What does it mean to be accepted into the pre-engineering program at Purdue? How is this different than direct admission into Engineering?
If you mean First Year Engineering then everyone starts there. You transition to your major after completing the FYE program. You are given the opportunity to choose your choices for your major early in your second semester.
First Year Engineering (FYE) is where everyone in Engineering starts. I’m not aware of anything specifically called pre-engineering.
If you were accepted into FYE, then you are in Engineering. All FYE students take the same basic courses - Calc, Physics, Chem, Engineering 101, Writing, Speaking, Engineering seminars, etc… At the end of Freshman year you selected which specific engineering discipline you want to pursue.
Were you accepted into FYE engineering or Purdue Polytechnic their engineering technology branch?
My son was accepted FYE. One of our worries is that transition to the specific major at the end of fresh year. I totally understand that some kids aren’t sure which area of engineering they want to pursue, but my guy is totally set on mech eng. He’s worried that he won’t get that for the specific major and is weighing whether he’d rather take one of his acceptances at another school directly into mech eng. Thoughts?
@RoboticsWidow - We were told that well over 90% of FYEs get their first choice major. I want to say it was closer to 92 or 94% but I can’t remember exactly.
My daughter loves the FYE program. She knew going in that she wanted chem e, and has already submitted her T2M, but still got so much out of the program.
One thing to consider is that if a student is really struggling with intro courses, is engineering really the right fit since it only gets harder.
@momofsenior1 It’s not that he has trouble in intro classes. He has a high school GPA of 4.45 and 8 APs but you just never know in the change to college courses so that sliver of doubt worries him. He’s an engineer… he likes near certainty! And if there’s no such thing as certainty he wants all the numbers to weigh his options… such a robotics kid!
Just PM’d you @RoboticsWidow
@RoboticsWidow Mechanical is one of the majors in high demand. While a 3.2 GPA guarantees placement, studnets with lower GPA’s will also get their first choice…
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/FirstYear/T2M
I can certainly understand where you are coming from about certainty. My son was convinced he wanted aero, but I steered him towards schools like Purdue that had a common first year curriculum, rather than schools that required him to decide on a discipline when he was applying. Flexibility vs Certainty. He chose Purdue and has loved the FYE experience. And he did end up changing his mind and chose mechanical.
From the FYE site
“In 2013-14, the vast majority (>98%) of students with both GPA and EAI > 2.75 were accepted into their first choice program.” That’s a 2.75, not the stated 3.2 that “guarantees” the first choice. I seem to recall 94’ish percent in more recent data I’ve seen, but that may be overall.
The only person among my daughter’s group of friends who didn’t get into their first choice was one student who didn’t get into Aero with his 2.8 and end ended up in MechE. My daughter’s also a MechE.
It is in high demand, but it’s also by far the largest major with 1300+ students. No other program has over 750. When I spoke with my daughter about the “harder to get into” engineering majors, MechE was not among them. (Aero, Biomed, Computer. Her Materials roommate said "we’ll take anybody 
)