How did your Purdue child find their friends?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Purdue University
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I have a son applying to Purdue next fall. He’s a little concerned about the size. We also know a freshman student there who is considering transfer (has a guaranteed transfer to another school ) because they are having a hard time finding their niche The Purdue student knew their roommate already, they get along great, is very outgoing but both are having a hard time finding their people. One has joined 17 clubs :joy:

Asking both for my son for who Purdue is a real possibility, and for our friends child.

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My D, now a senior, has a couple of distinct friend groups at Purdue. One group is from her living earning community, one from her theater club, and one from her major.

It took her a bit of time to “find her people” and she did join a bunch of different clubs her freshman year too. She also attended all her floor events that first year to try to expand her circle.

I distinctly remember her calling as a freshman, just about this time of year, in tears that she didn’t have friends. The reality was that she had plenty of people to do things with but was comparing it with the deeper friendships from back home. You know, the friendships that took years to develop ; ).

By second semester, things were much better - she narrowed it down to two main activities, had people to live with sophomore year, and found her groove.

To the students struggling now - It’s only mid way through the first semester and it takes time to forge friendships (and don’t believe everything you see on social media about how great everyone else is doing).

I was nervous about the Purdue size too. I have a couple of pieces of advice for future Boilers-

I can’t recommend enough doing a living learning community. It instantly shrinks the school size.

Get involved early in study groups with people in your classes. It really helps not just academically but socially.

Don’t skip BGR (freshman orientation).

Go to the club fair and pick 1 - 2 that align with your interests. I think 17 is too many ; )

And remember that after freshman year, when students get more into the meat of their majors, the university shrinks yet again.

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Thanks so much. Our Purdue friend is a Goss Scholar, but is regretful they did not apply to the honors college. My son is working on his honors college application right now, so hopefully that will be a difference.

I think you touched a couple of things which may be an issue. I agree 17 clubs is too many, although this is the same kid that was heavily involved in almost that many at their boarding school. Talk about close friendships, boarding school certainly creates those. I do think they are missing those deep connections, although their roommate was at the same boarding school.

Second, they placed out of almost all of the entry-level classes either through AP exam or testing. They have very few freshman classes if any. The advisor said they could finish in two years. I am sure that is contributing to it.

I also don’t think they know what they want. The frustration at first was that Purdue has all of these incredible resources and “no one“ was taking advantage of them. This circles back to the fact that they’ve not found their people, as I am sure in such a large freshman class there are people that are. Their dream job is to get their PhD and work in a lab. They are very intellectual. Academically they are getting 100s. They also don’t feel like they are having the “college experience” their friends are (parties, etc). The two friends in question are at different top 10 schools and they are hearing about their experiences and not having them. The Purdue student decided not to go through rush, not really what they thought they wanted. My son is definitely open to that but not sure how prevalent it is at Purdue.

Agree it is early. They have found several people who want to live with them next year and they are going forward with that. May take advantage of the transfer pathway to Georgia Tech though, and will almost certainly apply for it.

Thanks so much for responding. My son will likely go to Georgia Tech if he gets in but that is never a guarantee, and Purdue is probably his second choice. Want to have all the information to smooth his way if he ends up there.

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Goss Scholars, without honors college, basically adds one orientation activity and that’s about it from the social side.

Don’t discount the other living learning communities if Honors College doesn’t work out (it’s uber competitive for engineers because all colleges are equally represented in Honors so there are more kids vying for those spots). There are some other wonderful LLCs for engineers, especially EPICS. D has a few friends that turned down honors for EPICS because it more aligned with their interests.

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This is super common for many freshmen right now and is not indicative of Purdue. I can almost guarantee you that the freshman you mention will end up staying right where he is.

It takes all freshmen a little time to find their niche. If your son is interested in Purdue, he should apply. It’s a great school and I am sure he will find his people.

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My daughter is a current freshman at Purdue. She participated in the Computer Science Summer Bridge program, which meant she went to campus two weeks early to do a prep course in computer science. Although she didn’t really need the course, this gave her an excellent opportunity to get to know both the campus and a few friendly faces before the big crowds came. She is still friends with a couple of the Bridge students and friendly acquaintances with more.

There are all kinds of opportunities for students to participate in early programs. There is a summer semester all students may attend. There are band and sports camps too, things like that. Some students had already participated in programs for high school students, so they came in with previous campus familiarity.

Boiler Gold Rush is Purdue’s freshman orientation. It is a four-day program the week before classes start. Students are divided into groups, mostly a sample the same dorm and samples from neighboring dorms. They eat together and change cafeterias for each meal so as to get a feel for all of them. They are taught about the student services, apps, cheers, chants, traditions… everything they need to know to navigate campus. There is an activity fair at the end where they can connect with clubs, although most don’t start up until a week or two after classes begin. Daughter didn’t find her friend group at BGR, but she found the experience valuable for introducing her to the campus’s culture and resources.

My daughter is also in the Honors College. We have no regrets whatsoever about that (she is sticking with it), but I do hear they are losing their first dibs on classes, which was a nice perk. The Honors College Residences is one of the nicer mostly-freshmen dorms and it is about as close as dorms get to the center of campus. She has met some helpful professors there who connected her to other opportunities on campus. There are a lot of computer science majors in the HC this year, and the majority of her friends so far are HC CS students. Even in the HC there is a good balance of students who like to party and students who don’t attend frat parties or drink, so one doesn’t have to go far to find common ground.

I hope this helps! Daughter is still new to it all, but doing well so far and feels she made a great choice.

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You may be right. They are looking for housing with a group next year. They do have a guaranteed transfer to GT and have family down the road, a couple of states away from home plus my oldest is there and my youngest (college senior) will hopefully be. I honestly think they could find their place at Purdue!

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I have a current sophomore boy at Purdue this year. I was worried about this also but it worked itself out quickly. He was in the Honors Residence and a Goss Scholar his freshman year. He placed out of entry level classes with APs and tested out of many others too. He has always been use to being in class with older kids so that wasn’t a problem. He joined some clubs, got out of his comfort zone and stuck it out. He made friends in several groups and switched residences and joined Data Mine this year.

He still doesn’t know what he wants to do. He’s in Aero and if you ask him he will say the biggest annoyance is the academics. Not that its too hard it just takes too much time. He loves the college life there.

I think the biggest help is he has been involved in intramural sports. He played flag football, and organized a sand and indoor volleyball and basketball team last year. He played in a couple campus wide tournaments that go on each year. He is working out at the co-rec every morning. He has a personal trainer and nutritionist. These are students that do this for their studies.

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BGR, clubs, classes. My older daughter roomed with someone she met at BGR and will be in her wedding next Summer. And she still keeps in touch with project team members from her engineering courses (they recently finished a patent filing).

We just returned from Parent’s Weekend and my younger daughter went to Rocky Horror on Saturday with someone she met at Film Club. Book club, Film club, and TKD all meet at least weekly. And she has work groups from each course to work on homework.

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I agree BGR is a must.

That was a great football game on Saturday.

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My son is a freshman at Purdue. He is far from home and has a roommate that he matched up with. He absolutely loves Purdue and he came from a very small high school and town. He is in the honors college dorm and goes to the lounge to watch all the football games, plays pick up volleyball, joined running club and plays futsal. He just put himself out there and is living his best life. He was not a popular kid in high school. He is just super friendly and loves sports.

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I also wanted to say BGR was not for him. He did not meet anyone and did not mesh with his group. But, I think it just depends on who ends up in your group.

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My son is a freshman at Purdue. He was somewhat reserved in high school (though had a solid friend group) but has somehow become a major extrovert at Purdue. He joined about 15 clubs, went to BRG, hangs out in the dorm lounges, does class study groups, and has a huge group of friends and is out every night. It’s sort of crazy to see such a shift in a kid but he is so happy. I’d say the hanging out in lounges of his floor (honors college residences) made him a very solid group of friends, they do lots together. Also his clubs have made him some great connections - he became comfortable talking to strangers and initiating conversations and it has really worked out for him. I think the honors college does help because it does make a smaller world within a large school but he has friends all over now. Hope that helps.

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