Hello folks.
I have read elsewhere that Purdue Engineering treats the first year as an opportunity to weed students out of the program. Can anybody confirm or deny this? Specifically, mechanical engineering, if that makes a difference.
Thanks.
I’ve been told, at least for EE, that the class clusters into a bimodal distribution with one group who “gets it” centered around 3.5 and the other group who struggles centered around 2.5. I’ve heard much worse at other schools.
Engineering is a hard professional degree and requires a level of commitment and a workload well beyond the typical college student. Many 18 year old students are unprepared to make that commitment at the same time that they are first becoming independent.
@ClassicRockerDad Thanks for the info. I can understand how that would happen.
My question is specifically regarding the College’s approach to the matter. Are they trying to help everybody to succeed, or do they treat it as a “sink or swim” situation for the students?
Purdue is not a direct admit - your grades as a freshman determine which discipline you get into, if any at all. I do not have a student there currently, but I know 2 who are academicaly talented enough to get at least 1/2 tuitiom scholarship who are both struggling as freshmen.
Purdue says it is not sink or swim but anecdotally I hear it is.
I have 2 Purdue Engineering grads and one current Engineering junior. Purdue has many, many opportunities to succeed but they will not spoon-feed you. If your student is serious about their education and takes advantage of opportunities that are provided, they should do fine. Through my parenting years at Purdue, I have noticed that most kids who struggle are either enjoying the social life a little too much, unaware of all of the help available, or unwilling to ask for help. It is crazy hard but very doable.
“My question is specifically regarding the College’s approach to the matter. Are they trying to help everybody to succeed, or do they treat it as a “sink or swim” situation for the students?”
The things that cause students to sink or swim in engineering are not always the fault of the university. If you need help then there are recitations available or study sessions in each of the courses freshmen would normally have challenges in. A student can speak to the Professor himself or find an on campus tutor (my D did some tutoring). Purdue is (as are many engineering universities) a place where students can find themselves quickly behind if they don’t work hard to keep up. Engineering is going to require much more time and work than they typically were used to investing in HS. (My D had junior year courses where individual problems would take several hours). The university will provide the tools to succeed but the student still needs to do the swimming. If they just jump in the water they are going to sink.
As has been mentioned Purdue does not assume a student coming into their freshman year has the information about engineering to make a decision on which direction they wish to go and does not accept into a specific degree nor do they usually have a good idea of the effort required. If a student is sure what they want to study and is a hard,smart and dedicated worker then in most cases they will do well enough to get accepted to their chosen degree field. If you are successful in the FYE program than you will likely have the grit to work through 6 more semesters of mostly challenging hard science courses. The student will look back at freshman year as comparatively easy.