraduate health related degrees. Its medical, law and business school are also great graduate schools.
From about 2001 until 2015 it was next to impossible to get a ticket to a basketball game. The BB facility is an unbelievable place to watch a game and the student section called the Oakland ZOO was crazy. Pitt was one of the first schools (others have followed suit) to give the best seats in the place to the student section which helps created a great atmosphere. The last two years have been a problem but I expect the program to rebound. Football is a bit more difficult because the students have to take a bus to Heinz field (about 6 miles away) to go to games. But those that attend have fun and show lots of school spirit.
The city itself is a great place to live. No longer a smoky steel town, Pittsburgh has become a high tech hub between Pitt and CMU. And it has the world class health center of UPMC which is the area’s largest employer. The city and metropolitan area is big enough to have 3 major league sports team as well as lots of culture but it is not so big that it is impossible to afford or enjoy them. Pittsburgh in the last 10 years or so has been quite a foody town with lots of great new restaurants. However, it still has retained the quaintness of it small neighborhoods.
Finally just to show how vibrant a city we have Amazon has picked Pittsburgh among the 12 finalists for the second Amazon hub.
Okay that is enough of a commercial, but as you can tell I am proud of Pitt and my city. I think any of your sons and daughters will get a great education and have a lot of fun if they decide “PITT is IT”
How is everyone in the Northeast doing with this storm?
We have power but the trees are heavy with snow and one has already come down between our house and the neighbor’s. My mom and nephew have been without power since this morning and are coming to stay with us. They are only five minutes away but I’m concerned about downed trees blocking the route. Two trees in their neighborhood have fallen on houses and another one just missed a car. I’m just sitting here now waiting for them. We’ll have four dogs here once they arrive, so it’s going to get chaotic.
@MACmiracle we’ve got 14.5" so far… On top of the 11" we got on Friday. We still have power but hearing of many without. It’s going to be dicey over the next few hours. Stay safe!
@burghdad and @mommdc thanks for the Pitt info. Very helpful. It’s still high on our list! @pickledginger I understand the burnout…they cut back on the number of interviews this year anyway, so probably a wise decision!
Ooh Pitt love time?
My D16 chose Pitt because of a combination of academics, size (wanted big), location (wanted urban), and cost. Her top choice at this time her senior year was Tulane, but although she got a big award from them, she would have had to take the Stafford loan to be able to attend. After some agonizing, she chose Pitt with no loans. She loves it. No regrets about Tulane now. She participates in club sports and academic fraternity, does research, works, has great friends, is on the honor roll, etc
All I could hope for.
Two messages here maybe?
1 Pitt is great (at least for my kid)
But also
2 If your kid “settles” for a more financially viable/reasonable option, they can still have an awesome college experience.
D and I visited Pitt. It wasn’t a good fit for her (too much school spirit :)) ), but we both came away saying that S20 would love it. Visit with S20 is tentatively scheduled!
