By SUSAN JONES
Pitt officials aren’t saying just how many first-year students they’re expecting this fall, but it’s clear they are planning on a record number. Part of that plan is leasing space for 400 more beds over three different locations in Oakland and adding nearly 300 beds at Pitt-owned buildings.
Chancellor Joan Gabel said at last month’s Board of Trustees meeting that the University had received nearly 65,000 applications for the fall, up from 60,893 last year. That’s around a 9% increase. If the number who eventually enroll this fall is up by the same percentage, that would be about 400 more first-year students, or right around 5,000 total.
But the final number could definitely be higher. Pitt generally accepts more than 50% of those who apply, then it must wait to see if the students choose to go here. The total census of students won’t be available until late September.
The 2025 first-year class is “going to set a new watermark for Pitt, both in terms of size and quality, and is very much in line with our commitments in the strategic plan around our enrollment goals,” Gabel said. The Plan for Pitt set a goal of increasing undergraduate enrollment from 20,220 in fall 2023 to 20,720 this fall and 22,000 by 2028.
New housing
To accommodate this large first-year class, Pitt has leased space for more than 400 additional beds.
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The Hampton Inn, 3315 Hamlet St. near the Boulevard of the Allies, will house up to 250 first-year students in double rooms. Pitt is leasing the entire hotel; no rooms will be available to the general public. A resident assistant will be on each floor.
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Pennsylvania Apartments, 300 N. Dithridge St., will house up to 135 first-year students in one-, two- and three-bedroom units.
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Webster Apartments, 101 N. Dithridge St. No details were available about these units.
All of these locations are less than a mile from the heart of campus and meet the University’s standards for safety, amenities and access to campus resources, according to a statement from Pitt.
All first-year students, no matter where they live, have full access to the same Pitt dining, residence life programming, student services and campus events. Resident assistants will be in each building.
Additionally, Pitt has added nearly 300 beds by converting some doubles to triples as well as triples to quads in Pitt-owned facilities, and using the recently reopened and renovated Franklin Apartments at 305 Atwood St., which can house up to 48 upper-class students in one- and two-bedroom apartments.
Students admitted to Pitt in the fall semester of their first year are guaranteed on-campus housing through their junior year if they meet the academic and eligibility requirements.
Pitt added two new apartment buildings to its portfolio in 2024, with a total of 42 beds. The Shirley and Mayflower apartments sit next to each other at 133 and 141 N. Dithridge St. Both buildings are open to upper-class and graduate students, as well as University employees.
In 2023, Pitt added 81 beds in the former Family House space attached to the University Club. University Hall, as it’s called, houses mostly upper-class students in the Frederick Honors College.
Previous leased housing
Since 2020, the University has leased extra housing space for a variety of reasons.
In fall 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Pitt took over three Oakland hotels at a cost of $22 million — two Residence Inns on Forbes Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard and the Wyndham Pittsburgh University Center on Lytton Avenue — in an effort to de-densify residence halls that have communal bathrooms.
In fall 2021, the Residence Inn University Medical Center on Bigelow Boulevard was leased again, because of a surge in enrollment caused largely by students who chose not to enter college in 2020 when many services were shut down. Nearly 5,000 new students entered Pitt in fall 2021, well over the 4,315 goal.
Pitt later bought this hotel for $32 million and converted it into housing for upper-class, graduate and medical students.
In fall 2022, around 130 first-year students were housed in two residence halls at nearby Carlow University.
In 2024, the University renewed its lease — first signed in 2019 — of 230 beds at Bridge at Forbes for student housing — with the option to add up to 51 beds annually based on demand — and 50 parking spaces. The lease is for four years, starting in August 2024, at an approximate total cost of $17.9 million.
No cost was given by Pitt for the leases this year.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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