My boy wants to study chemistry with an eye to research and post graduate study.
Like most others - his grades, classes, AP exams and SAT’s are all excellent.
So far - he has been offered the following
Purdue - With the Honors College
UT Austin - WITHOUT the Honors College
and
GA Tech - but only if he comes in his sophomore year with a 3.3 GPA with 2 classes each of Calc, Physics, Chem and English from some other school (very do-able but scary)
BUT
HERE IS THE QUESTION
I am reading that UT Austin is an excellent research school and that the honors program provides excellent opportunities for research - IF you are in the Honors College.
If you are not? Is it worth it to go there and not have the same opportunities?
Is Purdue better in this case then?
Unlike others writing in this forum - we are not from Texas and tuition is going to cost more than my house - $52K+ a year.
I was a music major when I went to school - so I have no clue about this BUT it seems to be a significant obstacle to pay more and possibly not have equal opportunities
Sadly, no… I am not in state. Purdue is cheaper but only by 15 k a year. (37k for us)
They have offered my boy 5k a year and honors college.
They seem more eager to have him at this point and are very nice people. (We have visited)
The only fear we have has been from a couple unfavorable comments we have heard from the local director of the Carnegie lecture series here in dc (which we attend religiously) and another scientist we talked to in Los Angeles.
These scared us.
Purdue would allow me to retire earlier but the money is not the object.
My boy has ambitions to go as far as he can in his chosen field … we just want to go to the best school possible and one that will offer him everything they have to offer
has he visited either school? Realistically kids change their majors 2-3 times oner the course of theri undergrad studies, so he might morph from Chem to BioChem, or BioEng or…
$15k/yr may not be a lot if he really likes one over the other. But I agree with your concern that research opportunities are likely to go to the Honors students first.
He applied to both uva and va tech. Those results are coming soon. We visited va tech last summer and were told that the chem department was getting better but not up to the level of its other sciences. I do not think uva is not necessarily a science school as much as it is everything else.
I don’t know if you can compare UT engineering honors with UT CNS honors program. I have a UT ChemE honors student who would tell you engineering honors means absolutely nothing with regard to programs. CNS Honors might be different. You might want to look at the potential to get in-state tuition as many Out of state parents pursue this. Lots of info online. At UT - your student will be with the top notch students from all over and it is highly highly competitive. Take that into consideration - do you want to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond? To stand out at UT - it takes exceptional grades and a go-getter personality. Don’t count on transfers. The few we hear about are students with a 4.0 and a matching curriculum like someone transferring from Chemisty to ChemE. Not impossible but if the major isn’t the same - UT doesn’t want you adding a year to your degree plan. If you have any questions - just feel free to send.
Once you decide which are affordable (and yes, you as the parent can say Purdue is affordable but UT isn’t), he should visit as many of the remaining places as he can squeeze in, and think about how life could work for him there. That can be a drag, but what you spend in the airfare will be worth it if it helps him find his best match.
Can you get your chemist aquaintances to drill down a bit more on what they didn’t like about Purdue? If it is recent data specifically about mistreatment of undergrads, or consistent poor-quality work of first year grad students coming out of Purdue, that would be one thing. If it is old stuff, personal grudges, or perceived gaps in the course offerings that haven’t actually affected grad school admissions, then that would be another. The only current chem PhD candidate I know graduated from Salisbury U in MD. To me that says that there may be options other than Purdue and UT for your son, and that where he ends up for grad school will depend more on him than on his choice of one or the other of those two.
I love all the replies. Keep them coming, specifically if you have been at Purdue or Texas or have a child there.
My boy just got into va tech today too. So choices abound but
Sad to say… it is not the money for me … I am not planning on spending what I have
We all just want our kids to have the opportunities we had when we were young
I think a trip to Texas will be our spring break trip (after the baseball team finishes it tournament)
I will see if someone will make time their to talk to him like ga tech, Purdue and cal tech did.
As per little pond, big pond goes… I and he and most of our family are big pond people. And … it Is up to him to make something of it. We just want him to have his “up at bat” so that he can at least try
Purdue would get a slight nod from me. I think the honors nod helps get more attention and better class options, though I haven’t researched Purdue’s honors in particular.
If finding money for all four years is going to be an issue (or the Purdue winters), spend a year in community college or other cheap in state school and then take GA Tech offer. You could even leave the Tech offer on the table while he starts at Purdue just in case.
Was a Chemistry (woman, btw) major eons ago. Honors at UW. Chem E and Chemistry are so different! Yes, students do change majors (I went to medical school while friends did chem grad schools).
That $15K per year is $60K for four years (or more as costs may rise)- a huge amount.
He can get a great education at either Purdue or Austin. It will be his performance and taking advantage of opportunities that will make the grad school difference. You will notice that grad students at top tier U’s come from many undergrad places. Skip any thoughts of transferring.
Honors classes can be wonderful. Especially at huge schools and when the best students will be in those instead of the regular versions. Good to have a peer group interested in one’s major.
One could look at the campuses but that cost difference, especially when academics are ranked about the same in chemistry and honors is offered mean the most. And yes, the grad school rankings matter as honors students likely will get to do work in grad lab settings or otherwise be involved with that.
Do NOT do a community college first year and expect to attain the same knowledge base (and freshman experience)! The course content will not be the same. Nor will he have his academic peers like at a flagship level college (Purdue and IU serve Indiana).
I can’t say anything about honors at UT or Purdue, my I found my own honors college to be a lot of hot air after freshman year. In general, professors aren’t interested in students because they’re honors or not honors—they’re interested in students because they’re curious, hard working, and out going. No matter what when it comes to undergraduate research, your son needs to find a prof working on a subject that interests him and that has an interest in supporting undergrads.
Some honors colleges do come with undergrad research stipends, but those are pretty uncommon. Pick the school with the best program, the most affordable, and the campus culture your son likes the most. If your kid hates UT, it’s definately not worth sending him. If he feels similarly about both schools, have him talk with people at each one.