Pittsburgh vs Columbia

pittnurse24, BSN, RN · Mar 1, 2015

First off congrats on getting into both schools, both very reputable! I graduated from Pitt with my BSN and absolutely loved it there! I can't speak for the graduate school but I can give some insight as to my experience in general. I came from NJ and always traveled to NYC for fun and at one point in my life I really saw myself going to school and living there (then I found out cost of living/tuition prices lol). I got accepted to Pitt and I was so excited because I wanted to live and go to school in a city atmosphere, but Pitt's campus is so unique. It's a city feel but not so fast paced as most major cities, and I loved that aspect. I lived anywhere from 3-5 blocks away from the nursing building so it was a short walk to classes. Also there's everything you need in Oakland (the suburb of Pittsburgh where Pitt is) like food, bars, and then there's a walmart only a 15 minute drive away. As far as the school goes, I couldn't have picked a better place to get my education. The faculty was amazing and the clinical instructors were so helpful and truly there to help you succeed. The UPMC healthcare system is great and I enjoyed doing my clinical rotations at every one of the hospitals. The nurses on my units were very welcoming and always offering us learning experiences with them. My workload was pretty heavy but I'm sure there's a lot more work in graduate school, especially the CRNA program. I met one instructor of the CRNA program because he spoke in our classes a few times and he was really nice. Good luck where ever you end up and congrats on getting accepted to both! Hope this helps a little :)