PittPanther13

Mid-may will definitely give you enough time to find a place. Granted, earlier is always better but when I first moved down here I didn't get a chance to find an apartment until late June - early July. For pet friendly, your options are indeed limited. I have a bigger dog myself (about 65 pounds), and I rent through Walnut Capital who I've had no issue with. They ask a half-month's rent non-refundable deposit for pets, but that is much better than others who sometimes ask a whole months rent. From my experience, Franklin West also will allow dogs of bigger size (even though their information says a 30 pound max), and has very nice apartments. Generally, they are quite big and a little more expensive, but if you have a roommate and a dog it's a good idea. Squirrel hill is very dog friendly with a lot of parks and other people with animals. Most companies in in the area do not allow dogs, so I would recommend calling around a bit to find the places that do and then targeting them.

Turns out I had reason to worry.... I went 0 for 6 in applications, even getting rejected from my current school. How did this happen?

I visited Berkeley on Monday just because I was in town and spoke to the student services coordinator, and they are still working on sending out decisions, so I think there's still some hope for everyone

Hello, I go to Pitt now and am finishing up my masters for biostat, and they're still making decisions on the PhD students. I spoke to the person in charge and it should be any day now that they let us know. Especially since the students are on spring break so it gives the professors more time to meet.

Fat Heads is by far the best, good assessment overall. haha

When I spoke to the admissions office about 2-3 weeks ago, they said decisions would be out by the first week of March at the latest. So they should have something out by tomorrow hopefully. As for me, I emailed them with a question about a professors research, and in his response, I saw the forwarded email from the secretary to him that said in parentheses "who was not admitted". Stay classy, Berkeley.

I have 5 rejections, 0 wait lists, and the last school left is Pitt, which I currently attend and had a free application. Between the other 5 schools I spent over $700 applying. I am about 50% ridiculously determined to prove these schools wrong, and about 50% accept failure.

All the information in the past couple posts is pretty current. The main 3 areas people live are Shadyside, Oakland, or Squirrel Hill. Shadyside is likely the most expensive, probably running at least $900 for a decent 1-bedroom. Regardless of area, having a person to split rent with will benefit you. Shadyside has a good amount to do, lots of restaurants, bars, shops, grocery stores, etc. The buses will take you to Pitt in about 10-15 minutes depending where in Shadyside you're coming from. Walnut Capital is a good leasing company, they're a bit more expensive, but they're really good about maintenance and helping with whatever you need. Squirrel Hill is nice and quiet, but also has a main street (Murray Ave or Forbes Ave) that has pretty much whatever you need (grocery stores, restaurants, 2 or 3 somewhat ok bars, a few shops). It's a largely jewish neighborhood (40% is jewish) but the rest is made up with a lot of graduate students from both Carnegie Mellon and Pitt. Depending on where you are in Squirrel Hill you could be very close to Schenley Park, and once again there are many buses which will take you to Pitt in about 10-15 minutes. Oakland is where Pitt is actually located, and is mostly where undergrads live. It's nice to be near the campus, but most grad students don't live there. It is cheaper, but you get what you pay for. I would probably advise against Oakland. Unless it's North Oakland on the edge of Shadyside. Some people live out in bloomfield or friendship but you would definitely want a car as the buses come much less often and take much longer to get to campus, but I hear they are nice. Hope this helps!

For anyone who applied to Berkeley biostat, they said they'd have decisions by the end of the month or the first week of March at the latest. So luckily that's not too long from now!

I think that early March is generally a good time point to wait until, unless you have seen most people have received decisions (both acceptances and rejections). I just emailed Berkeley, but only because I am possibly going to be around there early next month and wanted to see if I could possibly get a department tour, assuming they haven't decided to reject by then. I figure that also lets them know that I'm very interested in their program while doing a check up on my application status.

Any idea if the Berkeley decisions will include biostats or just the stats department? I'm dying to find out for biostatistics, and I'm not sure how much more I can take!