Becky

The common stereotype at Pitt is similar to that of any medium-to-large state school. In general, we fit the "work hard, party harder" category. There's always a party and the bars are never really empty no matter what day of the week it is, but you also won't feel lame if you hole up in the library and study before a particularly rough bout of midterms, because it's likely that at least some of the people you know will be doing the same thing. Most students are stereotyped as really into sports, since Pitt is a pretty good division 1 school. This is pretty accurate - I wasn't into sports when I came here, but being around so many people who were, I now understand football and have fun at games.

Overall, I love Pitt. It's not gigantic like Penn State, but it's large enough that there's always something going on and unlike in high school, you couldn't even know everyone if you tried. One optimum thing about Pitt is it's location - it's in the city of Pittsburgh, in a neighborhood called Oakland which is so bustling that it's often labelled as a "second downtown" - but the school is located 3 or 4 miles from actual downtown, so it's in a much safter / less-sketchy area. Pitt's campus is essentially integrated into the surrounding city. I hear horror stories of friends at tiny colleges in the middle of nowhere who get sick of their dining hall food within a week - but there are so many restaurants within just a five-minute walk from the main academic buildings that I never have that problem! There's also so much to do, and the rest of the city of Pittsburgh is easily accessible because students get free bus transportation.

There is a lot of Pitt pride among students, and this tends to be greater in those students who like sports more. In fact, one experience that I'll always remember has to do with Pitt pride - at our football games, there's a tradition of putting our arms around each other and singing our own special version of "Sweet Caroline" - that song has come to embody everything I love about the school.

Something unusual about Pitt is that we have a 40-floor building called the Cathedral of Learning. Inside, it looks like scenery from Harry Potter. It houses a bunch of academic departments and classrooms. Some of the classrooms, "nationality rooms," are actually decorated and themed for different countries. It makes sitting in class a lot more interesting!

One negative thing about our school's administration is that they're not very accessible. They're helpful enough and easy enough to find if you have general questions about things, like how to pay a bill or register for classes, but if you want to be more engaged as a student and actually propose major changes on campus or policy changes, it is hard to access any administration. It is essentially impossible to communicate with or access upper-level administration. One thing I'd change about Pitt is to have it be one of those schools where the President (or in our case, Chancellor) is known to interact with students on a daily basis.

The academics at Pitt are extremely varied, which is good because it means there's something for everyone's preferences. A lot of the intro classes are several hundred people (the biggest being 300-400), so it's easy to get lost in them (which, in classes you don't really care about and want to be able to skip without being docked attendance points, this is great). A lot of the upper-level classes within majors are smaller and more intimate, around 20 or 30 students, and in this case the professor will know your name. This is generally a good thing though, because in your major, you usually want the opportunity to be more engaged.

My favorite class was Intro to Poetry Writing, which isn't even close to either of my majors. As a freshman science major it was the first small class I had ever had, so I liked that, and also my professor was really young, cool, and understanding. He listened to the interests of the class, which helped us decide what to read, and made assignments really flexible so that we could tailor them to our individual interests.

Though the typical Pitt student might be stereotyped as lazy in regards to homework, most Pitt students are actually pretty intellectual, and random intellectual conversation is, while not prevalent, definitely not out of the ordinary. I've walked by students sitting around randomly debating nuclear energy, and one of my friends met his current girlfriend because they got to talking about social issues in society today at an otherwise typical twenty-first birthday party.

One great thing about the Pitt student's laid-back attitude is that most students aren't competitive academically. The one glaring exception to this is pre-med students, and if you're taking what's considered a weed-out class for pre-med students (intro biology or organic chemistry) and you are not pre-med, it will be an awful experience because you literally won't be able to get an A without giving up 30 hours a week to the library.

The school's liberal arts and academic requirements are relatively easy and painless, especially if you're coming in with some AP credits. The "global" requirements are a bit hefty if you don't study abroad, but just the mere act of studying abroad (regardless of the classes you take abroad) will knock out anywhere from 2-3 of them.

Most of the professors at Pitt are pretty approachable, friendly, and willing to see you outside of class (I've had a few in the hard sciences which aren't very approachable though). I've definitely gotten the opportunity to get really close to a couple professors, one of whom serves as essentially a mentor to me, and I've even been to his house and met his wife and children. In most cases professors are willing to talk to and establish relationships with students, but usually this is something the student must initiate.

The education at this school isn't really geared toward getting a job for the most part - we have a strong liberal arts program, and the second best philosophy program in the nation (and philosophy majors are notorious for not having jobs when they graduate). That being said, the engineering school and any pre-professional track (pharmacy, med, dental) are clearly geared toward getting you a job/into the relevant professional schools.

Approximately 70% of the students are from Pennsylvania, but even though I have something in my mind that is a "stereotypical Pennsylvanian," not many of the students fit that stereotype. The largest area represented is probably the city and suburbs around Pittsburgh. However, I'm from New York, and have met people from Texas, California, Alaska, Minnesota, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Flordia. There is also a pretty good number of international students - lots from China and India - especially in graduate programs - but you're also likely to know at least one international student as an undergrad.

Pitt's football team and men's basketball team are by far the most popular sports to follow. Both of these teams' games are very popular to go to, and I've even been on ESPN before at a football game!

A lot of popular speakers and figures come to Pitt - from President Obama (who came downtown when he was campaigning) to Michelle Obama (who came to our campus), to Joe Biden (who came to our campus just a few weeks ago well into his term as vice-president), to famous actors (that one guy from Inception who is not Leonardo DiCaprio), to Ke$ha who performed here last spring.

If you want to do something on a weekend that doesn't involve drinking, a Pitt organization has Friday night tea houses, with music, conversation, and games, and there are always random campus events going on. There is also a large art and theatre scene downtown, and through the university's organization called PittArts, it's really easy to get cheap tickets to broadway shows that come here, plays, or philharmonic performances.

If you want to do something on a weekend that does involve drinking, you will likely just be able to roam the off-campus student residential areas and find a house party. There are also well-known fraternity houses and at least five popular bars within a five or ten minute's walk from main campus. If you're roaming the streets at 10pm or later you can tell that at least half the people walking around are drunk.

It's there if you want it, but only something like 10% of students actually participate. That being said, there are enough frats that there's always one throwing a party. Because Greeks are generally so active at campus it might seem more prevalent than only 10%. There are both on-campus and off-campus fraternity houses, but sororities have to have their official housing in dorms buildings rather than their own housing structures. I have heard rumor that this is due to some really weird and ancient law in Pittsburgh that anything more than 3 or 4 women living together is technically considered a brothel, and that's why they have to be in dorms. (I can't verify if that's true or not, but it certainly makes for a good story)

Probably the week before finals week. Lots of professors think they're doing you a favor by making your final projects/exam due the last week of classes, but so many of them do this that oftentimes the week before finals week is more stressful than finals week itself.

Our campus lies along and in between two major city roads, Forbes Ave and Fifth Ave. A common trick played on freshmen is, when they ask where something is, to say "at the intersection of Forbes and Fifth." So every freshman should know that the roads are actually parallel!

One of the coolest courses has got to be African Drum and Dance Ensemble. I've never taken it, but I've been to their concerts and they're amazing! It's taught by a Ugandan PhD student, and they sing, learn dances, and drum and other instrument parts to traditional African music. They even dress up in traditional garb, and the dancing is so intense that each class is a workout!

We've got one landmark that no one else does - our 40-floor gigantic building called the Cathedral of Learning. It looks just like you imagine the beautiful cathedrals of England to be, except tall, skinny, and secular. The architecture and atmosphere inside is awesome, especially on the first floor in the common room, which is open 24 hours for students to study. The view from the higher floors is magnificent, and you will definitely have a couple classes there in your time at Pitt. If you're lucky, the class might be in one of the cathedral's "nationality rooms" - rooms decorated to with aspects of the culture and architecture of a certain country.