Genetics/honors

Colleges and Universities A-Z Purdue University
1

Hi! DS is interested in the genetics program at Purdue, likely Pre-med. We are OOS, so interested in thoughts about her prospects for honors and for merit $. Would appreciate any insights!
GPA: 4.3
ACT: 35 (SS), 34 one sitting
likely NMF, lots of ECs, etc.

Thanks so so much!

2

Based on our experience, and with those of friends, your child will be competitive for honors college but we knew no one who got any merit money from OOS, including my daughter’s school valedictorian with perfect stats.

My daughter choose to accept her spot in Honors College for engineering and she is very, very excited!

3

Hi! My son is a freshman at Purdue this fall in computer science. He’s in the honors college, received merit from Purdue and we’re OOS.

His stats are similar to your son’s:
GPA: 4.3
ACT: 35 (one sitting)
Top 2% in a class of 625
Lots of ECs, leadership, etc.

Now, I will tell you that merit is REALLY hard to come by from Purdue. I’ve heard many people say you get merit or Honors, but not both. So he felt lucky to land where he did.

4

Purdue is pretty forthcoming with information concerning scholarships. There are no automatic scholarships and the scholarships available are rare. According to their published information some 15% of admitted students are offered some sort of scholarship. That includes those available only to Indiana students. However, compared to many other state flagships Purdue’s COA is quite low and has not increased since 2012.

https://www.admissions.purdue.edu/costsandfinaid/freshman.php

5

This past year there were approximately 650 students who were admitted to the Purdue Honors College; this year, that number has been increased to 750 students: https://honors.purdue.edu/future-students/future-first-year-students/index.php. As I understand it – and I invite more knowledgeable people to correct me if I’m wrong – the positions are allocated across all of the undergraduate colleges in equal numbers. So, for example, it may be more difficult to get invited to Honors College if you are admitted to the College of Engineering (which has higher GPAs/test scores for its admits) than to, say, the College of Education (not trying to pick on them).

Getting merit money as an OOS student is tough. Not impossible, obviously, but you need to temper your expectations very seriously in that regard.

6

I thought it was more percentage based so engineering has more slots because it’s a larger percentage of the student population but I could be wrong. I know there are roughly 200 engineering honors students which is about 10% of FYE.

I also think your number is for matriculated students. I believe that double that number were invited.

7

^ Yes, I should have used matriculated instead of admitted; certainly, the language from the website linked above states, “Each year, we are limited to an enrollment of approximately 750 new students.” (Last year it was 650 instead of 750.) So “enrolled” = “matriculated”. That’s what happens when I am trying to rush through an answer, and not paying sufficient attention – thanks for catching that!

At Admitted Students Day I believe someone told me that all the colleges had equal numbers; but again I may not have paid close attention, because it was a moot point for my child.

8

Hi! I can offer you some insight. My daughter is now a freshman genetics major, also in honors. She was strongly considering Purdue. However, ended up choosing another school. We are out of state. We visited lots and lots of school of all sizes and ranking. We only toured schools where she could major in genetics. Here are the reasons she did not choose Purdue even though she loved it there.

  1. Money- biggest reason. I see posts that no one gets both merit and honors. Not true. My daughter was offered both. She was offered a really great financial package at Purdue, however it still would have cost her over $6,000 more per year than the school she chose. So, IF she graduated from Purdue in 4 years (and their stats to finish in 4 are very low) that is already $24,000 more just for an undergrad degree, and she is planning to apply to med school. So, not a good investment.
  2. Not a dedication “genetics” major. They do NOT offer an undergrad degree in genetics. Your degree would be in Biology with a concentration in Genetics. Not what she was looking for. We did however meet with the gentleman over genetics and he was great! He would have been her advisor. She clicked well with him. It made her decision hard, but she above- money!
  3. Seemed to nickel and dime you to death. Everything seemed to be an extra cost. For instance, students can not loft their own beds. They must pay the company the university has a deal with. Also, they may not bring their own microwaves or fridges. They must rent through the company the university has a deal with… The school she chose, didn’t do that. Much less restrictive.
  4. Very low 4 year graduation rate. In addition to possibly paying for an extra year of school, Purdue also (as many schools do) charges per credit hour. So if they take a heavy load, your yearly costs are higher too. The school she chose has a University wide incentive to “soar in four”. They also charge one rate for full time status, but you are not charged more for additional courses.
    Things to think about…
9

I don’t believe #4 ^ is true for full time students. Our tuition would have been the same for 15 or 17 or 21 credit hours. (College of Engineering).

10

3 and #4 are so grossly inaccurate that I question your ability to do research on this stuff

11

Regarding #3 in Post #7, my son and his roommate brought their a microwave and a refrigerator to their residence hall; there were no charges at all. (Bizarre to even think of it.)

12

We had to go through a company called ‘bedloft’ to loft the bed but yes, our daughter’s roommate brought their own fridge and microwave. Many of our daughter’s friends schools use bedloft too so it’s not unique to Cornell.

13

You dont have to be rude. I, in fact, did an amazing amount of research and questioned every college and financial aid dept critically. My information is not inaccurate. Unruffle your feathers.

14

Typo in #11…not unique to Purdue! :). Too late to edit.

We were concerned as well about the 4 year graduation rate, but it has been steadily rising. The average engineering student now graduates in 4.1 years and that’s because they include those students who take a semester off to co-op (and they aren’t paying tuition and earning money while working). I would suspect that college of biological sciences would be forth coming with the stats for their 4 year graduation rate as well.

We also talked extensively with our daughter’s intended major department to understand if there was difficulty in scheduling classes and we were emphatically told that if it’s a graduation requirement for her major, they will override the advisors and get students into the courses they needed to stay on track to graduate in 4 years. Again, talk to the bio department to see if they do the same.

Purdue is also very generous with incoming AP and dual credit. That can help with everything from priority scheduling to lightening the load during a difficult semester to graduating a semester early (or on time even with a co-op).

The other thing Purdue has done is shore up their support systems for students. They are encouraging upperclassmen to live on campus (they are adding 1000+ new beds between two new dorms) because it’s correlated with better 4 year graduation rates. There are tutors in the dorms themselves, plus supplemental instruction for all the big lecture course, plus recitations, plus office hours, etc…

If you’d like more information about honors college specifically, feel free to PM me. My daughter has been there since mid August and is loving every minute and thriving.

15

^ Concur with the statements about the high level of support for students shown by Purdue.

16

Your preconceptions in #3-4 are not facts, and I don’t care how much research you did. You are wrong.