Chancellor on Pitt's fall semester, financial issues

[str61166]

Regarding transfers from branches, this is not so at Pitt. It is so at PSU. Although branch transfers happen at Pitt, they aren't guaranteed, and Pitt actually discourages them. Academic programs at Pitt's three 4-year campuses are designed to be completed on those campuses. Some credits aren't even transferable to main, and there are academic programs unique only to a particular regional campus. Pitt's branches are somewhat independent schools whose goal is to be as self-sufficient as possible and thus Pitt prefers those students to stay at its regional campuses for all four years because that is what they were designed for. All of Pitt's regionals were originally created at the request of those particular communities and they still exist pretty much to serve those communities. Pitt would not close any branches and then absorb those student numbers. They would just close them and sell off the assets. I don't see that happening to any unless things get a lot worse and those schools really are failing. Pitt main really doesn't have the space to expand enrollment. There are obvious physical constraints and it would loath to reduce admission standards at main.

I wouldn’t have liked to have read this ~9 years ago when I was wrapping up my freshman year @ UPJ and dead set on transferring to the main campus ASAP (having gotten denied out of HS).

I remember the situation being kind of cryptic and frustrating, once even being told by some UPJ adviser that a transfer to the main campus after one year “wouldn’t happen”. Sure enough, the business school @ main took all my freshman year credits and I just needed to supplement with an online summer stats course through CCAC.

No disrespect to UPJ, they do have really strong engineering and nursing programs in particular and a lot of people enjoy all 4 years there. Just wasn’t for me.

 

[BusinessMajor78]

tell ups to cut back on all the bs branch campuses

Dept of Ed will never tell them that. We'll see Jesus first.

Load um up and move um out and make sure they show up at the football games.

White outs are course of study, along with learning the football song book (4 yrs).

 

[CrazyPaco]

I wouldn’t have liked to have read this ~9 years ago when I was wrapping up my freshman year @ UPJ and dead set on transferring to the main campus ASAP (having gotten denied out of HS).

I remember the situation being kind of cryptic and frustrating, once even being told by some UPJ adviser that a transfer to the main campus after one year “wouldn’t happen”. Sure enough, the business school @ main took all my freshman year credits and I just needed to supplement with an online summer stats course through CCAC.

No disrespect to UPJ, they do have really strong engineering and nursing programs in particular and a lot of people enjoy all 4 years there. Just wasn’t for me.

You clearly aren't alone in wanting to use one of the regionals as a conduit to reach the main campus. It can be done, and while it may not be actively discouraged (depends on who you run into during the process), it isn't really encouraged or promoted either. It really is up to the student to push it and stay on top of the transfer process, just like if one was transferring to any other non-Pitt college, although the credits should, eventually, be accepted more easily in most cases (I do know of people claiming some UPT credits did not transfer and I think in these cases it has to do with campus-specific curricula, and that may occur at other campuses if there are no equivalent courses in Oakland). Pitt regionals are simply are not designed to be, nor do they want to become, stepping stools for Oakland. That said, as Oakland has become more desirable and more and more difficult to get into, regionals are unavoidably viewed as a potential doorway to Oakland by some students, and nothing can be done about that, but the regionals typically don't sell themselves to students that way.

UPJ is actually an very good school. In the scheme of higher ed, it is very much like the best of the PSSHE. It is rare for a school of that size to have full fledged bachelors programs in the engineering fields that it does. Although UPJ's BSE programs are new, just having elevated it from engineering technology in 2015, they offer things like ChemE that few other schools in PA do, and UPJ is a much cheaper option and much easier admit than the others. Same goes for nursing at UPJ and UPG which are accredited through Oakland. Pitt nursing is unbelievable difficult to get into at main...engineering is getting very difficult too, which means it is also harder to get merit awards at main. The regionals can be an great option for students either that would be hard pressed for admittance to main or need a financially cheaper option. It is unfortunate they have the stigma of "branches" because they're completely different types of schools than what people in PA are conditioned to think of thanks to the PSU diploma mill system.

There are only 9 four-year public schools in Pennsylvania (out of 41 publics listed) that received academic rankings and scores from The Princeton Review. UPJ and UPB are two of those nine and are listed among the Best of the Northeast and have an academic score. No other branches are: not Pitt Greensburg and none of PSU's 19 undergrad branches, Penn Tech, or World Campus. Titusville isn't listed because it is only a two year school. FYI, Pitt's regionals don't receive a ranking in US News because they don't have separate accreditations from Pitt main, although before that policy years ago they were ranked in the US News regional category.

The aggregate academic and selectivity scores for each are also listed below (the scores range is 60 to 99, higher is better).

School academic score / admissions selectivity score

The Best 385 Colleges
Pitt (Pittsburgh) 82 / 91
PSU University Park 82 / 87
Temple 80 / 86
IUP 72 / 71

Best Northeastern
Pitt-Bradford 71 / 85
Slippery Rock 71 / 81
Pitt-Johnstown 70 / 74
California 68 / 72
Kutztown 67 / 75

Not ranked
Pitt-Greensburg NS / 75

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

You clearly aren't alone in wanting to use one of the regionals as a conduit to reach the main campus. It can be done, and while it may not be actively discouraged (depends on who you run into during the process), it isn't really encouraged or promoted either. It really is up to the student to push it and stay on top of the transfer process, just like if one was transferring to any other non-Pitt college, although the credits should, eventually, be accepted more easily in most cases (I do know of people claiming some UPT credits did not transfer and I think in these cases it has to do with campus-specific curricula, and that may occur at other campuses if there are no equivalent courses in Oakland). Pitt regionals are simply are not designed to be, nor do they want to become, stepping stools for Oakland. That said, as Oakland has become more desirable and more and more difficult to get into, regionals are unavoidably viewed as a potential doorway to Oakland by some students, and nothing can be done about that, but the regionals typically don't sell themselves to students that way.

UPJ is actually an very good school. In the scheme of higher ed, it is very much like the best of the PSSHE. It is rare for a school of that size to have full fledged bachelors programs in the engineering fields that it does. Although UPJ's BSE programs are new, just having elevated it from engineering technology in 2015, they offer things like ChemE that few other schools in PA do, and UPJ is a much cheaper option and much easier admit than the others. Same goes for nursing at UPJ and UPG which are accredited through Oakland. Pitt nursing is unbelievable difficult to get into at main...engineering is getting very difficult too, which means it is also harder to get merit awards at main. The regionals can be an great option for students either that would be hard pressed for admittance to main or need a financially cheaper option. It is unfortunate they have the stigma of "branches" because they're completely different types of schools than what people in PA are conditioned to think of thanks to the PSU diploma mill system.

There are only 9 public schools in Pennsylvania that received academic rankings and scores from The Princeton Review. UPJ and UPB are two of those nine and are listed among the Best of the Northeast and have academic scores. No other branches are: not Pitt Greensburg and none of PSU's 20 branches. Titusville isn't included because it is only a two year school. FYI, Pitt's regionals don't receive a ranking in US News because they don't have separate accreditations from Pitt main, although before that policy years ago they were ranked in the US News regional category.

The aggregate academic and selectivity scores for each are also listed below (the scores range is 60 to 99, higher is better).

School academic score / admissions selectivity score

The Best 385 Colleges
Pitt (Pittsburgh) 82 / 91
PSU University Park 82 / 87
Temple 80 / 86
IUP 72 / 71

Best Northeastern
Pitt-Bradford 71 / 85
Slippery Rock 71 / 81
Pitt-Johnstown 70 / 74
California 68 / 72
Kutztown 67 / 75

Not ranked
Pitt-Greensburg NS / 75

Interesting stuff, PACO.

Things have definitely changed drastically since I went to Bradford (mid-1960s0 when it only offered the first two years and everyone had to complete their B.A. or B.S. in Oakland.

I still get alumni mailings from the Bradford Campus in addition to getting them from the main campus. However, I pay little attention to what I get from Bradford. I don't feel any nostalgia for my time there. I got through that time as quickly as possible attending the entire summer trimester after freshman year to get to Oakland by mid year of calendar year two. The lake-effect winters in Bradford were truly awful!

 

[CrazyPaco]

Interesting stuff, PACO.

Things have definitely changed drastically since I went to Bradford (mid-1960s0 when it only offered the first two years and everyone had to complete their B.A. or B.S. in Oakland.

I still get alumni mailings from the Bradford Campus in addition to getting them from the main campus. However, I pay little attention to what I get from Bradford. I don't feel any nostalgia for my time there. I got through that time as quickly as possible attending the entire summer trimester after freshman year to get to Oakland by mid year of calendar year two. The lake-effect winters in Bradford were truly awful!

I believe Pitt-Bradford began granting 4 year bachelor degrees in 1979.

 

[str61166]

You clearly aren't alone in wanting to use one of the regionals as a conduit to reach the main campus. It can be done, and while it may not be actively discouraged (depends on who you run into during the process), it isn't really encouraged or promoted either. It really is up to the student to push it and stay on top of the transfer process, just like if one was transferring to any other non-Pitt college, although the credits should, eventually, be accepted more easily in most cases (I do know of people claiming some UPT credits did not transfer and I think in these cases it has to do with campus-specific curricula, and that may occur at other campuses if there are no equivalent courses in Oakland). Pitt regionals are simply are not designed to be, nor do they want to become, stepping stools for Oakland. That said, as Oakland has become more desirable and more and more difficult to get into, regionals are unavoidably viewed as a potential doorway to Oakland by some students, and nothing can be done about that, but the regionals typically don't sell themselves to students that way.

UPJ is actually an very good school. In the scheme of higher ed, it is very much like the best of the PSSHE. It is rare for a school of that size to have full fledged bachelors programs in the engineering fields that it does. Although UPJ's BSE programs are new, just having elevated it from engineering technology in 2015, they offer things like ChemE that few other schools in PA do, and UPJ is a much cheaper option and much easier admit than the others. Same goes for nursing at UPJ and UPG which are accredited through Oakland. Pitt nursing is unbelievable difficult to get into at main...engineering is getting very difficult too, which means it is also harder to get merit awards at main. The regionals can be an great option for students either that would be hard pressed for admittance to main or need a financially cheaper option. It is unfortunate they have the stigma of "branches" because they're completely different types of schools than what people in PA are conditioned to think of thanks to the PSU diploma mill system.

There are only 9 four-year public schools in Pennsylvania (out of 41 publics listed) that received academic rankings and scores from The Princeton Review. UPJ and UPB are two of those nine and are listed among the Best of the Northeast and have an academic score. No other branches are: not Pitt Greensburg and none of PSU's 20 undergrad branches, Penn Tech, or World Campus. Titusville isn't listed because it is only a two year school. FYI, Pitt's regionals don't receive a ranking in US News because they don't have separate accreditations from Pitt main, although before that policy years ago they were ranked in the US News regional category.

The aggregate academic and selectivity scores for each are also listed below (the scores range is 60 to 99, higher is better).

School academic score / admissions selectivity score

The Best 385 Colleges
Pitt (Pittsburgh) 82 / 91
PSU University Park 82 / 87
Temple 80 / 86
IUP 72 / 71

Best Northeastern
Pitt-Bradford 71 / 85
Slippery Rock 71 / 81
Pitt-Johnstown 70 / 74
California 68 / 72
Kutztown 67 / 75

Not ranked
Pitt-Greensburg NS / 75

UPJ, Mountain Cat Proud.

 

[CrazyPaco]

As a follow-up, Michigan, arguably one of the financially well off public universities, is projecting loses between $400million and $1 billion in losses through the end of the year.

https://president.umich.edu/news-co...id-19-update-from-president-mark-s-schlissel/

Part of the good news, a bunch of those loses will be because of Michigan Medicine. This is a large reason why Pitt spun UPMC off as a separate entity, shielding the university from any potential medical center financial issues, although it could certainly impact the $200+ million a year UPMC contributes back each year to Pitt's med school and other health science schools.