<p>Just like to add that I don’t know what Purdue’s thought process is behind the high admission rates, but I couldn’t have been more happier about it. Purdue was the only top 10 school that accepted me into the engineering program. I just finished my junior year and I’m doing extremely well academically and socially. </p>
<p>Maybe that’s why Purdue accepts so many students…because they know HS grades and ECs don’t really mean that much. Either way, I have worked my ass off to get where I am. And the people on this thread (and so many others) are dead on when they say most students don’t work as hard as they can.</p>
<p>working on weekdays straight out is fine with me, but i’d really like to have my weekends free to chill out and whatnot, while maintaining a decent (good enough to continue in engineering) GPA. is this possible ?</p>
<p>probably not entirely. most people always have stuff (either something simple or a project) to do on the weekends, despite how hard you work during the week. there’s also tests to study for and stuff that is due on monday. sometimes you just run out of time. it’s college, not high school and completely free weekends are golden. and even if you get all your stuff done before the weekend, your friends probably won’t and will be busy doing all their homework…which sucks lol. can’t really win.</p>
<p>whaaaaat, there are only FOUR HOURS of lessons in a day ? only 5 day weeks right ? isn’t that kinda little for university edu ? here we have classes from 8am-5pm every weekday 'cept friday. this is starting to scare me lol. how much do they actually teach vs how much do we have to learn on our own ? i’m not one for spoon-feeding, but i really hope they don’t expect us to learn entire concepts on our own or something.</p>
<p>on a side note, are study groups common ? how approachable are lecturers/professors after lessons ? are they always busy or do they usually have time to speak to and answer students’ questions ? i don’t wanna be that guy who always asks questions during lectures.</p>
<p>yeah classes on monday/wed/fri are 50 minutes (150 minutes in that class/week), tues/thurs are 75 (same 150 minutes/week). this semester i only had one class on monday. it really just depends on how your schedule works out. some people like every class monday, wednesday, friday or all classes on tuesday/thursday and some people like it spread out or you just have no choice in classes and have to take what is available. again, it’s not high school, you take the classes you NEED to take for your major. it doesn’t sound like a lot of class time but trust me, you learn plenty. if you had every class every day, that would be awful and if classes were from 8-5 straight, people would not be happy. </p>
<p>and for the learning, it really depends on the class. some professors are lazy and just read off the powerpoints, some barely have powerpoints and expect you to learn a lot from the book. every professor teaches a different way. and most professors will answer questions after class, not during class unless it’s super important or something or if the professor asks the class if they have questions or if they want the class to answer something. but remember that there will probably be a class after yours, so they cant really hang around a chat for a while, therefore thats why theres office hours. </p>
<p>and study groups are REALLY common. freshman year is a really basic year and many people in your dorm will probably have some of the same classes as you. it’s not uncommon to walk down to the study area of your dorm at midnight and see a group of people studying. classes are just less personalize, so its nice to have a group of people help explain something you might not have understood in class.</p>
Although your interpretation was also what I thought, after a recent Purdue Engineering tour I found out differently.</p>
<p>Evidently all Purdue freshman engineering students start off as "undecided’ engineering during their freshman year. After their first semester they fill out a form expressing which engineering major (ie EE,ME…) they wish to pursue during their 3rd semester and beyond (sophomore…). Here is where it gets interesting: Depending on how many people are requesting a certain major (ie EE), Purdue picks a “cut-off” GPA for that major and THEN informs the students (at the beginning of the 2nd semester?) what freshman GPA they will need to pursue that major after their freshman year. </p>
<p>Supposedly 2/3 continue on with their first choice of engineering majors during their sophomore year. What happens to the other 1/3? Evidently some stay in engineering (included in the “retention” portion of freshman retention rate) and re-take core (Calculus, Chemistry & Physics) classes to improve their GPAs to continue into their sophomore year in their specialty. Others (also included in the “retention” portion of freshman retention rate) choose to change engineering majors to a less competitive (lower GPA) field.</p>
<p>While I don’t personally have a problem with Purdue using a minimum GPA cutoff to determine who should move on with engineering, I don’t particularly care for their method of adjusting that GPA number based on how many engineering students THEY admitted. Seems to me that if the Engineering Department thinks that a 2.8 freshman college GPA is the minimum necessary for a student to succeed and continue in engineering during their second year, they should state that BEFORE accepting the student and requiring them to enroll. Smacks a little of admissions manipulation.</p>
<p>oh crap first year engineering has chemistry !? is that optional ? i know its important for those who are planning to major in chemical engineering or biotech or something like that, but what about somebody who’s interested in mechanical/EEE ? is it mandatory ?</p>
<p>how difficult is that ? is it around the gce-a level standard ? or easier ? i’m rethinking engineering coz i’m afraid chemistry will pull my grades down :(</p>
<p>I can’t say wether it will be hard for you or not. I’m not sure of the difficulty of ace-a, but I can say if it is anything like AP then 115 is easier. It is the general chem 1 course for basically all science and engineering majors.</p>