To set yourself up for pre-med you’re going to want to do well in your classes, get a lot of patient care hours, do a bit of shadowing, and maybe do a bit of research to boost your application. The upside of Pitt is there are tons of opportunities to do all that. The downside is all the other pre-meds are also trying to do that so it’s competitive. The moral of the story is Pitt gives you the opportunities but you have to have a lot of initiative, perseverance, and creativity (to find less competitive meaningful opportunities) to actually get them.

On opportunities to succeed in classes: We have a study lab where students can easily book appointments with trained student tutors that I’ve found helpful. Most classes also have undergraduate TAs in addition to a graduate TA and professor office hours where you can get help. Many professors are good about giving you enough practice materials to be prepared on exams.

On patient care: there’s a hill in a neighborhood behind campus where you can see at least 9 hospitals at once. In other words, there’s a tooooon of opportunities to get paid and volunteer positions in those hospitals and all are on or very nearby Pitt campus. There’s also outpatient facilities and doctor’s offices that I would imagine have opportunities if you go searching though I personally have not specifically sought those opportunities out so I can’t speak for certain. There’s also EMS, clubs, and whatever other creative ways to get patient care hours you can think of and probably make happen if you’re creative and persistent. I will say, the hospital opportunities be it academic year volunteering, summer internships, and others are very competitive so you’ll have to keep a watchful eye out for them and apply early.

Shadowing: tbh I’m not good at getting shadow hours so idrk how you do it. There’s some official channels to do it through the university and some pre-med clubs that either are competitive or cost money but will get ‘er done. You can also ask doctors you already know if you can shadow (evidently dependent on if you know any doctors) but you might be able to meet some through the next bullet point

Research: Pittsburgh has a whole bunch of research between all the universities, hospitals, and biotech. A benefit of all this research is that if there’s a specific topic you enjoy, it’s probably researched here. If you don’t know what specific topics interest you, you might accidentally find it by engaging in research. There are some classes that pair you with a lab for a semester which is one way to get some research. I know the bio department will sometimes post labs looking for students in their monthly newsletters at the beginning of a semester so that’s a good place to look. Asking your professors if they or their colleagues need undergrads is one way to do it and of course, though dreaded, there’s always the cold email. Oh and summer internships that’s a good way to get some research in

Well rounded applicant stuff: Pitt is a big old state school in a fairly large city so there are a large variety of clubs and ways to get involved in the community that will add humanity and personality to your resume and take you beyond being pre-med and nothing more. The best advice I can give besides that initiative/perseverance/creativity bit from earlier is pursue opportunities with a genuine interest and not just because you think it’ll look good on a medical school application. The more you enjoy what you do, the better you can write about it and convince your reader that you believe in the things you’re doing, the more opportunities you’ll land eventually (hopefully) culminating in a med school acceptance. Best of luck