I have my eyes on Purdue as my 1st choice college for MechE. I feel that it is a college with a great engineering program as well as a great college experience. I really think I would love it there. I live in NJ so, I have Rutgers, possibly even Rowan, as well. But something about Purdue seems more appealing than Rutgers. I ran the NPC and saw that I will be paying around 40k a year. I plan on going to grad school. But anyways, I will be paying a lot of money for Purdue, so I wanted to ask, is Purdue worth the OOS money (like is the Purdue college experience worth it)? Is the engineering program so good that I should pay 40k a year as opposed to 20k at Rugers? Also, I want to know what life is like for an OOS engineering student there, preferably from NJ.
Oh yeah, and I plan on doing a co-op, so how is the co-op program there?
I’m an OOS (originally from PA, my parents are now living in NJ now though). I don’t know anything about Rutgers.
Nobody can say what 20K a year is worth to you. Have you talked to your parents? You’ll be paying between $160-$200k for your degree (some students take more than 8 semesters to graduate). That’s a lot of money! If you are taking loans, that’s probably around ~1.5k monthly payments, minimum.
The education is top notch, at least in Civil. We have a lot of awesome resources and company connections.
There are a lot of OOS students. I don’t think it really makes too much of a difference.
The co-op program is pretty awesome. You go back to the same company 3 or 5 times over the course of 5 years. You have to start during freshman or sophomore year though. Any specific questions?
I’m in the same boat as 1234PJ4321. OOS from NY. Love Purdue (Aero Eng) but just received crazy money from OSU knocking down the cost to about 11K a year. I was fortunate to receive a scholarship from Purdue making the tuition about 32K/yr. I just don’t want to make the wrong decision here and I’m real nervous. My parents are going to help me with the tuition but I just don’t know if Purdue is that much better for the price difference. I’ve seen all the rankings and OSU isn’t so far behind, but I don’t know what to do. I asked a similar question on OSU’s page a few days ago and haven’t gotten back any responses. Any more advice from current students or parents would really help me out. I never thought picking a college was going to be this difficult.
We are struggling to decide too. Daughter got a Presidential scholarship and without that it would definitely be more than we are willing to pay. But recently she got a bigger scholarship at a different school and in a location where her travel costs would be much less, as Purdue was her geographic outlier. We were excited about Purdue and it is hard to shift our mindsets, but it is also unwise to pass up the new offer. As a parent I am not being much help as daughter is in a similar situation. For now we are waiting for the decisions from the private schools that she applied to and at the end of the month we will decide. And of course she needs scholarships to even consider the private schools.
Again, nobody can tell you what’s worth what. That being said, I somewhat regret going to Purdue after seeing how much money I’ve spent here (will probably total around $110k after scholarships), especially since I’m going to grad school. That’s a lot of money. If you go to an ABET school with good company connections, you should be ok.
@1234pj4321 - we’re from NJ also and wondering the same question. My son is also considering Virginia Tech. Have you visited Purdue. We haven’t yet.
Purdue is great. 1+ hours from Indy, 2+ hours to Chicago, an amazing city. OSU is great, in the middle of Ohio. Virginia Tech is great; in the middle of nowhere. Rutgers is good. Rowan is very good educationally, but no “big games”.
Ask yourself: “Do I see myself living near here after I graduate?”. That is the most likely scenario when launching your career. If you plan on grad school, you can stay in-state for your undergrad, then go elsewhere for grad school.
@metadata No, unfortunately, I have not visited Purdue yet. I plan on doing so this summer.
@SpacemanEd I had another post about whether or not it would be smart to stay in-state then go to grad school somewhere better. I got many responses and most of them saying that most masters are 1) covered by scholarships that are given from the school or 2) covered by a company. See, if I were to get a good job offer right out of college, I will take it but no doubt I will return to grad school to finish my dream of getting an aerospace degree.
My son is a first-year engineering student at Purdue and we are OOS from Ohio. We struggled greatly with this question last year at this time but ultimately decided that Purdue was by far the best fit for him due to a number of factors, not all academic. Is the extra $20K worth it educationally? Probably not, although we have been impressed with the academic rigor of Purdue. But for my husband and I, we felt it was where he would be happiest and that is worth it for us. We are fortunate that we are able to afford the extra cost.
We are from NJ as well. Son really liked Purdue and had great stats but didn’t get a scholarship. Got into UIUC as well as others. He is probably going to attend Va Tech. $5K/yr less than Purdue. Tech has a good coop program–looking at that as well. He was accepted at Rutgers as well. Rutgers isn’t as highly ranked–with its engineering programs. Just wish Purdue was cheaper. Good Luck to everyone with their decisions.
Oohh–and ditto on the happiest comment by Incadinca. Son received scholarships to UMINN NC STate and Rutgers. However, he really wants a college town atmosphere and I don’t want to deal with a depressed kid for 4 years–so it’s Va Tech or Purdue.
I can really relate to this topic as Purdue has been my son’s #1 choice for about a year now. We visited, loved it, applied, got it, but despite great stats did not get a scholarship offer. We are still struggling with the decision, but he is probably going to go to Auburn which will cost us about $70k less
Nobody can answer this question without knowing how much $20K/yr is worth to your parents. Wiki “price elasticity of demand”
For me, price was not an issue for my kids. However, when my kids were young and we were considering private elementary school vs moving to a top school district, price was definitely an issue. We didn’t know that we would be able to afford college.