IMHO, getting into purdue engineering isn’t incredibly difficult, nor is it easy. purdue generally tends to accept more students compared to other really good engineering colleges at highly ranked universities. but apparently (can’t say for sure) getting in isn’t the tough part, staying in is. Apparently a lot of kids tend to drop out of engineering and switch majors because the first year engineering program for freshman is intended to weed out all the weak kids in the engineering program, which explains why they accept so many people, since they know a bunch will most likely disappear in a year.
Anyhow, you said that you are willing to retake the sat if necessary, and if you know you will get a higher grade on it, then i would recommend it since it would help because your gpa and coursework are decent, but could be slightly better. an improvement in sat would increase your chances (but im not saying your chances right now are bad they are good, but could be better with a little more work) Keep in mind the purdue has a holistic review: so what extracurriculars are you doing, what clubs/teams are you in, and what is your position in them? Are you in athletics, or debate team, or art programs? have you won any awards, etc.? how many volunteer hours do you have. Keep in mind that you want appear as competitive as possible, and your current stats are great for sure, but can you post in a little more detail, since that will help a lot.
And another tip, everything has an impact, write as great essays as possible, and apply early, i have seen people apply really really late, and they were extremely high ranking, competitive, academically perfect, ivy-league alpha students who were straight up rejected, but people who applied early, who had much worse academic records (not bad, but not superior either, just average), stats much worse than you array, and were accepted since they applied early.
Perhaps tell me a little more information on your academic and extracurricular records, and how you plan to go about getting admitted (what are you going to do?) into purdue, and that will be very helpful. Otherwise, i can say based on what you said, you are a competitive applicant, with a great chance, but that is assuming you are a well-rounded student and judging based off of stats only (purdue does holistic review, so you need more than just stats)
As for safety, don’t worry about that, you will be safe, there are cops everywhere, and you can find the crime records of purdue online, you will be fine, as long as you don’t mix up with bad stuff (greek life is strong here, and testosterone filled dudes drunk on alcohol can lead to bad things) When it comes to campus life, it is really subjective. What do you want in campus life? Dorms rooms are pretty great, but could be slightly better, food is great, facilities like gym is superb, they are adding better stuff, the party scene is great, strong greek life here, lots and lots of clubs and activities and organizations, this place is generally conservative, but not the over the top, racist type. Speaking of racism, there has been a few racist incidents that triggered some african american students, but nothing to be concerned about, basically everyone is extremely accepting no matter race. The town in purdue is great, with lots of restaurants, and Indianapolis is one hour away, and chicago is two hours away if you want cities and stuff. I am a little biased (probably more than a little) but this is in all honesty, all factors considered.