I got accepted into Purdue FYE and Cal Poly SLO for ME. I am trying to decide which to attend. Both schools are OOS, so CP will be cheaper. I like the warmer weather at CP, but I am not sure if I will be disappointed in the lack of school spirit there. Also, which school will be better regarded for a career post-graduation? I know that Purdue might have a better national reputation, but is it worth the money and the cold?
Note that, at Purdue, there is some uncertainty about being able to enter your major from FYE, if your technical and/or overall GPA in college are under 3.2.
https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/InfoFor/CurrentStudents/enrollment-policy
CPSLO has a good reputation regionally, but may not be that well known outside the region.
Here’s the post grad report for ME’s from Purdue: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ME/Academics/Undergraduate/IndustryPlacement
I can’t speak at all for Cal Poly but my daughter is a freshman engineer at Purdue and is loving it. If you have specific questions about FYE, I’m happy to try to help answer them.
Purdue has very strong career services and co-op program and support. School spirit, around both sports and the arts is extremely strong.
Worth the money is all very relative. How much of a different are the two schools and can your family afford the difference without loans?
The schools are pretty different.
Cal Poly does not have First Year Engineering. You start in major from day one. Most Purdue students get their desired major though. Classes will be smaller at Cal Poly, probably much smaller. There is MUCH more graduate research at Purdue. Purdue has more national recognition, largely because it is ranked with other research institutions in USNWR and Poly isn’t since they don’t offer doctorates. You’ll be trained as a solid, productive engineer either way.
If I were you, I’d visit, tour the engineering facilities and look at engineering clubs, and decide how important big time sports and good weather are to you and go with your gut.
I have family at both schools. You can’t really go wrong either way. Only you can ultimately decide. Good luck.
Once you have worked for a few years, where you went to college won’t matter at all. If you are already interested in particular employers, you could ask the career centers at both universities about their placement for ME graduates and about which companies recruit there.
Cal Poly SLO’s published Cost of Attendance for NON-CA FRESHMAN ON CAMPUS is $40,233.
Purdue’s published Cost of Attendance for Non-resident is $41,924. Purdue has announced a tuition freeze through 2020-2021 (it’s been in frozen since 2013).
So I don’t see how CP will be meaningfully cheaper, unless there are other factors.
CP doesn’t offer a Doctorate, so it’s hard to compare UNSews ranking. I dug out a spreadsheet I used to track 13 different “top engineering schools” rankings from 2 years ago and though there are 70 schools I listed, CP isn’t on there. I doin’t recall ever running into it. USNews certainly has them highly rated, so maybe I missed something.
But as a ME grad/former practicing engineer, I can say that, at least in my experience, Purdue has much more awareness and a very positive reputation in the industry.
(full disclosure - I may be biased as my D ended up at Purdue. I didn’t attend).
My daughter is deciding between these two schools as well. Not Engineering though. Her #1 was Cal Poly (location, weather and the “gut” when she visited) but after she spent the admitted student weekend at Purdue, she is very torn. Purdue sure offers great amount of, well, everything. Huge university. But her major is small and she got to spend time with the academic advisor one on one which was great, and also the Honors College gives a small community feel. I personally would like her to stay close to me (we are in WA state) but we will see.
Plus, what’s making this hard is that the perfect amount of scholarship Purdue offered made the two school’s cost identical!
Soo glad to see this post. My DS has been accepted at Purdue, V Tech, Cal Poly SLO, and WPI. We are in state for SLO. So we’re talking $27000 vs $45,000. But it feels really scary to say no to Purdue and Virginia tech!
@RoboticsWidow, my son didn’t even apply to VT or Purdue (or Georgia Tech) and he certainly would have certainly been admitted. He knew they had decent reputations, but didn’t see them as “all that.” He chose CP from OOS.
Don’t make a decision out of fear. My son has a friend a year behind him that chose MIT and now is on a year long leave. It was very different than he’d imagined. Not the holy grail. He’s very disillusioned. The bottom line is this…all of them are good. You should visit and he should go where he feels like he can thrive.
One of my patients, a dual PhD in math and physics, and manager of one of the most famous NASA projects of all time, told me this…“It doesn’t matter where your son goes to school. It matters that he’s curious and driven. I could hire engineers from anywhere. Some of the best were from Podunk U and some really average ones came from my institution, Caltech. Don’t spend too much money.”
Let excitement be the driver, not fear. They all have strengths and they all have weaknesses, most of which won’t rear their heads until they’ve been there.
For CPSLO, here is the post-graduation survey: https://careers.calpoly.edu/search.php
The vast majority of ME graduates who listed employer and location went to employers in California.
@eyemgh Thanks for the insight… advise to future parents and kids touring schools… don’t buy t-shirts at each cool place. My son is getting stuck on what to do with the shirts of places he doesn’t select! He’s a funny little man. It’s interesting to me what he gets stuck on. Straight A’s, can build a competitive robot in 6 weeks… can’t handle choosing shirts. 
@RichInPitt, for schools that do not offer doctorates, CP ranks 1 or 2 in every engineering department ranked by USNWR except Civil which is 3rd. Interestingly, USNWR only ranks the whole engineering college as #8, even though departmentally they outrank all who are ahead of them except Rose (which I’m sure wasn’t on your list either). Some of the “top” engineering schools are actually terrible places to be undergrads. My son has a brilliant friend taking a year long leave from one right now. It just shows how useless rankings really are. They say nothing about experience, nothing about placement, and nothing about what type of engineer will emerge.
@ucbalumnus, the vast majority from most schools work in reasonable proximity to their school. 66% of UCB grads work in the Bay. Most UIUC grads work in Illinois or a state that touches IL. Students CAN find jobs outside of those areas, but it will take extra work AND they have to want to leave those areas. that’s why I typically recommend people, all else equal, choose a school near where they want to work.
@RoboticsWidow - That is approximately $18,000 each year for four or five years. I’d buy the Cal Poly t-shirt and declare things done.
This is the first time I’ve seen Georgia Tech and Perdue referenced as having “decent reputations” in STEM.
In the real world, if a “a decent rep” means off the charts great I am in full agreement.
Cal Poly too. But come on.
I don’t think of “decent” as a demeaning term. I think Perdue is the chicken company, Purdue is the university.
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@privatebanker, both are good schools, but their reputations are based on their graduate programs, as the are for ALL schools in USNWR engineering rankings for schools that offer PhDs. How big are the classes? Who teaches the discussions and labs? How robust are their labs? How are their senior projects scoped and who do they do them for? I could give a hoot about where a school falls on some ill conceived list based on ZERO objective data. The truth is, most engineering programs are fairly similar. It’s only at the margins as defined by the applicants where they differ in meaningful ways.
Now that’s funny. And Perdue the chicken is in fact the definition of decent. In big time engirnreering firms, NASA and govt contractors and the like Perdue and GaTech grads are considered in the elite level imho. Just as an aside.
But Cal Poly is really good too. All excellent.
I’m not dismissing anyone’s opinion. And I get what you’re saying.
However, It’s my experience that Gatech undergrads have no problem with a tip top reputation.
And it’s not decent. It’s a whole level up from that at the great level. And Perdue not far behind. Cal Poly too.
Just for future readers to not take some of the comparisons the wrong way. imho.
I was offering some clarifying remarks on their behalf.
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