University of Pittsburgh

About Me

Intro

I'm Andrew Carnegie and Andy Warhol. I'm Mr. Rogers' neighborhood and Gotham City. I'm a zombie apocalypse and a utopia. I love the Steelers, great libraries, dinosaurs, and pierogies. Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am Pittsburgh. I'm a hodgepodge of a college and I love it.

If we met back in the '70s, I may have looked a little rough around the edges. Sorry about that. I was going through a thing…these days, I've cleaned up my act. I've been investing in arts, culture, medicine, and technology, but I haven't forgotten my steelworker roots.

Check out the centerpiece of my campus, the Cathedral of Learning. It's the tallest educational building in the Western hemisphere and looks like the great hall at Hogwarts. If you're lucky, you could have class in one of the twenty-nine nationality rooms. Each was designed to look like traditional classrooms from the home countries of the immigrant communities that built this city. Cross your fingers for the Austrian room—those chairs are plush.

I've got a little bit of everything going on around here. Greek life exists but doesn't dominate, there's no shortage of symposiums for the Honors College crowd, and the city feels big enough to explore, but friendly enough to find your way around. Don't be afraid to say hello to your neighbors.

Name

Pitt Panthers. Hail to Pitt.

Hometown

The city that knows how to make an entrance. After driving into Pittsburgh through the Fort Pitt Tunnel, Steven Spielberg famously said, "All I need is a car and a camera to catch that incredible view."

Birthdate

1787

Body Type

I'd say I'm pretty average. Just shy of 25,000 undergrads and 10,000 grads, if you want to put a number on it. Sometimes, you'll be in a lecture hall with 200 of your closest friends. Other times, you'll be in a seminar with eight people who all know you're allergic to shellfish.

Current Living Situation

Whether you're in the dorms or off-campus, you'll probably live in Oakland. Maybe Shadyside if you're fancy, or Squirrel Hill if you're cool beyond your years. As a freshman, most people vie for Towers or Nordenberg, which are both nice (as dorms go) and are smack dab in the middle of my campus. Can't beat that two-minute walk to class.

Starting junior year, most students move off-campus into the surrounding area. The neighborhoods around campus are an eclectic mix of Italian grandmothers, frat boys, professors, and grad students with young families. Wherever you end up, there's bound to be cheap food and friendly faces.

Relationship Status

Penn State and WVU make me so mad, I could set a couch on fire. My closer neighbors—Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne, Chatham, and Carlow—are pretty cool. Having them nearby makes me feel like a Justice League of collegiates with impressive academic powers.

Religion

There are some gorgeous churches around town if that's your thing, but I was founded as a research institution way back in the 1780s, so I lean more toward the secular side.

You should apply to me if...

you want a weird, welcoming, and wonderful place to figure out who you want to be.