Prospective First Year Students
As a student at Pitt Business, you will travel from the classroom, to the city, to the world. We have an acclaimed faculty and offer a wealth of experience-based learning opportunities such as internships and class projects with real companies. For those with global aspirations, you can gain life-changing experience through our Global Business Institute, International Internship Program, and global experiences options in more than 75 countries.
Pitt Business enrolls approximately 350 first year students each year. To apply, students should select one of the major options in the College of Business Administration on their University of Pittsburgh admissions application.
Preparing for Admission to Pitt Business
Factors considered for admission include your high-school grades, class rank, ACT/SAT scores (optional), the competitiveness of your high school curriculum, and extras like involvement and leadership experience.
To increase your chances of admission, the following are recommended:
- A rigorous college-prep high school curriculum
- Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and college-in-high-school classes are recommended
- Four years of high school math
- Including a challenging senior-year math course such as calculus, pre-calculus, or trigonometry
- At least three years of high school coursework in the same foreign language
- This will fulfill the Pitt Business foreign language requirement
- Take the SAT or ACT more than once (optional). We recommend that you test once in the junior year and once early in the senior year. We combine your highest critical reading and math sub scores from all tests submitted
- Extracurricular Activities. Because strong leadership skills are important for success in business, you may also want to include information on your application about your activities, part-time jobs, volunteer work, and travel experiences.
- Personal Statement and Letters of Recommendation. We strongly encourage you to submit a Personal Statement on the Pitt Application or the Common App Essay on the Common App. Your essay may increase the likelihood that you are considered for scholarships, guaranteed admission to graduate or professional school, or given special consideration due to extenuating circumstances. Regarding letters of recommendation, we advise saving them for special circumstances. While we appreciate your teachers, counselors, and other mentors taking the time to write recommendation letters on your behalf, we find letters are beneficial in very limited circumstances (for example: providing context for variance in your overall academic performance). We recommend that you submit a Personal Statement or Common App Essay and use that space to explain or clarify what most recommenders would cover in a letter.
