An admitted students day? Wow……I have no words…
Pitt does it right. Gotta ring the bell.
Some really great things about Pitt and PGH
- The arts and culture, museums and parks
- Cathy
- A foodie town. OMG options all over PGH
- Pitt Football at Heinz field and Pirates baseball at PNC (which is a great park)
- A big city with concerts and shows
- You can do as many minors and majors and certs as you can cram into a schedule.
Not so great
- The main cafeteria is bad. Like historically bad. The one up the hill by Sutherland is better.
- It generally difficult to get to Pittsburgh from many cities. Often just gotta drive.
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My student and I attended admitted students day for engineering and I guess it was helpful, but not in the way you’d expect. It was a beautiful day and overall the event was well organized. All students involved were great. As with this impression from a 2020 ASD, I thought the engineering presentation was lackluster. I’ve seen presentations recorded during covid that were much more convincing, focusing on first year student support for what is a rough curriculum. Someone asked about the engineering school being a weed-out program and the response was that students have lacked math skills due to covid and they are now catching this through a math assessment that is video recorded. That’s fair, but I wanted to hear more about the support system. The engineering tour was a lot of “this room is closed and the light is out, but if you could see in there…” (No fault of the student engineering ambassadors who were great.) The basement level halls were dark, dirty and littered with materials and it seemed like a safety hazard. I was surprised that the makerspaces weren’t open on a Saturday and they close on 5 on weekdays. I guess I’m used to the Sears Thinkbox at Case Western which is a bright, clean 7 story building that is open to the public, including on weekends and evenings. To be fair, their makerspace could be amazing; all we saw were the dark windows of the space. They did say that there were other makerspaces throughout campus and maybe those are open on weekends. I really wanted them to sell the program to me. My student even said that they failed to sell it as we were leaving. The welcome session which focused on cheers, recognizing parent groups in the audience, and a giant rock-paper-scissors game didn’t add value and were not for us. They did do a good job of selling the city through video. To be clear, I know Pitt is a great school with a renowned engineering program. It’s an honor for my student to have been admitted. I would love to hear from other families who may have attended the engineering sessions who had a different impression. I apologize that this post will 100% sound whiny to the families who are still waiting for a response. I’m sorry that some of the early applicants are still waiting. Best wishes to everyone!
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I guess there is a school for every student. For us the warm community stood out and was one important consideration. In a time where mental health issues are an epidemic on many US campuses, at Pitt I saw well adjusted, relaxed, no- nonsense students, professors and staff and that was refreshing- college is not all about cut throat competition and worrying if you’ll make it all the time- Pitt is chill, and after successfully sending 2 other kids to public flagships, one during Covid, I learned that’s crucial for their success. Also visited Case with a different kid, and imo Cleveland doesn’t stand up to Pittsburgh’s charm. Cost of attendance at Case is also much higher, especially when you compare PA in-state costs vs private school costs at Case.
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Agreed with the cafeteria review and honestly I was surprised that there is only 1 main cafeteria for a school of Pitt’s size. We ate at The Eatery in Towers as part of the Admitted Students event and it was definitely “meh” as my kids would say, but none of us were expecting too much from cafeteria style dining. I think the proximity/walkability to all of the fun and unique neighborhood restaurants and food options in Oakland helps to balance this out and we were told your meal plan swipes also work at many of the nearby chain options too.
The drive for us was long, easy, but boring. We live in NEPA and pass PSU at the halfway point out to Pitt 
We double and triple checked with our daughter that she liked Pitt that much better than PSU and she assured us she did. She’s definitely a kid that leans more towards an urban campus for arts, dining, culture so we weren’t surprised but shaving 2hrs off the drive in both directions would sure be a bit easier until we give her a car to do the drives herself.
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The Perch up the hill in Sutherland is another main cafeteria and is very convenient to students living in the dorms there plus anyone else that has classes or activities midway. My son was fine with the food there freshman and sophomore years and used a commuter plan junior year. Having two kids at Pitt over the last 5 years, the food was never terrible and they made do.
As for the drive, we also live in. Bucks County and have used the buses many times union my daughter had her car there for clinicals. She gave many students rides home over the breaks so there is a way to avoid that drive every time between busses and car pools.
The city has been great for them- easy to get around on the mass transits and lots of different things to do.
My youngest has also been accepted to Pitt and is also interested in PSU- but so many advantages for being in the city that we are all trying to convince her it’s the right move.
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I was in that session and I agree that the session was underwhelming. But I was there for B&G day and they sold it there for us. We found out that students enroll in no credit seminar which is basically weekly meeting with advisor, upper classmen, with a purpose to guide student, to share experiences from different majors. No other university that we visited has that. There is not cutthroat competition for major pick like at Purdue or OSU. The only requirement is good academic standing. I think that about 13-15% of freshman change school. I remember that I had to do some quick math on that because it was not very obvious from presentation. I am not too worried about math comment because my son is doing some calc 3 math now in senior year. Coding will be a bigger challenge for him later on. Case is second on his list. I think it is a great school. We are from the area and my main concern is safety in campus vicinity. Unlike Pitt there is no way I would let my kid use public transportation in Cle.
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We thought the Business School presentation was very lackluster as well and now wondering if their Marketing person also attended Pitt Business because that’s a bit concerning if so. I think my Senior could have done a better job. The marketing presentation at a business school that teaches marketing should be great, strong and effective. How do I trust our kids will be ready and prepared for today’s job market if their own marketing department has a weak presentation?
Not to be crass, but it’s a terrific business school, and another student will be ecstatic to accept the spot. To each his own. Sorry you didn’t like the presentation
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I agree. It’s an amazing business school. Like anything else in life, it’s what your student chooses to get out of it. Don’t be swayed by a smoke & mirrors presentation. I was very impressed by how friendly everyone was during my visit for an official tour and B&G day. The facilities are top notch. Take a tour of other universities and you will quickly realize how run down their buildings and classrooms are in comparison. Pitt is an excellent school in a small, but vibrant city. So many opportunities await these lucky kids who are accepted.
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I know and she’s still very interested. Ultimately it’s not my decision to make and it bothered me more than it did her.
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Last year’s B&G Day was by far the best college presentation we saw, and it cemented my daughter’s desire to attend. The individual who ran the show had the perfect personality to hype students up, and seamlessly wove in video shorts, other speakers, jokes and games, etc.. I took my son to this year’s B&G Day with high expectations and the presentation was far more sedate and, frankly, tedious. The speaker was knowledgeable but simply lacked the stage presence of last year’s speaker.
As for the food, my daughter is perfectly happy at The Eatery. She prefers The Perch but she isn’t starving or miserable on the days she can’t make it. She sends me photos of her meals every day (I’m not sure why, but I enjoy hearing from her LOL) and most of them look absolutely fine.
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Looks like most students who have applied between Aug and 1st week of Oct have got their decisions one way or the other and acceptances are being less reported at least in this forum the past few days. Admitted students day is a way for them to judge how many of the early acceptances at least in state and those within short driving distance will likely enroll. In a month or so, Pitt will be one of the many offers for a lot of accepted students and the odds are low for those waIting for Pitt but still good. Last years thread seems to suggest acceptances in Jan-March too.
We’re still waiting here. Can’t remember the exact date all the documents were in but probably by September 15th. We’ve sort of stopped getting our hopes up 7:15 every night. I still don’t think his “odds are low” as you say, I just think his app is now in a much bigger pool as more and more apps come in. For reference, he has a 4.79 weighted, and 33 ACT. Only 5 AP courses and everything else is honors
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Yeah, I am still thinking that initial period of activity basically every night was a product of them getting a delayed start this year and needing to clear a backlog.
This now feels like a much more “normal” pace where a given school might only release decisions once a week, possibly not even that. And for all sorts of reasons not relating to its merits, your application might not be included in the first decision wave for your application cohort, or indeed the second, or so on.
And waiting is not fun, but again I strongly urge people not to think it actually means anything if your application isn’t getting a decision while some others who applied at the same time are. You are almost surely not alone, and it probably has nothing to do with the merits of your application.
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I agree not all hope is lost and considering high stats there is no reason for you to worry about your son. But I still believe for colleges which do rolling, they send out a good proportion of acceptances in first wave, then wait to see the total applicant pool, judge interest and commitment from those with admittance and then give out acceptances in a phased manner. So for those not accepted the odds go down in every phase but it doesn’t mean ruling out acceptance. So many factors , so good luck.
I guess I just have a hard time reconciling that model with what appears to happen at Pitt specifically.
If you look at last year’s thread, you still have reports of people applying periodically during late September, October, November, or even December, and then getting acceptances some variable number of weeks later, but not all at once. Indeed, they seemed to be coming out more or less weekly at least into early January.
So to me it doesn’t appear there is ever really a time when the “total applicant pool” is in front of Pitt’s admissions committees. And lots of kids got admitted between late October and at least early January, with a loose relationship to when they applied.
Edit: Oh, but to be clear–I do think if you apply later, there may be a higher standard you have to meet. Apparently our HS (with a lot of Pitt applicants) has data to that effect.
But once you have applied, I would not be concerned about whether your decision is taking a bit longer than others. Of course if they do something like ask for a midyear report, that is a different issue.
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D25 was accepted 10/29, applied 10/3 for Biomedical Sciences. OOS, IB Diploma 3.95 UW.
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I am in agreement that there will be a lot of acceptances for the next 2 months and additional applications. Total application pool for colleges is still likely looked at on a daily /weekly basis.. Total apps, number accepted so far, no rejected, no pending/deferred, net pending applications and net targeted admittance spots still not filled.. It also varies by school as in Pitt - Engineering and Business schools have very less spots. In my kids school, there has been almost 95% %acceptance from 2017 (most typically apply to engineering or business) with the remaining deferred/waitlisted. Low SAT scores (less than 1250) plus Low GPA (weighted GPA of less than 3.5 /4.00.. his school doesn’t do the typical 5 scale for weighted GPA calculation) was the common theme for deferral in our school with all low GPA and high SAT scores (above 1300) being accepted. Out of his school’s 5 deferrals/waitlisted, 1 was accepted. My son is in the overall mid range of his school acceptances and asked for mid term grades and his SAT was 1400. Not sure if asking for mid term grades is considered as deferral in rolling admissions.
Still no word here…
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