<p>Does anyone have an idea of why Purdue loses almost 50% of their freshman engineering students? I know that freshman year is difficult for engineering students at most colleges, but losing 50% would seem to indicate one or more of the following:
1. Purdue is accepting students in their engineering program that don't belong there (low HS GPA, SAT/ACT scores or poor work habits).
2. There is very little support for struggling students (tutoring, test prep, study groups ect)
3. Work load is so heavy that only half can survive
4. Quality of the instruction/professors is very poor.</p>
<p>I am NOT an engineering student at any college (yet), so please understand that I'm not trying to bad mouth Purdue. I'm just trying to figure out how such a supposedly good engineering program can lose so many students. Any ideas? What are other colleges doing that helps them retain more (certainly not all) of their freshman engineering students? Does anyone know of any programs that retain most of their freshman engineering students?</p>
<p>^^^
Wouldn’t that be the same at all/most engineering programs? Or are you suggesting Purdue is just so much fun that their engineering students require better time management skills?</p>
<ol>
<li>People underestimate the dedication you have to put to your studies while having fun so pretty much bad time management skills. </li>
</ol>
<p>this is very true. i would say of the students admitted to engineering 80-85% could do the work if they really put their mind to it. however, most people fail out b/c they think they can get by putting in minimal work like they did in hs or they just wanna have fun.</p>
<p>Why do you think Purdue accepts students that shouldn’t be accepted at a top 10 Engineering school? Is this a method to increase enrollment in their other programs after 50% of the engineering students leave the program? Any ideas why Purdue takes this approach (to a more radical degree) than other top engineering colleges?</p>
<p>state schools cant be so picky about who they accept after all a huge portion of kids have to come from In State. I will say if your willing to work hard you will do well, everyone with 2.8+ GPAs out of Purdue Engineering gets jobs.</p>
<p>I can guess TiredAndAbused’s next comment. “Why do other state schools like Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, University of Michigan, and University of Wisconsin-Madison not have low retention rates like Purdue then? Is it because Purdue admits students who have the stats to get in but not succeed in Engineering?”</p>
<p>^^^
There are a lot of GOOD state schools whose freshman engineering programs don’t lose have of their students. Are you suggesting that Purdue has a lower than average retention rate of freshman engineering students because of the quality of in-state students from Indiana?</p>
<p>^ No I am not saying that. There was no comment from me at all saying the lower than average retention rate is because of the quality of in-state students. I do know there are a lot of GOOD state schools that have great freshman retention rates such as some of the schools I listed in the previous post. Why I said that is because TiredAndAbused seems as though he is trying to whack the hell out of this topic.</p>
<p>Jimgotkp: My comment was directed to baseballnerd. You and I posted at the same time.
I may be mistaken but it seems as though TiredAndAbused is just trying to isolate what is different about Purdue that prevents (or causes) more than 50% of their freshman engineering students from surviving their first year. From what I’ve read so far it seems (my guess) as though it may be caused by low admissions standards at Purdue and a high difficulty of classes. Other reputable public colleges evidently have higher admissions standards which eliminated some of the students that would otherwise not make it through the first year. </p>
<p>I’m mostly interested in point #2 of the first post:
“2. There is very little support for struggling students (tutoring, test prep, study groups ect)”
Does anyone know if any of the top 30 (or so) colleges make any concentrated effort to help their engineering students survive the first year (and beyond). I assume most offer some form of tutoring and volunteer study groups, but are there any programs that are really outstanding in assisting their students?</p>
<p>Update: I wrote (email) Purdue to ask them specifically what their freshman retention rate and 4,5,6 year graduation rate actually was. The following was the response. Interesting (in my opinion) title of the person responding.</p>
<hr>
<p>The latest data we have is as follows: </p>
<p>First year retention to engineering = 85.7%
First year retention to university = 91.8% </p>
<p>Graduation Rates:
Engineering 4 yrs 24.32%</p>
<pre><code> 5 yrs 49.97%
6 yrs 58.04%
</code></pre>
<p>University 4 yrs 33.14%</p>
<pre><code> 5 yrs 70.37%
6 yrs 77.90%
</code></pre>
<p>Roxanne Martin
Retention Consultant
College of Engineering
Purdue University
Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering</p>
<p>it could be because i’m interpreting the numbers wrong ? idk…</p>
<p>first year engineering retention: meaning 85.7% of first year engineering students (per year or what ?) don’t get promoted to the second year ? am i understanding this right ? that’s a freakishly high percentage…</p>
<p>and 24% of engineering students graduate in 4 years, amirite ? that’s also kinda low. scary low, in fact.</p>
<p>I interpret the numbers to mean that 85.7% of freshman engineering students continue in the program AFTER their first year. Whether they are re-taking freshman classes at that point is uncertain but it does appear that only 24% of engineering students graduate within 4 years.</p>
<p>It is interesting that 78% of engineering students at Purdue eventually graduate. That is so far from the numbers that have been discussed that it makes me wonder whether we are talking about the same school and subject.</p>
<p>from my ancedotal evidence those numbers sound right, this is a top 10 engineering school in the Country. If you want a Purdue Engineering Diploma expect to WORK FOR IT!</p>