Pitt 2010 Forum

[Compaq1984]

Received my acceptance today in the mail. Dean's scholarship 14,000 per year. I am actually going to drive 6 hours tomorrow to visit the school because I have a free day.

congrats!

[jack duluoz]

jack, are you going to pitt?

Yes, first seat deposit is in.

[stayway]

jack, are you going to pitt?

Yes, first seat deposit is in.

do you know when pitt will hand out their finaid info?

[jack duluoz]

jack, are you going to pitt?

Yes, first seat deposit is in.

do you know when pitt will hand out their finaid info?

No, I dont. I know they wanted FAFSAs completed by march 1st.

[champ33]

does anyone know if pitt's deposit on april 1st is binding?

[Colton]

with my visit set next weekend i have a few questions about Pitt law

1. How competitive are students?

2. How are the professors? Are they easily accessible outside of class? Are they "evil"?

3. Do they tend to throw curveballs on the exams?

4. How is the curve?

5. Any specifics on job prospects for firms like KL Gates, Reed Smith, Jones Day ?(Please spare me the ITE talk)

6. I saw some university owned housing in North oakland, are those furnished? How "nice" are they? Are they easy to get? Is it first come first serve?

7. How is the weather there?

8. Any asian students?

9. If you are a 1L at Pitt and if you don't mind me asking, how well did you do? How much did you study?

Thanks.

Ok here goes:

1. Not competitive in the cut throat sense. The people are very social and down to earth. Of course there are 1 or 2 people per section who are your typical law school pricks, but 95% of the people here are great.

2. The professors have all been very easy for me to get a hold of. Two have invited my friends and I out to lunch. It's very common for profs to do that it seems.

3. None of my professors did last semester.

4. The curve is generous for a T2 IMO 3.0+

5. ITE top 5-10%. traditionally the top 20% are competitive. Pitt usually puts +/-12% in Biglaw. A large number of out best students are absolutely uninterested in Biglaw and are headed for public interest work.

6. I know 1 person who lives in university housing. I've been in the apt. its ok, nothing great. Almost everyone lives in apartments in shadyside and squirrel hill.

7. I think it's fine, but it'll depend on what you're used to.

8. Yes, not a ton though, but CMU has about a million. So you wont be alone.

9. I'm somewhere above median, we don't rank so I dont know where. I would guess less than top 1/3. I spend about 3 or 4 hours outside of class per day reading and studying and probably 10/12 hours total on the weekend. My study habits are in line with all the people I hang out with. There isn't a correlation between grades and the amount of time you study IMO. Everyone is smart and everyone works hard. The last 3 weeks before the end of the semester your whole life is studying for exams.

[burvowski]

When someone says the curve is "3.0+," what does that mean? I don't quite understand that. My dean's scholarship says it's conditional of me maintaining at least a 3.0 so I'm trying to get a grasp on how tough that will be.

[reverendt]

When someone says the curve is "3.0+," what does that mean? I don't quite understand that. My dean's scholarship says it's conditional of me maintaining at least a 3.0 so I'm trying to get a grasp on how tough that will be.

It means that the curve is such that the average student will finish the first year with about a 3.0. The "curve" is the 50% mark. Above that and you're in the top 1/2 the class. Below that and you're in the bottom half. This means that typically, an a given exam, the "average" student will get a B. Usually at Pitt is seems to work out to be just over a 3.0...so an exam with 80 students will probably work out something like this:
6 As
10 A-s
14 B+s
22 Bs
15 B-s
10 -15 C+ and below

With most of the exams being graded on a very similar scale, the average GPA of the class will probably be about a 3.05.

[jack duluoz]

9. I'm somewhere above median, we don't rank so I dont know where. I would guess less than top 1/3. I spend about 3 or 4 hours outside of class per day reading and studying and probably 10/12 hours total on the weekend. My study habits are in line with all the people I hang out with. There isn't a correlation between grades and the amount of time you study IMO. Everyone is smart and everyone works hard. The last 3 weeks before the end of the semester your whole life is studying for exams.

In your opinion, what is the difference between the top and bottom of the class? just curious...any other current students feel free to take this one.

Not that u are saying this, but when ppl say something along the lines of, "exam grading is arbitrary and involves an element of luck."--i am always somewhat skeptical because there are students who crush both 1L semesters. The top of the class is not made up of people who did ok one semester and great another, but people who grab A's in a lot of classes both semester. If it was as arbitrary and lucky as some say, then how do they explain the consistency?--great luck?

/rant.

[Colton]

9. I'm somewhere above median, we don't rank so I dont know where. I would guess less than top 1/3. I spend about 3 or 4 hours outside of class per day reading and studying and probably 10/12 hours total on the weekend. My study habits are in line with all the people I hang out with. There isn't a correlation between grades and the amount of time you study IMO. Everyone is smart and everyone works hard. The last 3 weeks before the end of the semester your whole life is studying for exams.

In your opinion, what is the difference between the top and bottom of the class? just curious...any other current students feel free to take this one.

Not that u are saying this, but when ppl say something along the lines of, "exam grading is arbitrary and involves an element of luck."--i am always somewhat skeptical because there are students who crush both 1L semesters. The top of the class is not made up of people who did ok one semester and great another, but people who grab A's in a lot of classes both semester. If it was as arbitrary and lucky as some say, then how do they explain the consistency?--great luck?

/rant.

Luck is a factor I guess, but I would say those people who got all A's just get "it". Its not magic. They write really good law school exam answers. The A exams I had a chance to look at for comparison framed the issue a little bit sharper than I did and they gave answers that were more focused - if that makes sense. There are people who are just plain good at writing the answer in the amount of time given more directly and concisely than everyone else. But the difference between an A and B is a lot smaller than people think. Honestly. There's very little wiggle room.

And actually the top of the class is very often made up of people who had mediocre first semesters but crushed it after going through the process once.

[champ33]

It seems there are a variety of endowment scholarships offered to both incoming students and 2/3L's, independent of the initial merit awards. The website states admitted applicants will be notified by april 1st if they've received one.. so just wondering if anybody has heard about any of these yet?

[Lonagan]

Received an e-mail letting me know my application will be decided in the near future. I interpreted it as a chance to tell them I am still interested.

[nyjfanjmk]

I got an email from pitt saying that they appreciate my patience and that my application is still under review (unsolicited).

I got that email as well. To me it almost sounded like a "soft" waitlist in the sense that it pretty much asked for an indication of continued interest in the school. But it's very possible that I'm overthinking it and it's nothing more than a nice gesture to those of us who are still waiting. Let's hope for some quick decisions now.

[Compaq1984]

For those of you curious about grading/curve etc... These pages should help---------->

--LinkRemoved--
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http://www.nalplawschoolsonline.org/ndl ... 04&yr=2009

[FunkyJD]

Who here has decided on Pitt? Is there a Class of 2013 page on Facebook?

ps- Thanks Compaq for the above links.

[jack duluoz]

Who here has decided on Pitt? Is there a Class of 2013 page on Facebook?

ps- Thanks Compaq for the above links.

I have and Yes.

So how dressed up is everyone getting for ASD on friday? Unless someone knows something i dont, i am thinking something along the lines of a casual button up and khakis.

[reverendt]

Who here has decided on Pitt? Is there a Class of 2013 page on Facebook?

ps- Thanks Compaq for the above links.

I have and Yes.

So how dressed up is everyone getting for ASD on friday? Unless someone knows something i dont, i am thinking something along the lines of a casual button up and khakis.

That sounds about right. No need to go fancier than that.

[Compaq1984]

Who here has decided on Pitt? Is there a Class of 2013 page on Facebook?

ps- Thanks Compaq for the above links.

Im about 95% set on PITT...
Facebook group exists...("Pitt Law-Class of 2013")


As for ASD, I'm def thinking button-down/polo and some khakis... although i'm sure there will be a few people with suits on... We can probably assume they will be the gunners... lol

Should we do anything to denote that we are from TLS?

[keg411]

For me it depends on the weather. Decent and sunny - skirt. Cold and/or raining - either black pants or jeans.

[snowpeach06]

It's off-putting when people get all dressed up. You only get dressed up to impress adults, and you've already done that if you are attending admitted students weekend, so now you just have to impress your peers, which you can do by being yourself, which likely means wearing jeans.

[jack duluoz]

As for ASD, I'm def thinking button-down/polo and some khakis... although i'm sure there will be a few people with suits on... We can probably assume they will be the gunners... lol

Should we do anything to denote that we are from TLS?

hmm. resemble our avatars? secret handshake?

[keg411]

As for ASD, I'm def thinking button-down/polo and some khakis... although i'm sure there will be a few people with suits on... We can probably assume they will be the gunners... lol

Should we do anything to denote that we are from TLS?

hmm. resemble our avatars? secret handshake?

[Compaq1984]

As for ASD, I'm def thinking button-down/polo and some khakis... although i'm sure there will be a few people with suits on... We can probably assume they will be the gunners... lol

Should we do anything to denote that we are from TLS?

hmm. resemble our avatars? secret handshake?

lol... that could work...

however, I think I did come across something in another school's forum where the TLS "kids" underlined there names on their name tags... subtle but effective...

[Scurredsitless1]

My resemblence to Attorney Birdman is uncanny. You won't be able to miss me

I'll underline, sure

[FunkyJD]

I'm glad I can't come, or I'd have to carry a mackerel or an unsuspecting swimmer in my teeth.