Hey I was just accepted to the MPH in infectious disease/microbiology program at Pitt - not sure if that's what you got into too. It's my top choice right now, and it's ranked high and is unlike any other program out there.
Tuition at Pitt is definitely an issue, especially if you're paying out of state for the first year. It also seems to me that most people applying for public health tend to get caught up in the names and reputations of schools, which is hardly what's important when it comes to grad school. You have to take into account the professors you'll be working with and classes you'll be taking, where you're living, the research you want to do and whether there's enough funding for what you want to do.
For example, I've also been considering Yale for their infectious disease program (MPH) and if you look at the curriculum at Yale vs Pitt for basically the same concentration, the classes at Pitt seem wayyyy more interesting, and way less general than the ones at Yale. In the end, it's all up to you and where you feel the most comfortable. Public health is an interesting field because it's so much more than just being smart and getting a degree from a top ranked school; it's about being able to understand and live in solidarity and work with some of the world's most impoverished nations, especially in a field like infectious disease. Pitt will get you there, don't worry!
