<p>I'm about to begin my senior year majoring in Electrical Engineering and I am ready to answer your questions about Purdue University life and the engineering program.</p>
<p>Before you ask, please read the following:</p>
<p>-I have had very limited exposure to the Liberal Arts side of campus, and will probably not have very much at all to contribute on related topics.
-I am not in a fraternity, however I have engineering friends who are (it can be done).</p>
<p>Fire away! :)</p>
<p>I’d be interested in your first hand experience concerning the following thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/purdue-university-west-lafayette/929682-freshman-engineering-retention-rate.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/purdue-university-west-lafayette/929682-freshman-engineering-retention-rate.html</a>
Thanks.</p>
<p>aglages, Purdue’s Engineering Program is notorious for its weed-out classes. I’m surprised that this wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the thread.</p>
<p>In these classes, professors place high expectations on the students to practice and get comfortable with the course material on their own. Very often, they do not teach to the exams. The exams then go beyond simply testing a student’s superficial knowledge of key concepts by featuring problems that students haven’t previously been exposed to.</p>
<p>While these courses result in a lower retention rate, they are also a means of giving FYE students a strong base in the fundamentals, while preparing them for the more difficult courses that lie ahead.</p>
<p>i freak out everytime i see a thread like this :(</p>
<p>btw coming from a background of gce-o levels (not sure of HS equivalent, sorry), what would you say is the best way to prepare for first year engineering at purdue ? any particular concepts that i should be familiar with ? i’ve still got five months before spring semester starts so i might as well use the time to prepare</p>
<p>thanksssss</p>
<p>depr91, please do not be intimidated by my previous post.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, the Freshman Engineering program has changed a lot since I went through it three years ago, so it’s highly likely that it is now much, much different (and easier). My guess is that Purdue is becoming more selective in its admissions and less cutthroat in FYE.</p>
<p>I’ve also heard that Purdue has been removing a lot of the more difficult/isolated concepts from the 200-level engineering courses and making separate “honors” courses that are meant to cover the material in a more comprehensive fashion.</p>
<p>How hard is it to go through the BME at Purdue and get a good enough GPA for med school? do people do this?</p>
<p>vikings, your question is not an easy one to answer because I’m not sure what metrics you would use to measure a class’ toughness. Also, I am not in the BME program nor have I ever taken a BME class. I would highly recommend calling the BME office or emailing <a href=“mailto:WeldonBMEUndergrad@purdue.edu”>WeldonBMEUndergrad@purdue.edu</a></p>
<p>Is time management hard, and do you have any tips? I want to have a social life but get a 3.8 if I can
And I want to do honors engineering, and I’m planning on testing out of classes with AP tests so I can have extra electives to lighten the load…any thoughts on this? Thanks</p>
<p>I would be joining Electrical Engineering as well but the problem is that due to some personal reasons I would be entering Purdue in Spring 2011, and would effectively be missing a fall sem! But I do not want to graduate in Spring; I want to graduate in Fall so I have to make up for one whole semester!</p>
<p>So my question is, how can one make up for a sem? Are there summer courses to make up for the classes ‘missed’?</p>
<p>I’ve heard of a lot of people who graduate early, so I am guessing that there must be some way to make up for your credits in 7 sems rather than 8! Any ideas?</p>
<p>Akshat, yes, there are summer classes which you can take to make up semesters. However my personal advice is to use your summers wisely and try to get internships/research experience. You’ll have a much better chance of getting a job or getting into graduate school if you graduate in 5 years with 3-4 summers of work/research experience than if you graduate in 3 years with no experiences.</p>
<p>HSjuniorgirl, it is very do-able to have a 3.8 GPA with an active social live. Time management is not hard, but you need to do actually do it. For example, if you have a 2 hour (or more) gap between classes, take that time to go to a library and study. I used to go back to the dorm and watch TV (big mistake!!!). </p>
<p>Also, I think it’s a great idea to test out of classes or get AP credit. This will definitely help you have a lighter work load and it will help you out if you plan to minor in something or take extra classes.</p>
<p>Honors engineering can be useful. The people in your classes will be highly motivated people, so hopefully that’ll help you get your homework done early and you’ll have people to study with. However, I haven’t seen much use for honors engineering after freshman year, though I hear the individual engineering disciplines might have better honors program. I would go into freshman engineering honors and then after your first year decide whether or not you’d like to continue.</p>
<p>vikings, BME is a very challenging program and it’s also time-consuming. However a lot of students have successfully gone through the program and gotten into Medical School. In fact, most people applying for BME want to move on to med school. It’s a great program and you’ll definitely be a strong applicant for med school.</p>
<p>Greg, I have to disagree with you. I don’t believe Purdue’s FYE program has weed-out classes. My personal opinion is that most people have the qualifications to be successful in engineering, however they are not prepared or willing to put in the effort. Most people are either surprised at the level of work required in engineering or they’re more focused on having fun and partying or both. Either way it’s not that the classes are incredibly hard (there’s still a significant amount of engineering students graduating every year). People just haven’t adjusted to college yet. And that’s the main reason why so many people flunk out of engineering.</p>
<p>“In these classes, professors place high expectations on the students to practice and get comfortable with the course material on their own. Very often, they do not teach to the exams. The exams then go beyond simply testing a student’s superficial knowledge of key concepts by featuring problems that students haven’t previously been exposed to.”</p>
<p>Euhm, welcome to college. I think that statement proves my point, most people aren’t prepared for the first year. Their high school classes have only tested a student’s superficial knowledge and not if they truly understand key concepts. Professors are in fact not placing high expectations on the students, they are instead forcing students to actually go beyond superficially learning, they are forcing students to actually understand concepts.</p>
<p>“From what I’ve heard, the Freshman Engineering program has changed a lot since I went through it three years ago, so it’s highly likely that it is now much, much different (and easier). My guess is that Purdue is becoming more selective in its admissions and less cutthroat in FYE.”</p>
<p>Nope, it’s just as hard. I’m a TA for a freshman engineering class. Trust me, it’s exactly the same. However you are completely right that Purdue is more selective. So all the incoming engineering students, you have a better chance of succeeding than previous years (as you went through a more selective admission process and hence you should be a better student).</p>
<p>depr91, was your high school hard? Then you’ll be fine. Did your teachers challenge you in tests? Then you’ll be fine. Are you afraid of taking engineering classes? Are you confident that even though your high school classes were easy, you have your priorities right and you’ll wiling to put in the effort? Then you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>thanks for that.</p>
<p>well from what i can see, my HS math basically covered most of what is taught in calculus I. haven’t looked at calculus II so idk. i wouldn’t say it was challenging, but i have a natural interest in math and electrical engineering so i found it relatively manageable. the only thing that’s worrying me is chemistry. a C will definitely pull down my grades.</p>
<p>also, would you say the whole spring graduation will affect jobs and h1-b visa applications later ? my friend says the job situation should be better as there won’t be as many people looking, compared to those who graduated in spring. but there’s a deadline for the visa application itself right ?</p>
<p>edit @ my post above, last paragraph: i meant those who graduated in fall. why can’t i edit my previous post ? :O</p>
<p>HSjuniorgirl, it really depends on the person. If you would like to improve your time management skills, I would highly recommend checking out Randy Pausch’s Last Lectures (via Google/YouTube).</p>
<p>Akshat, it’s very possible to make up a semester without taking summer school. Testing out of classes ahead of time is one option. Another is to load yourself with at least 18 credit hours each semester. Both of these aren’t unreasonable avenues to take as long as you can handle the amount of coursework.</p>
<p>Summer school is a great option if the cost is not an issue for you and you don’t mind sacrificing internship opportunities, however depending on your citizenship status finding an internship may prove to be more or less difficult. Many students do summer school and research simultaneously through Purdue’s Summer Undergraduate Research Foundation, or “SURF” program.</p>
<p>Regardless, be sure to maintain communication with the ECE Undergraduate Office on your progress as you get closer to graduation.</p>
<p>EuroBoilerMaker, for the most part it seems that we are in agreement, however I don’t appreciate the tone that you took in your reply. This is a thread meant to respond to prospective Purdue engineering students. I sincerely hope that when you TA a freshman engineering class you aren’t telling students, “Euhm, welcome to college.”</p>
<p>I agree with the first part of your claim that “People just haven’t adjusted to college yet. And that’s the main reason why so many people flunk out of engineering.”
But it still doesn’t address why Purdue’s retention rate is so low relative to other FYE programs in the US. In fact, you gave no evidence that is specific to Purdue’s FYE program or its students.</p>
<p>I urge to the readers of this thread that what is “hard” or “easy” for one student (including myself) has little or no bearing on what another finds difficult, and such claims should be examined holistically.</p>
<p>depr91, the job market is tough to predict, but almost all of my ECE friends who had above 3.5s had very little trouble getting interviews/internships for this summer.</p>
<p>I don’t know whether Purdue’s FYE has gotten easier or not, but it does seem as though they recognize that they have/had a problem. According to the following email Purdue has hired a “retention consultant” in the school of engineering.</p>
<p>5/19/2010
Update: I wrote (email) Purdue to ask them specifically what their freshman retention rate and 4,5,6 year graduation rate actually was. The following was the response. Interesting (in my opinion) title of the person responding.</p>
<hr>
<p>The latest data we have is as follows:</p>
<p>First year retention to engineering = 85.7%
First year retention to university = 91.8%</p>
<p>Graduation Rates:
Engineering 4 yrs 24.32%</p>
<p>5 yrs 49.97%</p>
<p>6 yrs 58.04%</p>
<p>University 4 yrs 33.14%</p>
<p>5 yrs 70.37%</p>
<p>6 yrs 77.90%</p>
<p>Roxanne Martin
Retention Consultant
College of Engineering
Purdue University
Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering</p>
<p>I went to an engineering summer camp type thing at Purdue for a week, and they talked about their retention rate. They said that they made some adjustments to their FYE program and that their engineering retention rate for those coming back for the 2009-2010 school year was like… 80-something% and 60% of those who didn’t come back to the college came back to the university in general. I think they said they restructured their Ideas to Innovation class, which apparently helped the retention rate or something like that.</p>
<p>I’m not 100% sure on the specifics or anything, but I do recall them talking about changes in the former ENG195.</p>
<p>Guitargreg, I apologize if my remarks offended you. But I took the tone I did because (at least to me) you seemed to think and take the tone that it was outrageous and unfair that professors expect you to actually understand the concepts.</p>
<p>I’ll admit I’m not very ecstatic about your initial advice on engineering being full of weed-out classes or that professors put high expectations on their students. I personally feel (and feel free to disagree) that such advice only makes incoming students afraid and worried when realistically the truth is far from what you say. </p>
<p>Instead, I find that the advice I give (explaining why people flunk out of engineering and how to prevent it) to be more constructive and less frightening and pessimistic.</p>
<p>As for easy vs. hard, I agree that my advise isn’t very objective. So I’ll rephrase: People who say their high schools were easy and not very time-consuming tend to do poorly their first year as they haven’t adjusted yet. People who say their high schools were hard and time-consuming do relatively well. Although what one considers easy might be hard in another’s opinion, the main idea is that if you felt your high school was hard and you’re used to working hard on your homework and studying hard, you’ll be fine. You might have to put in even more work in college, but at least you’ll be used to working hard. Note though, I’ve seen people from “easy” high schools do well and people from “hard” high schools do bad. A lot has to do with getting the right mentality and a “hard” high school tends to foster a hard-working mentality more than an “easy” high school.</p>
<p>“But it still doesn’t address why Purdue’s retention rate is so low relative to other FYE programs in the US. In fact, you gave no evidence that is specific to Purdue’s FYE program or its students.”</p>
<p>What evidence do you have that the retention rate is so low relative to other FYE programs in the US? </p>
<p>“Many students do summer school and research simultaneously through Purdue’s Summer Undergraduate Research Foundation, or “SURF” program.”</p>
<p>Actually, SURF doesn’t allow you to do research and take classes at the same time. SURF instead expects you to do 40 hours of research every week (full-time job). However there are students that take classes and research unaffiliated with SURF during the summer.</p>
<p>“I sincerely hope that when you TA a freshman engineering class you aren’t telling students, “Euhm, welcome to college.””</p>
<p>Actually, I think that’s the first thing I say, though obviously with a more optimistic tone. But I have advised freshman students on time management and they’ve all done fine.</p>
<p>EuroBoilerMaker, I accept your apology.</p>
<p>Please re-read all of my previous posts more carefully. If you still do not agree with them, I welcome you to send me a private message to discuss this further until you are satisfied that you are incorrect.</p>
<p>For those of you who are still wondering about Purdue’s Engineering program- I am still taking questions. :)</p>
<p>how many hours out of class (per day) would i need to put in to keep a GPA of >3.2. i’m pretty much gonna need A for all my other classes since i know chemistry will drag my GPA down :(</p>
<p>depr91, most engineering advisors will recommend that you put in 3 hours of studying every week per credit hour, in addition to attending class.</p>
<p>Assuming that this guarantees you a 4.0, that’s roughly 25 minutes per credit hour every day. Engineering courses commonly range from 1 to 4 credit hours.</p>
<p>If the class has a curve, and you’re not shooting for a solid A, it’s probably not as simple as that because it has more to do with your performance relative to your peers. If this is the case, I would recommend consulting the professor and/or TAs of the course.</p>
<p>What are my chances at Purdue at 1810 I am an Indian student. Following the current trend that is. And are there many Indians and is their graduation rate higher in the sense do they find it easy than their American counterparts?</p>