Agree with most of the post but your observations about Pitt. It’s not a charm school. They have some top notch programs. Engineering, CS, Business, Nursing, Chem, and Bio to name a few. A few spots below UW on the public rankings…Tied with UMD, above UWash, PSU, Rutgers, UMass…
Anything pre-med at Pitt will be very competitive. One of my son’s classmates last year turned down Penn for Pitt’s GAP program. OP was a semi-finalist.