I’m currently applying to Purdue, and I have the potential to enter with almost 40 credits due to AP tests. I know that’s a ton, but I’m still worried about being able to graduate in 4 years bc I’m OOS and it’s expensive :0. An extra semester or year would screw me over with even more debt… How hard is it to graduate in 4 years with a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering? Also, I’m considering the honors college (if I’m invited), but it looks as though all the honors requirements would make graduating in 4 years much harder… thoughts?
Have you confirmed the 40 credits with actual classes that will go towards your major? I transferred with 20 or so and only 3 transferred. In any case, as long as you are a bright individual you shall have no problems graduating in 4 years. The honor’s program at Purdue is different than that of the ME school. The honor’s program at Purdue is intense if you choose to take ‘honors courses’ — The equivalent of taking a proof math course vs applied mathematics course. The honor’s program in the ME department was still in formulation when I went so you could inquire directly to them to learn more about it. The jist of that Honor’s program is taking ‘honors ME courses’ and working with a professor to do ‘honors research’. — Also very intense and I would assume you would only take this route if you were looking at getting a PhD and were either very bright or had no interest in a social life of any kind.
I will confirm what swg999 has said. My son had 28 credits but only two courses were eliminated from his requirements. He is not honors and would not have appreciated any extra work, although he is envious of the perks.
Our D went into Purdue as a potential Chem E major with 42 credit hours from AP courses. It eliminated a year of Calculus, all of her Physics, and a semester of Chemistry (it actually eliminated a year of Chemistry but she had to have a Purdue Chemistry Lab class to go into Chemical Engineering), and a number of Gen Ed requirements. It has allowed her to limit her “academic” hours to 12-14 per semester and add orchestra and research to her schedule. She hasn’t had more than 17 hours in any semester thusfar. She’ll graduate with 8 semesters of academic work (7 semesters and 2 summers). She’ll take five years since she is doing a 5 term co-op. She received 5s on her AP Calc, Physics and Chem courses and chose not to retake any of those courses. So far it’s worked in her favor. She has done well in all of her courses.
She started in the Honors college but dropped out primarily because she decided it wouldn’t benefit her in the long run and after a few Honors freshmen courses they really didn’t offer many honors courses. She would have had to work with her professors to work on an honors project for the purpose of making a standard course an honors course. It did help her get her courses scheduled earlier as a freshman and sophomore. As you get more deeply involved in your major courses the scheduling is less competitive.
She loves Purdue. Good luck.