The once-humble university that sits in the heart of Oakland along the parallel Forbes and… The once-humble university that sits in the heart of Oakland along the parallel Forbes and Fifth avenues is gaining more recognition than it has in decades.

Just two years ago Pitt cracked the top 20 public universities list when it skyrocketed from 26th to 19th place, as ranked by U.S. News ‘ World Report.

And in terms of overall performance, according to the 2006 edition of the Top American Universities Annual report, Pitt now ranks in the top cluster of seven U.S. public research universities, alongside Berkeley, Illinois, UCLA, UNC and Wisconsin.

Just two months ago, an Associated Press article revealed that Wisconsin was losing some of its professors to other schools, mainly because of that state’s budget cuts.

“In years past, schools like Pitt or Rutgers