The University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Campus

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Anthropology (This Major's Salary over time)
After four years, I am still pleased with my decision to go to Pitt. There are many pros and cons, like any other school, but it is essentially what you make of it. I graduated from high school in NYC and obviously, Pitt was completely different. The city itself can not really be called a "city", downtown is dead quiet. The neighborhood of Oakland, where Pitt is located, can be conjested during the day because of students and hospital staff but for the most part, this is a very, very quiet town. I personally found it refreshing. I found for the most part that University staff are not very helpful. It's in your best interest to get to know each of your professors very well or you could go the first two years being just a number. There are a number of extra curricular activities but it's up to you to put in effort (as it should be). Greek life is a waste of time and money. Only join if you're desperate and can't make friends any other way. The two biggest problems with Pitt are 1. HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, student off-campus housing. I'm talking, depolorable. Unsafe. Filthy. You'll need to dish out extra $$ to live in one of the few, nicer buildings, or ShadySide. 2. Racial tension. Pitt is very diverse, but not in a positive way. Blacks and Whites don't mix well (or much at all) on this campus. Black Action Society and Black Greek Life is very big in it's own right, but it's completely separate from everything else on campus. I'm white and for three years I lived with my black roommate, which was apparently an issue amongst most of the black community on campus.

Pitt's campus is beautiful and well maintained. Pittsburgh weather is terrible, and depressing. Night life is…okay. I've seen better and I've seen much worse. So it's not really a factor.

Overall, Pitt is a good time and a solid education. It's definitely not a good fit for everyone though.