<p>Hi everyone - I'm a junior in high school, trying to figure out if it's worth visiting Purdue. I have a few questions.
1. Is West Lafayette a good college town? What I mean is, is there accessible shopping - not necessarily Walmarts, Targets, etc., but a CVS, a Starbucks, a few boutique-y, independent clothing stores, school-spirit clothing stores, etc.? The only school I've been to is Penn State U Park and the town (really, just a strip of stores) was amazing.
2. How big is the Greek life? Do sororities have their own houses? Do frats have no-bottle or -keg rules?
3. How are the dorms, honestly? I can pretty much handle anything, but I'll draw a line at some point - give me all the info. How are the bathrooms? Are the dorms separated by sex by floor or all-girls or all-boys? How's the shower pressure?
4. Why the Boilermakers? I know it has to do with trains, but that's about it!</p>
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<li><p>WL isn’t the greatest when it comes to a good college town. Other schools such UW-Madison and Iowa have great college towns. There is a Starbucks on-campus with some awesome cafes like Greyhouse on Chauncey Hill. I believe there is a boutique, independent clothing store near Jake’s on Chauncey too. There are tons of school-spirit clothing stores aka bookstores on campus. </p></li>
<li><p>Greek Life is pretty big here. Your first two years you will def. be around fraternities when it comes to partying. Sororities have their own houses and I believe there are twenty something sorority houses on campus? Some houses are larger than others such as Tri-Delts and Delta Zeta. Fraternities have a no kegger rule but bottles are allowed. </p></li>
<li><p>The dorms are pretty nice compared to other schools imo. The nicer dorms are obviously more expensive than others. If you really want to spend a lot on a dorm then First Street Towers should be your choice however it is a single room dorm. The bathrooms are community ones except for the suites and singles. If you somehow get lucky with the lottery you can get a place at Hillenbrand which is an all suite dorm so you share a private shower with three other people. The dorms are separated by building when it comes to gender. The shower pressure is pretty good so if you have a bad water pressure at home then you will miss the ones at your dorm. </p></li>
<li><p>Being an engineering school since a long time ago the name Boilermaker somehow came I believe… What I don’t get is the Hoosiers… (yes yes I know it means a person from Indiana… for all you Indiana folks).</p></li>
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<p>Another note on the dorms, Hillenbrand (suite with shared bathroom, and I’m almost positive it’s not separated anymore by one girl tower and one guy tower, I think it’s every other floor is women/men) and First Street Towers (single room with bath, genders aren’t separated like all the other dorms, but you have to be 19 or older by the start of school in order to live in them as a freshmen I believe?) are for upperclassmen. The predominantly freshman dorms are not that bad. Shreve, Earhart, Harrison, Windsor are nice because they have AC but are more expensive. All of the dorms are relatively nice, except maybe the rooms in Meredith (tiny rooms) and the doubles in Cary Quad; anywhere else is a safe bet. </p>
<p>And yes, Greek life is big here but you can still have a social life without going Greek. Freshman year greek life seems to be all over the place, but honestly, I hardly notice it anymore.</p>
<p>Boilermakers - nickname for the football team coined by a newspaper a long time ago…something like that. </p>
<p>We asked our tour guide about the origin of Boilermaker and I cannot remember his answer. (It was 10 months ago!) </p>
<p>I wrote college visit report on our trip to Purdue. Click on “Recent Visit Reports” at the top of this page and I believe you will find it and others.</p>
<p>My dad went to Purdue, so I asked him about the Boilermakers. There’s a rumor that when the university football team started out that they got guys from the Monon Railroad Company in town to help with the team. Since the railroad company made steam engines, the name Boilermakers came about.</p>
<p>dixie, I believe you can live in First Street Towers as a freshman if your 19 as you mentioned. I know this past year they had “trouble” filling in all the rooms to upperclassmen that they allowed freshmen there. With the addition of an additional tower which may open in time for this fall, I can see it being filled with freshmen who are willing to pay the $15K or whatever.</p>
<p>Yeah I have no idea why they are even building another tower! What a waste of money if you ask me, but apparently the original plan was to build 3 but there wasn’t enough money so they just built 2. But clearly not everyone is rushing to live in them because they are too expensive. So I don’t understand why Purdue is basically wasting money to build another tower if they can’t fill the other two. Makes no sense. But yeah they probably will allow freshmen to live there because there are too many other options for upperclassmen.</p>
<p>Interesting that Purdue has the funding to building another dormitory tower when they can’t fill the first one, but has cut merit-based aid for out-of-state students. </p>
<p>Ten months ago on our visit, we were told that our son would automaticallly qualify for a complete wavier of out-of-state tuition based on his ACT and GPA. Then the rules changed over the summer.</p>
<p>olderwisermom, I’m used to this whole out of state tuition now. It really does suck but can’t do much about it. Sorry to hear about your son! Is Purdue on top of his list or no?</p>
<p>That’s a serious bummer… my scores are pretty high so it would be really nice if I could get at least some tuition waived. Was the whole thing changed, or will they still pay for some of his tuition?</p>
<p>He was offered $10,000 per year in the Presidential Scholarship. It’s a nice offer, but not the $17,500 difference between in- and out-of-state. Plus, Purdue does not participate in National Merit and he’s a finalist. </p>
<p>Kylearobb, what schools are on your top list? To answer your questions:</p>
<p>(1) I wouldn’t say that West Lafayette is a decent collegetown, however the crime statistics are very low. (You wouldn’t feel unsafe walking around campus alone at 3 o’clock in the morning.) There are accessible shopping places available, CVS, Starbucks on campus, Greyhouse around, etc.</p>
<p>(2) The Greek life is pretty big here. If you’re going to be walking to class everyday from the dorms, you’re bound to see Greek life everywhere.</p>
<p>(3) The dorms are very conservative and very outdated in my very honest opinion. Even if the housing website lists “co-ed dorm”, don’t expect that to be an entire floor being “co-ed”. Housing is almost by sex here, unless you live in some place like First Street Towers (co-ed floor). Women and men are literally segregated by West and East wings (almost like two separate buildings, but with connected lobby). The bathrooms are “okay”, the halls have a janitor clean the floors/bathroom M-F.</p>
<p>(4) Hmmn…I honestly have no clue. Sorry! :P</p>
<p>Hi UConfidential -
My top schools are probably (I haven’t visited many yet) Purdue, Penn State, and West Virginia University. There are some schools that would be at the top of my list (UPenn, Princeton) but I don’t think I could get in.</p>