“So, Monydad, would you say that for this student, Purdue is worth the $32,000 extra?”
I know absolutely nothing about this student, and I haven’t looked into U Miami or Purdue in the kind of detail I would need to do to make a matriculation decision even if I did…
I also don’t spend other people’s money for them. OP will hopefully investigate both programs more than I will, determine their adequacy, adequacy of recruiting, vs, his particular objectives, and decide for himself.
But FWIW I previously broached a third option- start at U Miami and transfer to U Florida. If that works out financially OP can evaluate if that may be a good move down the road.
It’s true that engineers starting out will get paid about the same salaries. That doesn’t mean they all will get to learn and specialize in the same exact things, irrespective of schools; or that they will wind up in the exact same jobs in the same companies in the same parts of the country no matter what schools they attend. This can ultimately affect earmnings, since stock options often form part of corporate compensation. But having more control over what you work at, or where you work may be worth some money, beyond straight beginning salary.
“Does OP want to work in aerospace engineering?”
The particular industry application (ie aerospace) doesn’t really matter particularly. The point is such a huge employer employs a wide variety of engineers. It’s still just one employer though. Albeit a large one.
IMO, for a lot of engineering classes and their prerequisites, the class size thing is not significant. You have to be able to do the problems. I have been in large classes and have not been able to do the problems. And I have been in small classes and have not been able to do the problems. And fortunately others in both formats where I coukld do the problems. Neither format helped or hindered me from mastering the material. The limiting factor was my brain.
In the smaller classes the engineers are not sitting around a table discussing how they feel about the material, what it means to them personally, and what the author was really getting at. They are not disussing the symbolism of the differential equations that were selected to solve the particular diffusion problem, or whatever. Nobody is interested in each student’s opinion or how he feels about it. The professor is lecturing, mostly. To a smaller class.
@MYOS1634, I actually have stated nothing about how much I like UMiami. If one of my kids gets a big scholarship there, it would be a strong option.
I may consider it a better experience than PU as well. However, I did want to lay out what should be considered by the OP (and I think that bucketing giant state schools where the quality of the student body could vary tremendously by school/major by average stats is wrong-headed). Similarly using stats distributions to compare a mid-sized private that can more easily game its stats with a giant state school (which often have the mandate of serving all socio-economic groups within a state). That’s like deciding whether a banana or grapefruit is better based off of which one looks more yellow.
This seems to come down to whether the OP is willing to pay $32K more for a much better Engineering education from a much more prestigious Engineering program.
The Big Ten overall is very strong in Engineering: several Big Ten Engineering programs are among the top 20 in the USA, according to USN&WR program rankings. A couple might outrank Purdue, but Purdue is known for its Engineering program.
If the $32K is not an issue for the OP, the decision becomes a no-brainer. (unless the feeling of “fit” at Purdue is just not there…)
I was talking about the non engineering classes - I don’t know if they matter to op or not, but each environment is very different for those. It may be irrelevant to op whether non engineering classes are valued or not, interactive or not, etcetc., and whether engineers are a majority or part of a plurality of majors in a non stem class. However discussion is getting too aggressive so I won’t respond any more as it’d feed the oot parts. I hope Op, whom I saw returned and will visit Purdue, will make up his mind/her mind and will let us know what s/he decided.
Both schools have qualities so there’s no wrong choice.
Go to Miami. All this rankings hairsplitting is nonsense. Ok, Purdue has produced more astronauts, big deal. Can you get a good job after attending Miami? Is it cheaper? Is it closer to home? Yes, yes, yes.
The nature of the experience in non-engineering classes- and of course in engineering classes too- are certainly reasonable considerations, that may be valued and weighted differently by different individuals.
There are three points to keep in mind though, to put this in perspective:
An ABET-accredited engineering program allows only a limited number of electives outside of the engineering program, maybe one course a semester IIRC. There’s just so much material to cover on the engineering side to complete the program in the limited time available.
Frankly a lot of stereotypical engineers are not particularly gifted and/or interested in traditional liberal arts/humanities subjects.
Since the engineering courses are hard, time consuming and are the ones that "count"for their future careers, many engineering students don’t really want to extend themselves a great deal when it comes to fulfilling their non-engineering electives. They often simply don’t have the time to give these courses their full due.
Of course this is not always the case, and individuals vary.
Sorry but this is just not true. The Air Force Academy is ABET accredited and requires a core curriculum which includes English, History, Management, Econ, Sciences. Law, Philosophy, and other classes. It just depends on the school.
Some other schools like MIT and Harvey Mudd have extensive humanities and social studies requirements. But others like Brown have fewer.
ABET accredited engineering degree programs do require at least 25% in math and science and 37.5% in engineering courses. Some of the remaining 37.5% must include a humanities and social studies requirement, although ABET leaves that up to the school.
I am very familiar with Purdue engineering, at least EE. There is a bifurcated distribution of grades with a clump around 3.5 and a clump around 2.5. Purdue is a great place to be an excellent engineering student.
OP if you intend to excel, then Purdue is worth the money, but the fact that you were waitlisted suggests that you haven’t had a commitment to excellence in your education to date. Purdue is not that difficult to get into.
You need to take an honest look at YOURSELF.
If you have decided to dedicate yourself to really mastering your chosen profession, Purdue can offer opportunities that Miami lacks.
If you are going to be just average, save your money and go to Miami.
@ClassicRockerDad I was waitlisted because there was an error in Purdue receiving all my documents on time. This was not an error on my end so to be fair I was put at the top of the waitlist. I don’t think Miami gives $39000 merit per year to students who have not applied themselves in all areas. While I did decide on Miami this past spring I did turn down other schools who offered me full tuition merit and two that offered me full rides.
ClassicRockerDad is offering sound advice. Purdue offers excellent opportunities to study engineering, but it is a sink or swim environment. Several years ago I saw list of engineering schools ranked by employers. Purdue was very close to the top. I suspect employers like to hire those who have the persistence and skill to succeed at Purdue.
Upon my return home from Purdue I had an unexpected phone message from University of Alabama that I was admitted to one of their new honors programs that I had applied to. As mentioned above there was an error in the sending of my act score so my documents were not all in on time to some of the universities to which I applied. Even though I got a perfect score on act some of the schools I applied to did not receive it. When I inquired as to why I was not admitted to some schools the error was discovered but some of the elite programs were filled up. Now some of the schools are clearing wait lists and I am being contacted for a spot. My visit to Purdue was very good and informative. But now the University of Alabama would be no cost at all to me. Since I missed the phone message being out of town I only have until Thursday to decide about University of Alabama. I have to let Purdue know by tomorrow.
Would you be in the Honors College + College of Engineering at UAlabama? Is it the NMF deal where you have 4 years of scholarship even if you come in with lots of credits, and thus can use the 4th year of scholarships towards a Master’s?
Can you list net cost (for you) for each option?
I did release my waitlist spot at Purdue. Now deciding between Miami and University of Alabama. I have visited both twice and feel the fit better at Miami but I am taking all into consideration including distance.