Leraning Communities

<p>Does anyone have any insight into the different learning communities at Purdue? More specifically, choosing the "all honors group" compared to the "honors engineering group"? One hesitation for your daughter choosing Purdue, of course, is it's size. I think it is really awesome of them to have these opportunities so that the kids can "become" part of a smaller group initially.</p>

<p>Sorry all - “Learning Communities” - too early here on the West Coast!!</p>

<p>Learning communities are a great opportunity and experience. Each learning community is housed in a specific dorm. The UHP learning community is located a Shreve Hall, I’m not sure about the engineering honors program. UHP will have students in all different major, whereas the engineering honors program will just be first year engineering students. Both are a good opportunity because students in learning communities will not only live together, but will also have classes together and many activities are planned for the students by their advisors and faculty fellows. As for choosing which one, I think it will come down to personal preference.</p>

<p>My friend was in the Honors Engineering Program and ALWAYS did homework with his fellow classmates since they pretty much took all the same classes together. I think it’s a great way of making friends easily and studying/doing homework with others in the same classes.</p>

<p>I actually heard from a friend who is in the engineering program that he was glad he wasn’t in a learning community. Apparently the communities have extra projects that they require members to do, and one of these projects was building Vex Robots.</p>

<p>Exciting (: I like it.</p>

<p>Not all of them have extra homework, that may have been the honors one. My son was in it and enjoyed it. His friend he went with from high school wasn’t, but he’s a pretty anti-social kid. I think if you get into one, great. He said his whole floor did stuff together the whole freshman year. Now, two years later, he doesn’t see many of them, but he did enjoy it.</p>

<p>I’m currently a student in the Engineering Honors Learning Community at Purdue. I honestly think its one of the best choices I’ve made here. About 44/50 of the girls on my floor are in the learning community, and there’s about 75 guys in it as well living on the other side of the building. We all are in two sections of the same engineering class. It is not just the learning community that builds Lego NXT robots, students in Honors Engineering that do not live in the learning community do participate as well. The class is a very difficult class, but I think it will put us ahead of the game next year when other students are trying to adjust to increased work loads. It’s really great because its always so easy to walk down the hall and find a bunch of other people for help on homework, and many of us do our homework together. I’ve heard from some classmates that they chose Engineering Honors over Lyceum because they thought it would be easier to find people with similar workloads that they could relate to and turn to for homework help. We also have really fun events that we do together as a learning community, such as pumpkin trebuchets, ice skating, knex rollercoasters, museum trips to Chicago, and a cardboard boat race. In addition, we will be attending some plant tours of places such as FedEx, Rolls-Royce, and Caterpillar this term. I highly recommend this program, it has really helped to make the campus seem much smaller and I’ve met almost all of my closest friends through this learning community.</p>

<p>x5cec15x - thanks so much for the information. Our daughter has the option to choose the Engineering Honors Learning Community and your info will be great to share with her!! I think it is a great option, to be in a smaller community of “like minds”.</p>

<p>I know this is slightly off topic, but how can I join the Engineering Honors Learning Community?</p>

<p>SandroRodrigues, you have to be admitted to the School of Engineering and be accepted into the Honors Engineering Program. To be accepted into the Honors Engineering Program you have to be a receipient of Purdue’s merit scholarship or have a SAT of or over 2050 or an ACT score of or over 32. You also need to have a GPA of or over 3.8/4.0 on a Purdue calculated scale (Math, Science, and English only) or a top 5% HS rank.</p>

<p>Correct - our daughter received a Trustee scholarship and with that letter, it stated that she then too has the option to enroll in the University Honors Program. (or from what I understand, she will have the option to be in the Engineering Honors Program or the University Honors). She can be in a learning community of Honors with different majors, or just hang out with the Engineering students.</p>

<p>I know someone who is in the honors eng learning community at Purdue and hates it. I can see it as being restricting to making new friends/meeting different types of people.</p>

<p>Well, I am international and don’t have a GPA or scholarship (for now). My SAT is 2130 and I rank 1/43 in my HS. Do you have any idea whether I would be considered for the honors program?</p>

<p>SandroRodrigues, you don’t have a GPA? Contact the Admissions Office and ask them if you’re eligible for the Engineering Honors Program and Learning Community.</p>

<p>You can always get invited into the honors engineering program if you get above a 3.5 first semester. Not very sure about the honors learning communities though.</p>

<p>I’m a sophomore at Purdue in the UHP and I was in the University Honors learning community if you have any questions about it.</p>

<p>Overall it was a great experience and I would highly recommend the University Honors program and learning community.</p>

<p>Do you think I’ll have time for a Learning Community and marching band?</p>

<p>@gt2550 Yes, definitely. Learning communities don’t really “require” you to do anything. You’ll just live and have classes with your learning community and your advisors will provide activities every now and then.</p>

<p>You can be in both Honors Engineering and the UHP. Definitely encourage your daughter to join the UHP, as she’ll have priority scheduling, which is a godsend.</p>