Getting To Know: University of Pittsburgh (PA)-Again
The University of Pittsburgh (aka “Pitt”) is one of the schools where I try to get frequent updates. I have covered this school three prior times. Check out my tour of the Swanson School of Engineering in a prior post. There is more to write about the University of Pittsburgh than most other universities I have visited, because Pitt has a lot to offer. This story is a little longer than most with lots of links. So, please read on!
The University of Pittsburgh campus features interesting architecture, most significantly the Cathedral of Learning.
With 42 stories, it’s the tallest building on any college campus today and has study rooms for students of various ancestries around the globe. The beautiful Heinz Chapel, shown below next to exterior and interior photos of the Cathedral, is close by. I would like to thank my friend, Beth Godzich for the photos you will see in this story.
The campus is also between two retail centers, downtown Pittsburgh and more college-oriented dining, drinking and shopping in the direction towards Carnegie Mellon. Pitt also borders on Schenley Park, one of the largest and nicest urban parks in America. Walk around this campus and you will find the original studios where Mister Rogers Neighborhood was filmed. While the studios were on campus, episodes were also shot in various locations around Pittsburgh.
TheUniversity of Pittsburgh encourages undergraduates to use the city, arranging discounts at the Carnegie Museum and the Carnegie Music Hall, both in the heart of campus. Students may use the city bus system as well as the incline cars from the downtown up Mount Washington for no charge just by showing their student ID. Pitt also guarantees housing for three years, a huge plus considering that the university is located in one of the more expensive neighborhoods in the city.
The University of Pittsburgh freshman class profile compares well to Rutgers-New Brunswick.
The Class of 2027 profile for Pitt by school shows similar GPAs but lower SAT score ranges than the Rutgers profile for Arts & Sciences, Business, Engineering and Nursing. However, 40 percent of Pitt undergraduates come from states other than Pennsylvania. Less than 10 percent of Rutgers-New Brunswick students hail from states outside New Jersey. But Pitt has half as many undergraduates and is also within a major city. It could be a less intimidating place, as long as costs work out.
One thing that I noticed on the Pitt profile: over half of the business and nursing applicants submitted ACT or SAT scores. So did nearly half of the applicants to the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences. Admissions to Pitt are test optional and will remain that way for at least another admissions cycle. But it might help to have high scores for the more competitive programs as well the Frederick Honors College and some of the Guaranteed Admission programs.
Pitt accepted just under half of all applicants for this year’s freshman class. Acceptance rates had been higher than 60 percent in prior years. Those who choose to come to Pitt tend to stay. Freshman retention rates have been over 90 percent for some time. Four-year graduation rates have also risen. Seventy-one percent of the students who entered in 2017 finished on time. Sixty-nine percent of the previous two classes did as well.
Pitt requires applicants to choose a school, but does not force them to choose a major.
Prospective freshmen apply to the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business Administration, the Swanson School of Engineering, The School of Computing & Information, the School of Nursing and the School of Public Health. Each freshman is assigned an academic advisor who can help them to transfer into any school, excluding Nursing, if they are undecided between, for instance, Business and a liberal arts major, or Engineering or Computer Science versus a Math or science major. Students who are interested in education begin their degree program at the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences as do students in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Information Sciences, Pharmacy and Social Work.
Pitt is one of America’s leading research universities.
This is especially true for the health sciences, health professions and medicine. Pitt also takes liberal arts more seriously than other large universities. Philosophy as well as Philosophy of Science count among Pitt’s signature academic programs; courses in one of these two subjects are required for a Bachelor’s degree. The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, with over 10,000 undergraduates, has almost five times the undergraduate enrollment of Pitt’s excellent business school and nearly four times the enrollment of the Swanson School of Engineering. Pitt also has some of the more comprehensive offerings one would find in the allied health professions as well as computing and information systems. Pitt also does an excellent job at helping students to go abroad as well as in supporting team-based consulting projects in business and engineering. The university is one of the more supportive when it comes to helping students in these programs to find internships.
Pitt offers a larger and more achievable Honors College experience than Penn State.
Admissions to the University’s Frederick Honors College are by application. Overall, Pitt has between 2,100 and 2,200 students associated with the Honors College vs. between 1,800 and 1,900 at Penn State. Pitt also welcomes freshmen who have completed at least 24 credits to apply to Frederick. They must have a 3.5 GPA or better. Transfer students from other schools may also apply. Admissions are test optional, as they are for the university through the 2025 cycle.
Pitt offers a unique, and exceptionally rigorous, Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil).
The BPhil is offered to students who are enrolled in the university’s Honors College and us available to students in any major offered by the university. It requires an independent research project approved by Honors faculty as well as a thesis that must be written and defended at the same level as a student who would be receiving a masters degree. Approximately 70 students graduate with this degree each year.
Another reason to seriously consider Pitt is the Freshman Guarantee Programs.
Students who are selected to these programs are assured admissions to the graduate or professional school, provided that they continue to make the proper academic progress required under the guarantee. Pitt extends these programs not only to Masters degrees but also to its dental, law and medical schools. Pittsburgh is one of the better cities to take advantage of these programs.; The city’s job market is large enough to absorb students into clinical and internship positions as well as full-time jobs.
Pitt’s undergraduate student body is of similar size to Georgia Tech, Boston University and the University of Southern California (USC).
All four schools have between 18,000 and 20,000 undergraduates and are more selective than Pitt. They are also members of the Association of American Universities, among the leading research universities in America.
- Georgia Tech is one of Pitt’s sports rivals, and like Pitt, is a public national research university. Both schools compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference. However, Georgia Tech has a much smaller selection of majors than Pitt. It also has much larger programs in engineering and computer science. Georgia Tech also has an enclosed campus, though some of the housing and the main bookstore are in downtown Atlanta.
- Boston University, like Pitt, does not have an enclosed campus. However, also like Pitt, a visitor will know when they are entering and leaving campus. Unlike Pitt, Boston University houses over 60 percent of their undergraduate student body and guarantees housing for four years. However, Boston has a more expensive rental market than Pittsburgh.
- USC, like Pitt, does not have an enclosed campus, and houses less of their students (36 vs. 42 percent). Greek life is also more important at USC, engaging a fifth of the undergrads versus 10 percent for Pitt.
The University of Pittsburgh and Boston University share sports linages that New York Yankee fans won’t like.
Yankee fans like me know that Boston University is within walking distance of Fenway Park and that Red Sox fans sing Neal Diamond’s Sweet Caroline at every home game. However, there are also mental connections for Yankee fans in Pittsburgh.
The University of Pittsburgh preserved the outfield fence of the old Forbes Field. Yankee catcher turned left fielder Yogi Berra watched Bill Mazeroski’s home run sail over that fence. The home run gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a dramatic Game 7 World Series win in 1960. These days the Pirates are far from the best team in Major League Baseball, but they have often signed former Yankees, most recently Domingo German, who threw a perfect game for the Yankees last season.
Yankee fans who like football will hear Pitt Panther football fans sing Sweet Caroline at every home game. Only the “oh, oh, oh” is changed to “Let’s Go Pitt!” and “So good” is changed to “Go Pitt!”
The University of Pittsburgh is more like USC than some might think.
- Their medical centers are global leaders as well.
- Football is the main sport on both campuses. Pitt has won nine national championships, sixth among all major programs, and more than any East Coast school. USC has won 11, more than any West Coast school.
- The athletic programs face competition for attention from professional teams. Pitt students get an added benefit of access to discount tickets to Pirates and Penguins games
- Both schools once hosted major league baseball and professional football on their campuses. But now Pitt is a guest of an NFL team instead of their landlord.
Football matters at the University of Pittsburgh.
Pitt has actually been the main football power in Pennsylvania longer than Penn State, though both share an identity with a feline mascot. Penn State has the Nittany Lion. Pitt has the Panther (below). Football and basketball fans should join the Panther Club to get the best prices and student seating. Panther Club members pay less than half the costs that Penn State students pay to attend home football games.
In addition to winning nine national championships, ten Pitt Panthers have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That ranks fourth among all colleges, tied with Ohio State. Only Notre Dame, USC and Michigan have sent more players to the Hall. Pitt has made 18 Bowl appearances since 2000, winning seven. Former Pitt safety, NFL player and executive, now current broadcaster Louis Riddick has a nice narrative about Pitt and Panther football. From the videos that I watched the managers of Acrisure Stadium, also home to the Steelers, do a decent job of making the place look like Pitt’s home field. The Panthers average about 48,000 fans per game, around 70 percent of Acrisure’s capacity. That’s not bad for a team that went 3-9 last season. However, it’s also less than half the crowd that will come to games at Penn State, even when the Nittany Lions have a bad season.
Pitt competes in 18 other sports besides football.
The Peterson Events Center is an impressive indoor venue for basketball and other sports. I dropped a photo below. Pitt is a better basketball school than some might believe. The Panthers have made 16 post-season appearances in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT since 2000. The women have made six. Men’s soccer and mens & women’s track & field, swimming and diving have also been successful programs. So have the women’s volleyball and wrestling programs.
There is much to like about Pitt. But there are downsides including high in-state tuition and fees.
While out-of-state charges are about the same as Penn State or the University of Maryland-College park, Pitt is not one of the more generous schools when it comes to meeting financial need or providing merit-based aid.
- On average, the university met less than 60 percent of need for the Class of 2026.
- Just over 10 percent of the freshman in the Class of 2026 were offered merit based aid; scholarships averaged $8,700.
- 2023 graduates owed on average, over $38,000. Nearly a fifth of the class had to take out private loans.
- However, some earned graduate degrees as part of combined programs.
Pitt will be less expensive than urban private universities, especially for Pennsylvania residents. But cost-conscious families from states such as California, Minnesota, Ohio, Utah or Washington, where the flagship is also in the state’s largest city, might want to try for admission to Home State U.
Conclusions
Pitt is at least as good a school as Boston University, NYU or USC, and less expensive, too. It’s also more into spirit and sports oriented than BU or NYU, and maybe Georgia Tech. Downsides aside, a very bright student who has their sights set on an exceptionally selective city-based research university will not be disappointed in Pitt, as long as the finances and the housing (choose Honors or a learning community) work in their favor.
Pitt gets on a lot of lists, though not always as a first-choice school. During my recent briefing I was told that over 7,000 New Jersey residents applied for admission to this fall’s entering class. My home state represents almost ten percent of the total applicant pool. I would expect Pitt to get on more lists since the most desired private urban universities will continue to be quite selective. So will the flagships in many states, including New Jersey.
Report Card: University of Pittsburgh
- Four-Year/Six-Year Graduation Rates: A
- Freshman Retention: A
- Costs: C resident/B non-resident
- Curriculum:A
- Community: A
- Comforts: B+
- Connections: A
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