The short answer is that it’s difficult. And aero is often at capacity making it even more challenging. If your son has a direct pathway to to his preferred major at another school, I think it’s a much safer bet to go there.
Here’s the info from Purdue:
Your son may want to reach out to engrinfo@purdue.edu to ask how many students successfully transferred into the major last year.
Mine received nothing but the National Merit Finalist $500/year, so no.
Given that list of acceptances, I’d ask what environment your student prefers. Pitt and Drexel are in cities. Fun energy for some, not the “traditional” campus experience for others. That’s an entirely different vibe than a huge university in Indiana and a huge university in Pennsylvania. When we were looking at schools, RPI had a required summer/rotating schedule that was purportedly due to lack of housing. And it’s a much different school than the others in size and vibe given its orientation.
In a big school vs. big school matchup, Purdue differs from Penn State in one huge way: The engineers/STEM students run Purdue—by that I mean the dominant cultural vibe is engineering. It is unique, I think, among the Big Ten, that way. I’ve visited 10 Big Ten campuses. Michigan and Illinois both have elite engineering but they do not have the same STEM dominant atmosphere on campus.
I find Lafayette/West Lafayette a little less isolated feeling than State College, especially with Chicago and Indy nearby. PSU seemed more frat bro heavy than Purdue.
Purdue and Penn State alums are everywhere, particularly in the Midwest and East, respectively. The others definitely skew more East, so job orientation/post grad plans might affect your student’s thinking, too. Bottom line, all of them are ABET schools so your student will be a successful engineer coming from any of them. Do what makes financial sense/fits best vibe atmosphere-wise.
This is so true and one of the things my D loved the most about Purdue when she was looking at schools. Instead of engineering being on the fringes of campus, the engineering mall is the heart of Purdue. I don’t typically talk about that enough so thanks for the reminder!
Still haven’t received my (RD International) decision yet. Wondering when they come out, and how some people on here have already got theirs.
Same here. We are told they might be rolling out decisions mostly on Fridays for next few weeks until 31st March.
We were at a “Purdue is for Me” accepted student event on Monday and the admissions there said decsions will be released on Fridays in March (i.e, 3/24 and/or 3/31).
My son got admitted to AI major (College of Science) deferred from EA, OOS. When did Purdue started to offer AI as separate Major?
From looking through course catalogs, it looks like AI has been a concentration in the CS major for several years and the College of Science stand-alone major started Fall 2022. (The BA version in liberal arts started Fall 2022.)
They release decisions on Fridays, throughout March, likely with the last set being March 31. So on that date, at the latest.
AI as a major was introduced this year - the 2022-23 academic year. It was announced last February - Board of Trustees plan to create new AI degree, research facility
Iirc, it wasn’t an available major for admissions last year, so current AI Freshman were admitted in CS and had the option to enroll. So Fall 2023 will be the first admitted AI class.
Machine Learning has been, and continues to be, a track within CS. AI has additional Python, Psychology, and Philosophy requirements. Iirc, it would take my daughter 6 additional classes to double major with the CS/ML track, to quantify the difference.
Ai is new this year. My son had exactly the same experience as yours. From what I can tell, the curriculum is very similar to CS with ML concentration. There are 3 classes AI major doesn’t take, and they take philosophy classes. Also the electives differ slightly. Hoping to learn more soon.
AI major is promising. Seems like a mix of CS and a bit of data science. What was the original major that he chose?
My son choose Computer Engineering as 1st choice & AI as 2nd choice. He also had summer internship experience in computer science.
consider exploring the Polytechnic college as another engineering option. its more hands on and they generally have the same job options. Poly just opened a brand new building on campus so its very up and coming and may be easier to transfer into
If I haven’t received a decision yet does that mean I’m either waitlisted or rejected?
I’m wondering the same. Got deferred for CS at EA, and seems from this forum that all deferred CS applicants got into Purdue in the last two weeks.
There have been way more accepted deferred and RD applicants this cycle so who knows! Hopefully the rest of the decisions will get released soon.
We are deferred to RD mechanical engineering still nothing, friend was RD electrical and received acceptance a week ago. Does this mean waitlisted or rejected?
Any feedback on Purdue’s for me? We are headed there for PFM on April 3. How was it?