My daughter has narrowed her choices down to Purdue and Ohio State for engineering. We really thought Purdue did a better job presenting their engineering program on our tour than Ohio State did. However, we liked the general tour of Ohio State’s tour better. Is there anyone that has advice or feedback regarding Ohio State’s engineering program?
Purdue has a stronger engineering program overall. It’s ranked 8th vs 30th in the nation. Has 30% female students for engineering vs 22% for OSU. Has 16 disciplines vs 12. Is known for its First Year Eng program. No incoming freshman is admitted directly into an engineering major but rather is exposed to all 16 disciplines their first year so they can make an informed Transition 2 Major toward end of their first year. My older D is a current FYE Boiler. My younger D is an admitted student at OSU for Nursing.
As far as getting a job in engineering 8 vs 30th means nothing.
My daughter (OOS for both) faced a similar decision 5 years ago.
She chose OSU graduated in 4 years, had an awesome experience and is gainfully employed,
What more could you ask for?
She received merit from both Purdue and OSU,
At the time Purdue was 8K more a year than OSU…
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Did your daughter ultimately make her decision based on finances? That’s the same boat we’re in too. I think my daughter is leaning towards Purdue, but money is obviously a deciding factor to consider
Speaking of finances - Purdue’s tuition is frozen through 18/19 which I believe will make 8 straight years. After that - who knows how much it will increase. So that’s an unknown that gives me concern. By that time I would hope my D will take advantage of Purdue’s co-op program where she would alternate 1 semester study at school followed by 1 semester working at a participating company where she would get paid $15k-$18k and not pay tuition for that semester. She would repeat until graduation. Both schools offer tremendous opportunities and you can’t go wrong with either.
Here are some parameters one might compare the two schools for undergraduate studies.
- National reputation: Purdue is stronger, mostly because of its vast research program. This does add something to your degree, though not directly to the undergrad experience for the most part.
- Quality of student body: the last I had looked, they were quite close, with median ACT (for engineering admits) around 31. Neither is close to top privates, which are all close to 34. They are both below schools like Michigan and Georgia Tech also.
- Student to faculty ratio: both are public universities with a high ratio. Again, almost all public universities have a high ratio, and privates tend to have lower one. This impacts size of classes or accessibility of professors.
- Subjective factors like location, campus etc. You and your child can only make the decision.
- Finances: again, this is specific to your situation.
Overall, I will say that if you like both locations and campus equally and finances are even, Purdue has an advantage because it is a bigger national brand in engineering. But OSU is close in many factors, so if finances are more favorable, or you like being closer to a decent sized city and airport with good connectivity etc. …
My guess is OP is struggling on price for Purdue.
OSU is much more generous to high achieving OOS students.
To me personally the finance (ROI) is very important.
I am an engineer myself (36+ years) and absolutely feel that no one should take on more debt than need be for an undergraduate engineering degree when basically all companies look at is that your degree is from an ABET accredited school.
If you feel you need a big name diploma save money on undergrad get good grades and take a 5th year at the big name engineering school.
If your student is willing to be a TA should be little or no cost.
I was lucky in that the “vibe” (we visited OSU the week before “The Game”) my daughter got when she visited OSU was her deciding factor so I did not have to have the money fight,
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Yes, my daughter has great scholarships to OSU, but none to Purdue. Is your daughter going into engineering as well? My husband is an engineer and he also doesn’t think Purdue is worth the extra money. He thinks she’ll get the same opportunities at Ohio State.
If your daughter is going into the honors engineering program at OSU, then she will be in great hands. I do not know as much about the regular engineering track. I do not work for OSU, but I do know several professors in the engineering college. Please send a private message if you have any questions! I know their freshman robot competition is Saturday, April 7th. If you are close by, then you might want to take a visit that day.
@disneymickeyfan
Read my previous post.
My daughter graduated from OSU this past spring (May 2017) with honors, degree in chemical engineering and a minor in English.
Believe me, your daughter will have the exact, if not better opportunities at OSU!
Top notch job and internship opportunities for engineering majors.
As a bonus you and your husband can retire earlier on the what I assume to be 50K+ price differential for 4 years.
@KAG0356 - we are in the same boat as @disneymickeyfan and others - trying to decide between OSU, Purdue, MN right now. MN and OSU gave lots of money, but Purdue didn’t. I’m interested in your daughter’s experience in the Honors College at OSU as a CSE student. I was surprised to see so few actually graduate with an honors notation (honors college, not latin honors). For CE it was 13% (congrats to your dd!), for my son’s CS major it was 6%. Trying to figure out why. Was also a bit concerned about how few engineering students graduated in 4 years (@30% I think). If you can speak to your dd’s experience, I’d greatly appreciate it; I’m getting nervous we’ll never have a clear winner!
@jeh3924 daughter took care of most of the honors requirements in the first 2 1/2 years. Many electives she took counted for both honors and her gen-ed requirements. She also looked at MN honors (her second choice) but did not like the thesis requirement. OSU gave credit for all her AP classes from high school. With those credits she was only a few hours shy of being ranked as a Sophomore on day 1. AP’ing out of the first two semesters of Calculus and Chemistry really helps for an easier transition from high school (less weed out potential)
A great honors perk is getting to register for classes before others.
Not sure where your stats come from but keep in mind the general drop out rate for freshman engineering ANYWHERE is greater than 50%. Many of my daughters friends did take more than 4 years to graduate because they took advantage of co-op opportunities .
Interesting reads.
https://www.asee.org/papers-and-publications/publications/college-profiles/15EngineeringbytheNumbersPart1.pdf
I know I probably should not be commenting on engineering since I’m interested in a non-STEM career.
But here are some female engineering students at Ohio State who seem to be interning and working a top companies.
https://news.osu.edu/news/2018/02/20/ohio-state-students-and-graduates-named-fellows-and-scholars/
@KAG0356 - thank you so much for your reply and thank you for the links! The stats I was looking at were from this document: https://engineering.osu.edu/sites/engineering.osu.edu/files/uploads/annual_report_2017.pdf. We were also happy about the AP credits. My son didn’t do AP Chem, but he is taking both AP Physics tests and has a lot of others, plus calc through Calc 3. I guess you’re right about the many who weed out - I don’t know why I’m worried, because my other kids finished in a timely fashion and no reason to think that ds won’t (he’s very organized, and has juggled 6 APs, varsity sports and music, etc this year), but honestly, getting 4 kids through college (he’s #3) with little or no debt, which is our goal, is stressful! It’s important that he finish in 4 if at all possible, although obviously, taking longer because he chooses to co-op is fine. I honestly wasn’t sure if it the longer grad times were because it was so hard to finish or because many took advantage of the co-op opportunities. DS hasn’t been accepted yet for MN honors (he has at Purdue and OSU), which will be a factor in his decision. He actually wants to live in an honors dorm (unlike my dds, lol, who had NO desire to do that, in spite of being stellar students!!). He really likes pushing himself and I think he would be frustrated to be denied the opportunity (which I’ve heard is uber-competitive for CS students at MN) to at least try it. Yes, they can join later, but it often puts them on the path to not finishing in 4 years, since they still have to fulfill all the freshman requirements. Anyway, not to blather on…thank you again for your input. Reading all the info on CC is really helping!
@jeh3924 loved the link. Very transparent could not find a similar document for MN, Purdue’s was not very
informative. https://www.purdue.edu/futureengineers/OFE%20Annual%20Report/2017
I was impressed with OSU’s 5 year Engineering graduation (freshman class 2012) rate of 60%
I would not be concerned about low honors %.
If it was high it would not be an honor it would be normal!
We do have a lot in common.
My youngest son just committed today to OSU in CS/CE!!
He also in OSU honors and his sister is very happy to have another Buckeye in the family!!
He applied to both Purdue and MN as well, no merit for either.(1450 SAT 3.97 GPA Top 3%)
He did not apply to our instate option UIUC,from what I have read that may have been a reach.
It really irks me that instate UIUC is more expensive than OSU with scholarships (Buckeye National & Provost)
Illinois loss Ohio’s gain. OH-IO!!
@KAG0356 - might have been a blessing that he didn’t apply to UIUC. DS was waitlisted with a 35/1550, National Merit, 11 APs/Calc 3, 3.98UW/4.6W, varsity sports and music, college-level programming, etc… Didn’t help that he had no hook. They took 69 kids in 2017, and I think they prioritize international, OOS (God knows IL needs the money) and then women and minorities (which I get, they are clearly underrepresented). He’s visiting OSU next week!
In regards to the low percentage of engineering students completing honors:
The unfortunate truth is that being in the honors program is nearly irrelevant when it comes to finding employment during/after school (I think it is more helpful in grad school admissions, but most engineers don’t go to grad school). Since an engineering degree is a bit of a gauntlet in of itself, most students choose to ditch the honors program and all the extra work that accompanies it after a while. I’d be very surprised if this doesn’t happen at other schools as well.
If money is not a factor, go to Purdue for engineering. Purdue is not that much better than OSU so follow the money. Keep in mind… OSU gives more money to students that otherwise won’t attend. Other schools feel they don’t have to do that to attract talent.
Thank you so much for your post. I am not sure how to PM but I do have some questions if you would please contact me at your convenience? Thank you!
@Formation Thanks for the link. Something to show to my daughter. Two out of thirty-six selected nationally for the Brooke Owens Fellowship and two out of fifty nationally for the Knight-Hennessey Scholars is a great accomplishment, and speaks volumes on the opportunities available at OSU. Since we lived in central Ohio until she was 12, and southern Ohio since then, I think sometimes she discounts the “home” schools a little 