Current Freshman at Purdue - Got Questions About Purdue except Admissions?

<p>I said I didn’t know much about the AgEcon department which probably means I don’t know much about the Agriculture department in general…</p>

<p>judging by location, I would assume it is. I mean our Agricultural Engineering program is ranked 2nd in the country only behind UIUC. I dont actually have any knowledge on the Ag. Economics department.</p>

<p>My dad graduated from the college of Ag with a degree in Landscape Architecture a while time ago. It’s not a large college, and the professors care to get to know you. That’s how it was when my dad was there almost 30 years ago, and two of his profs are still there, so I imagine that it’s probably not too different. But then again, I could be wrong. Anyways, he liked the professors that he had in the college, they were approachable and his major only graduated around 50 kids that year, so it’s a small college inside the large university. Also, when I visited in October, I met with the head of the BioChem department (also in the College of Ag) and he was very personable and the staff seemed pretty chill. That’s all I can really tell you about, only a little about the college in general. Hope it helped a bit.</p>

<p>Oh, and the profs that were still there have spoken at differnet seminars my father has gone to over the years, so I’ll say that they’re well-respected.</p>

<p>youwiththeface</p>

<p>Thanks!! It is very weird in my country for undergraduates to learn AgEcon aboard. I really don’t know if I am interested in AgEcon, it seems all about farm etc. I am really in a big misery.</p>

<p>Is the student body so conservative that it is irritating? Are they accepting, like if I am a hard core liberal (not really)? Are there a lot of people that are just not as nice?</p>

<p>Even though Indiana is known to be more conservative, the student body at Purdue could seriously care less about politics. Unless, you debate topics in class or with your friends then you will notice how conservative they are. However, you will never see students protest or voice their opinions out in the public from what I’ve seen. In general, the student body at Purdue is very nice. It’s the Midwest thang :P</p>

<p>Oh, okay that is really good to know. Thanks a lot, it had me really worried.</p>

<p>Okay so I have plenty of questions! Thanks in advance to everyone…
-Is it hard to maintain a high GPA in engineering?
-Is doing honors engineering worth it?
-Do many people get into top grad schools? (and do you know if they did honors)
-What are the research opportunities like?
-Is it hard to have a good social life if you don’t really drink?
-And is it easy to make friends/find a “niche”? almost 40,000 undergrads is daunting.</p>

<ol>
<li>It is tough but manageable, if you put in the work the grades will come.</li>
<li>Personally being in Engineering Honors really is a raw deal from my experience however UHP is awesome. Honors Engineering kids have to take ENGR 195 Honors section which requires a ton of work, although the class is curved pretty well.</li>
<li>I’m not really sure on that, I’m a freshman so I mostly friends with freshman and sophomores.</li>
<li>There are tons of research opportunities during the school year and the summer, typically these are part time during the school year and full time in the summer with a stipend and room and board paid for at Purdue.
5.Purdue is a great school because you have the opportunity to party if you want to, but if you want to just hang out thats alright too. In my experience, at other schools people tend to look down on those who dont drink, but this is not the case at Purdue.</li>
<li>You can do any number of things to make a BIG university small. Clubs, activities, learning communities, greek life are all options, personally I’m a big fan of a big school love the Big 10 athletics and the Work Hard Play Hard mentality that Purdue students tend to have. </li>
</ol>

<p>Hopefully this helped a little</p>

<p>i’m really getting scared after hearing all these comments about how difficult the engineering program is and how people get weeded out. i’m a student who got accepted with GCE O level grades. i’m not sure what the high school level equivalent of that is. will i have a serious problem coping with the maths/physics in engineering ?? and more importantly, since i might be starting in spring, is there any way to prepare for this?? i’m unfamiliar with the university method of teaching. how are the classes done ? lecture hall ? classroom style ? whats the teacher to student ratio ?? if classes are held in a huge lecture hall, i don’t think raising your hand for questions is encouraged, right ? and hows the teaching style like ? do they teach a math topic and then give questions to practice ? or does alot of work involve self study ie learn mathematics concepts on your own, w/o guidance ??</p>

<p>i’ve heard nightmare stories about people studying until 2am in the morning for electrical engineering and then transferring to management because of falling grades. and that’s a student who did the GCE A levels. i’ll definitely be working as hard as i can, but stories like this still freak me out.</p>

<p>i’m really excited about purdue, but at the same time worried. anybody who can comment or shed some light on this ??</p>

<p>thanks</p>

<p>i’m not in engineering but i know numerous people in the first-year program. some classes ARE going to be hard. they’re supposed to challenge you; not everyone will become an engineer, and that’s just the truth. and you will have a lot of homework some nights, but it’s up to you to figure out how to manage it.
math classes can be tough if you get behind. they’re either 3 days a week or 4+ a recitation. some math courses are taught by young grad students, so they’re not that good at teaching. if this is the case, you’ll have to do some self-teaching. but remember there are study groups, help websites, etc to help you pass.
some classes are small and some classes are big. that’s just the way it is when you’re starting out in any major. you can always ask questions in big lecture halls. some classes have a recitation where its much easier to ask questions there too. and you can always ask the TAs during their office hours if you need further help.
i think you’re overthinking this all. professors usually teach in similar ways, but if they teach in a way you’re not used to, you have to cope and figure out how you’re going to pass the class. it isn’t high school anymore and they teach however they want.
i would seriously look at the engineering plan of study before deciding to come spring semester. there is no real benefit to waiting until spring and you will be behind in classes and credits if you do.</p>

<p>thanks for your reply. its not by choice actually; i’ve been waitlisted for fall sem. regardless, if i’m accepted for fall sem, i’ll take it. if not, spring semester it is.</p>

<p>when you say behind classes, i’ll just be graduating 6 months later right ?? since i started 6 months later…</p>

<p>thanks for your response.</p>

<p>ps would you recommend any math topic in particular that i should learn/polish up on ? got time until then, might as well make use of it. or anything that can help me to prepare for engineering.</p>

<p>You mentioned internships earlier, for the most part do you get paid internships or no? If you get paid, aprox. how much do you get paid?</p>

<p>With the upcoming school year approaching I thought I should bump this thread since it has some good info. </p>

<p>However, if you have any new questions just ask and don’t worry if it’s a stupid question. I felt the same way when I was an incoming freshmen as well.</p>

<p>what do people generally do in frats ? party all the time ? surely there’s details that i’m missing out ?</p>

<p>Well it depends what kind of fraternity you join… there are multicultural, IFC, and professional fraternities. </p>

<p>Since I’m a brother of an IFC fraternity, I can list a few things we do:</p>

<p>Participate/host philanthropy events, have social functions which include barn dances, formal dinners, study (I’m serious about this, the average GPA of Greeks tend to be higher than the all-Mens/Womens average), and just hang out with other brothers. </p>

<p>The brothers pretty much become your family while your at school since they motivate you when you need it. We also help each other out when it comes to homework and errands.</p>

<p>BTW, we do not party all the time. Of course there are some people who do but as I said earlier we sometimes have a higher GPA than the all-mens average. For sororities, they tend to have a higher GPA than the all-womens average every year.</p>

<p>I agree with Jim, I’m in a IFC fraternity as well. Although we do have parties, our focus is much more on philanthropies, brotherhood events/retreats, etc.</p>

<p>Gotta love those brotherhood events.</p>

<p>For real, I think those brotherhood events are the one thing that completely seperates fraternities. There’s nothing like it and the retreats have been some of the best weekends of my college career.</p>

<p>I guess i’ll bump this again Jimgotkp and the other peeps do a great job answering question, I can help answer some as well maybe from another prospective.</p>