Hot Listing: University of Pittsburgh
Much like wearing four-inch Christian Louboutins to the supermarket on a Tuesday morning, attending a “city” college can read as bold, glamorous, idiosyncratic. Similarly, it often comes with some stark - and potentially uncomfortable - trade-offs.
Many times, you don’t get an enclosed campus or tight community. It’s super expensive, both to study and to live. There isn’t a palpable, unified sense of school spirit. There is a feeling of detachment from the experience of college, and sometimes: a cultural coldness. Your life can prematurely drift into that of a 25-year-old junior copy editor - one with a measly salary who routinely puts Top Ramen on her parents’ credit card.
But the University of Pittsburgh seems - rather remarkably - to have escaped these trade-offs.
The sheer, 1920s regalness of their campus belies a community teeming with energy and togetherness and passion - and one that is markedly diverse. I saw every conceivable type of person over the 48 hours I was decamped there - from pink-haired art students to Vuitton-clutching sorority girls. Every self was everywhere.
And shockingly, they all appear to get along and have a good time together. Students seem to gather at the numerous centralized green spaces on campus, which give the environs cohesion, and the community a tighter, tactile vibe. Schenley Plaza was my chosen pitch, where more than one spikeball landed on my copy of Vogue, prompting kind regrets from the offending athletes.
The niceness, and down-to-earth approachability of the people, initially caught me off guard - I forgot that Pittsburgh is Midwest adjacent. But tons of random students and faculty said “hello” to me as I rolled out for my morning coffee. Do note: I live in Boston, where most people only talk to their neighbors to threaten them about their errant leaves and lax sorting of recyclables.
There is also Pitt gear everywhere. Like everywhere. People obviously love the place, almost obsessionally. It’s also a bonafide D1 athletics powerhouse - a true rarity among urban colleges.
But it was my fabulous and smart private tour guide, Kira, that finally put it all together for me. “Morale is just unusually high at Pitt,” she told me as we stood in the shadow of Cathy (the hugely iconic “Cathedral of Learning"), “everyone here just really wants to be here.” She’s right. And you can feel it.
Here are three more reasons to love Pitt:
1.) Hail to Rolling Admission. I’m sorry, but this is every College Counselor's dream. You can apply starting on August 1, and you’ll get an admission decision within six to eight weeks, sometimes faster. But, buyer beware: that does not mean that Pitt is “easy” to get into. It certainly is not. But if you do apply early in that rolling period, and if you are lucky enough to land a spot, a colossal weight will be lifted off your shoulders during your senior fall.
2.) Bulletproof Health Sciences. Preemptive disclaimer: all of the academics at Pitt are outstanding. But the strength of the health sciences warrants a moment of pause. Pitt has one of the best undergraduate nursing programs in America. They offer myriad “GAP” programs, where undergraduates receive guaranteed admission to the University’s health-related graduate divisions, including their dental school and physician assistant program. Pitt’s medical school and its associated teaching hospital are world renowned. And back in the day, the Salk vaccine was discovered in these halls.
3.) Cost of Attendance. We’re at the precipice of many institutions - including some of Pitt’s peers - costing $100,000 per year. I’m sorry, what? Conversely, Pitt’s total cost of attendance for out-of-state residents this year was just a hair north of $60,000, depending on the enrolled division; and they also have some generous merit scholarship opportunities, too. It’s the steal of the century - and one that is bolstered and secured by their baller endowment, which clocks it at roughly $5.5 billion. To boot, the cost of living in Pittsburgh is considerably lower than in Boston, New York City, and Washington D.C.
I’m going to end by being slightly nasty, but in the loving RuPaul’s Drag Race sort of way. As I loaded my duffle and tote into the Uber for my ride back to the airport, and took in the grandeur of the Soldiers and Sailors lawn one last time, I thought: “why would it make sense for someone to pay more than 50% more per year to go to one of the slightly tonier East Coast “city” schools over this?” For, in my humble opinion, Pitt is actually better in many - if not all - ways.
See, I told you: slightly nasty. Albeit valid. Ru would be proud.
