I’m from Chicago and want to study Mechanical Engineering. I’ve been accepted to both Purdue and Ohio State and have it down to Purdue and OSU (also applied to Illinois and Wisconsin, but I am less interested in those two.)
Pros for Purdue:
Closer to home (Chicago)
Better Engineering Program
Easier to find a job in Chicago after graduating
Not a party school
More out of state students
better basketball team
More resources for engineering students
Pros for Ohio State:
Cheaper with scholarships (potentially 10-15k cheaper a year)
I liked the campus marginally better
More equal gender ratio
More going on
Urban campus
Not everyone is in engineering
Better football team
If you have any suggestions or insight on the programs at either school I would be happy to hear. Thank you.
I guess it depends how much that $15/yr is worth to you. I’d go with OSU - good engineering program and you’ll get the same result in the end. Purdue not worth $60K more (total) over OSU.
Plus, the Buckeyes are doing pretty well this year
For my family the 15k difference isnt that big of a deal, but it would just be nice. Also if I go to OSU, I doubt I would move back to Chicago (I’d look at other Midwest cities), whereas if I went to purdue I would try to come back to Chicago
They’re both solid engineering schools. So if OSU is 15k/year cheaper, OSU has slightly more females than males while Purdue has 40% more males than females(undergrad), and you like the OSU campus better, why not choose OSU?
If you don’t have to decide until May, see what the final offers are for scholarships, and see if Purdue can can kick in some extra money to make costs a little more comparable. Add the extra communing costs and inconvenience - $600-$800 in flights and transfers. Also consider which alumni network is going to help you in future job searches.
Purdue is going to feel more engineering centric. I believe something near 30% of Purdue students are engineering majors of some sort. OSU I think is less than 10%. Granted it’s a larger school but it still has about 1/2 the number of engineering students. Purdue has a greater percentage of international students, many of which will be STEM majors (it shares it’s moniker as a state flagship with IU and Indiana is a less populous state). OSU does seem to give better scholarships to OOS students than Purdue.
Beyond that it really gets down to personal preferences with regard to college town vs. an urban/suburban feel, sports intensive vs. something less so. Purdue will have access to more jobs in the Chicago metro but OSU will have strong ties to the automobile industry, Honda in particular. I think Purdue has the better engineering college infrastructure but you will need to be proactive at either university in seeking co-ops, internships, research opportunities etc.
I’ll state that I am bias towards Purdue as that is where my D chose to attend. She chose not to apply to OSU. She never warmed up to it. She is a Chem E and her experience has been excellent at Purdue. She has friends who chose to attend OSU but really hasn’t kept up with them so I can’t give you a comparison. Good luck. You don’t really have a bad choice.
