Deciding between ASU, Purdue, RPI and WPI - opinions wanted!

College Search & Selection
1

Almost all of my daughter’s admissions are back, but she has narrowed it down to the 4 she likes the most. Her goal is aerospace engineering, but also loves AI, Cognitive Sciences, or Space/Planetary Sciences as back-ups. She is torn between the small and large schools. Going over so far, this is what she thinks (as well as some of my input)

Purdue: $47K (no aid given)
Pros: Offered Honors college, liked the campus, friendly down to earth students. didn’t feel competitive, EPICS, “well-oiled machine”, Likes the 4 year curriculum guideline, Positive job prospects. Potential for co-ops to offset cost. Lots of school pride. Plenty of clubs.
Cons: No aid so the cost is pretty high for a state school. Pretty rural, FYE doesn’t guarantee your actual placement in aerospace. Co-op is minimum 2 and it has to be with the same employer. Most co-ops are 3 or 5, which seems like too many for a BS.

Arizona State University $27K (big merit award)
Pros: Cost, Offered admission into Barrett Honors College. Direct admit to Aerospace, likes the 4 year curriculum, loves her back-up plan so much at ASU, she is considering switching majors. https://webapp4.asu.edu/programs/t5/roadmaps/ASU00/LASESESDBS/null/ALL/2019?init=false&nopassive=true
nice weather during the school year, tons of school spirit, happy students, but likes the thought of the smaller feel of Barrett. Dorms are fantastic. Money saved on tuition, could be used on global education trips, which she is really interested in.
Cons: The prestige is not as high. It was a safety, but she has grown to really love this school. We can’t get a good feeling yet of the two departments she is considering. (we are visiting in a few weeks and she is doing an overnight though) It is far (we are east coast.) They don’t seem to have a designated co-op plan if she were interested. Nervous about not being able to find summer internships or jobs back on the east coast. She is nervous as it is a huge decision to up and move that far away from friends and family. The other 3 schools, she has friends at other schools 1-3 hours away.

WPI $38K (Lots of merit aid and a smidge of FA given)
Pros: Loves the 4 semester program. I personally think she needs something like this. She does better when she has to be on her toes, as long as it is not extremely stressful (so opinions wanted.) Loves the hands on and project based ideas. $5K IQP grant, as she definitely wants to do some global and the options sound amazing. Students seem more friendly than a typical “tech” campus. Smaller, but urban campus. Close to multiple cities with friends she will know. Cheaper off-campus housing helps decrease overall coast soph-senior year if needed. Seems to have a great career center
Cons: Not as well known as RPI or Purdue. Possibly a little too small and a little too techy. Fear of wanting to change a major they don’t have. Concerned about stress. Triples and Quads in one small room for dorms seems like a can of sardines, especially with cold weather accessories. Not enough school spirit and participation in non-tech things is a concern. The IM sports were bare bones. Not as many females as state schools, but higher than RPI. Not many co-op options due to semesters.

RPI $41K (Leadership merit award and grant given)
Pros: Very well known. Seems big in research which she would like, has a nice back-up program she is into (AI or cognitive), Seems a bit more sports and school spirited than WPI. Larger campus size and more students than WPI.

Cons: The ARCH program (forcing summer semester between soph/junior year so you could be doing 4 semesters in a row with very small breaks. Forcing on campus-housing for first 2 years. Only a 2 week winter break :frowning: The FA grant was almost 10K and I fear we may lose that in a year or so, as I received a better paying job. The weather and how far it is from any major city. It seems more competitive and high stress than the other 3 options.

2

First off, is money an issue? Will you and your child need to be taking out loans? If so, my vote would be to go with ASU.

If money is no object, as a very biased mom of a Purdue engineer, that would be my vote. ; ). Couple of things about Purdue - as of last year, you could not do both honors college and EPICs. If you heard differently, you may want to double check. DD is in honors college and it has been awesome! The honors engineering physics class is almost all project based and amazing. Priority scheduling, housing, study abroad, honors seminars, are all big bonuses to HC. DD has had friends turn down HC for EPICS though and are also happy. The one thing to note is that living/learning community decisions don’t go out until the summer so there will be a period of waiting to see if she’s accepted into EPICS if she opts to go that route.

The whole point of co-ops is to be with the same company (at least at Purdue). It’s optional though so your daughter could just focus on summer internships with different companies if that felt better to her. My daughter is co-oping starting next year, so this summer will be going abroad and hopefully doing an internship at Purdue (won’t know until April). I will say that it is typically easier for freshmen to land co-ops than internships, at least in freshmen year. Lots of flexibility though with the duration.

As far as the transition to major, my dd is a chem e and got her override to register for next year’s classes without having to wait for 2nd semester grades to post. The average FYE engineering GPA in the honors college was just shy of a 3.6 last year according to the honors advisors. Well above the transition to major threshold. If your dd took AP calc and physics in HS, she’ll be fine.

Purdue is very rural. No getting around that. However, there is so much going on at campus that there is actually too much to do (according to DD). Sports, concerts, speakers, clubs, etc… There are multiple things going on every single day of the week.

FWIW, RPI was also on my DD’s list and she won a lot of merit money there (nothing from Purdue). In the end, there was too much uncertainty for her with ARCH, and she wasn’t thrilled with the male/female ratio.

Feel free to PM me if you have any Purdue specific questions.

3

My son is a freshman at WPI and loves it. He lives in a suite with 5 other students. There are two doubles and two singles in the suite. He is in a double. His room is very spacious and he loves the atmosphere there. He is really enjoying the 7 week terms. It does keep him on his toes, but it is only 3 subjects at a time, and when he comes home for breaks (fall and spring) he is done with the term, and can truly relax for a couple of days. PM me if you have other questions.

4

Regarding co-ops, you can think of two terms at WPI as a semester elsewhere where they get 6 classes completed every 2 terms, so kids do co-op if they want to. Co-ops would be treated like they are at other schools.
IQP and MQP, are part of their curriculum and you should see it as the only class that they take in one of their terms. IQPs and MQPs are projects completed locally, or (most likely for IQPs) away - lots of international sites available. WPI is the only school where, to my knowledge, a student can study abroad while in an engineering program without having to jump through hoops. It is baked into their curriculum. This is what attracted my son to WPI, aside from project based learning and the wonderful sense of community at the school.

5

Although WPI is within the city limits of Worcester, it is more of a suburban setting. When I was a student there, many non-first-year students lived in shared apartments, fraternities or sororities within walking distance… I have been told that this has not changed.

Large Universities focus a spirited fan base around, what amounts to, professional athletes. I went to graduate school at one of those universities where we lost our valued parking spaces to the football stadium. I was not a big fan.

Please do not confuse lack of big time sports with lack of school spirit. School spirit comes also through participation in your university teams, music groups and shared research. I ran cross-country and played intercollegiate ice-hockey. Believe me, we wanted to win and often did. The moral of the WPI rowing teams and wrestling are legendary on a small university scale (see https://athletics.wpi.edu/sports/wrowing/index). While employed at WPI, my wife and I rarely missed a wrestling match and the crowd was very loud in our small gym - since replaced by remarkable facilities.

A classmate of mine had won a big ten football scholarship, but chose WPI and went out for the team. He quit after one or two weeks and gave the excuse that they were not playing football! He then explained that he came to WPI to be an engineer and he would have gone to the big ten if his goal was football - I was also reporter for the “Tech News.”.

Over 80% of the WPI students actually participate in intramural and intercollegiate athletics. We even have women’s Lacrosse and Rugby clubs… don’t tell me we do not have spirit!!! For club sport listings see https://wpi.prestosports.com/navbar_red/club_sports/club_sports_teams

Please check for all possible majors and minors on the WPI website @ https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments

OK, I have to take my nap now!

WPI’67

6

Just remembered Laurie Leshin, WPI President, started at ASU. Her PhD is from CalTech and she headed the Goddard Space Flight Center before heading the research efforts at RPI. Robert Goddard is a WPI alumnus who, while still an undergraduate, pushed his chemistry professor with questions regarding the freezing of blood. He was already thinking about long term space flight.

If interested, read: This high man, the life of Robert H Goddard

7

For WPI’'s Aerospace post graduation report for 2018 go to page six of this PDF report. The employers and the salaries are listed on page six of this report You can also review other years. See Post Graduation Reports @ https://www.wpi.edu/student-experience/career-development/outcomes.

8

Purdue is truly a very strong program in aerospace.
RPI offers a mechanical engineering degree with some aerospace speciality classes, but Purdue offers a lot more, if she is likely to take some graduate classes towards the end of the degree program.

WPI is somewhat focused on undergraduate learning so very good teachers. so that means less research in aerospace, compared to Purdue, your top research school.

Arizona State is the largest school in the USA along with U of Central Florida. The class size is very large there. Its got some connections to the Los Angeles aerospace firms , if that would be of interest.

9

Purdue is also strongest of the four for planetary sciences and computer science/AI.
( RPI and WPI both do not offer much coursework or a major in planetary science, but only earth science. )
https://www.eaps.purdue.edu/for_students/undergraduate/planetary/index.html

ASU is strong in planetary science as well
https://sese.asu.edu/research/focus-areas/planetary-science

10

My D is a WPI sophomore and loves the school. One of the reasons she chose WPI is the academic quarter system.
She learns best in intense short bursts. And since they cover a full semester of material in less than 8 weeks, it is indeed somewhat intense, and classes move at a rapid pace. Yes, there is stress. There is a heavy, rigorous courseload. (No engineering program comes without stress, IMHO!) My D came from a rigorous curriculum at a prep school where she gained valuable skills in studying and time management, and while that prepared her well, she often has VERY late nights with exam prep and project work. Weekends are mostly about the work, too. The curriculum is very project oriented, so there are lot of team meetings, etc. and sometimes it’s a challenge to find a time when all team members are available to meet… sometimes they have to meet late in the evening or on the weekends. She is also very involved with music there. It is a lovely school, and by far the most friendly of the tech schools we visited (FWIW, we visited RPI three times, and the vibe is very different). She will be going abroad for her IQP a couple of days after exams end on April 30. She decided to do the IQP during a summer term so as to not miss an academic term… she has many required classes to fit in during the next 2 years. Your daughter has been given some wonderful options – how lucky to have these choices! Best wishes to you as she decides which is the perfect fit.

11

Remember that although ASU is one of the larger schools population-wise, the school is spread out over four distinct campuses, meaning that each school has it’s own tone and surprisingly, a much smaller feel than one would expect.
Since Barrett also offers it’s ‘school within a school’ approach, your daughter may have more of a similar experience at ASU as she would at one of her other excellent choices.

1 Like
12

Thank you all for the feedback so far. RPI is definitely in 4th place right now and probably only there due to it’s name. She did get into a few other schools, but she shut them down for either personal or financial reasons. RPI was very generous for what their normal cost is. Otherwise, I personally don’t have a good feeling of the direction the school is going in.

I love all of Purdue. My daughter loves the program and the kids, but a little nervous about the location and the fact that it is the most conservative school of the four. I personally don’t know if paying $80K more for a BA compared to ASU is even worth it. I know Purdue doesn’t raise much or at all. It is still pretty steep and I think we may take out a 10K loan each year to help the first year or two.

ASU/Barrett and WPI seem to be her front runners right now, but we haven’t been to both yet, although she is going to overnights at both in the next few weeks. I know she will have a better idea. They are two completely different colleges so it will be interested to see her take on both after the overnights.

Also, ASU is huge but it is over 4 separate campuses and that number also includes their online students. She will be at the main Tempe campus and in the Barrett school, so she has priority registration and the honors courses average 20-25 kids a class, even in classes like Physics 1. So she has the option to take the large lecture class or a smaller honors one. Of course once she gets to the specific engineering courses, those won’t be offered for honors, but will be smaller at that point anyway.

13

The main Tempe campus has most of the ASU students. The other campuses (West, Downtown, Polytechnic, Lake Havasu, Thunderbird) appear to be mainly for non-traditional students, specialty programs, and some professional school programs.

14

I would not say that the student body at Purdue is much more conservative if at all from Arizona State. Arizona
is a largely Republican state, and students reflect their parent’s views for a while at least. Tuscon, as a city, is more liberal than Phoenix and Tempe, although Tempe is more liberal than Phoenix. The price is compelling at Arizona State, but its not near the program in aerospace that Purdue offers.

If you look at the politics in Arizona, its surprisingly conservative. In fact, the Koch Brothers of Kansas fund the Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership program at Arizona State, making it one of the most conservative business and political science schools in the country.

Read about Koch’s influence over both U of Arizona Tuscon and Arizona State U.
https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2017/12/15/an-incomplete-look-at-the-koch-brothers-influence-in-arizona

15

The ranks at Arizona State for aerospace in particular, far surpass what WPI can offer in aerospace. WPI is more focused on mechanical engineering, computer science and electrical engineering.
https://engineering.asu.edu/rankings/

16

DD’s experience at Purdue is that it is liberal leaning.

17

Lots of liberal CA and CO students attend Purdue, and say the same thing. Its not like Notre Dame so much or the rest of northern Indiana. Bloomington Indiana is very liberal college town, West Lafayette also more liberal than Indianapolis. We toured three Indiana campuses, Notre Dame, Purdue and Rose Hullman, and Purdue is the most liberal of those three. U of Indiana even more liberal. Arizona is not at all like that, its politically conservative from way way back. But close enough to California to have some influence.

18

ASU and Barrett would be my choice. As good as Purdue is, I do not think its $80K better than ASU. Keep in mind that Aerospace engineering is one of those majors where a lot of “weeding out” takes places. Once you get through that, only the best survive. Also, ASU Tempe is for sure the far away from the East Coast, but the airport is only 15 minutes away from campus. Lots of school spirit and things to do in Phoenix.

19

If you look at the WPI faculty, there are two aerospace engineers and others are mechanical engineers, so
if she attends WPI she will be getting a mechanical engineering degree, with an aerospace designation that will
not be anywhere near the curriculum at Purdue, Arizona State or RPI, all more rigorous for aerospace engineering.

https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/aerospace-engineering/faculty-staff

20

You should ask WPI, but I suspect that few aerospace firms recruit there, but check. Mechanical engineering is a good major for aerospace companies though, so there is still a way in from WPI, but much less of a sure job path compared to Purdue which has the best job fairs for aerospace they are a ranked program with PhD level aerospace research or Arizona State which also has a good program in aerospace engineering and connections to Los Angeles and Colorado jobs in the aerospace industry.