There are plenty of accepts posted on r/Purdue in the last 24 hours.
There were also many RD acceptances over the last few weeks, well after EA. They released decisions on an ongoing basis.
āThe Boilermakersā
Boy, that lady is tough on Daniels for something she signed. If her son didnāt get a good job, sheād be pleased with the outcome. What percentage of her sonās salary did they commit to and for how long? I just saw $900 per month. Does the payback go up as the son makes more in future years?
She āthinksā itās worse than a federally backed student loan? You think?? This is her fault for signing this after taking a quiz on its terms. Expensive lesson in personal accountability. Mitch Daniels is the best president in college; Iām sure he will figure out how to add an email filter 
Seems like a pickāem. Purdue likely has the better Coop program, if that matters to you. Nephew is at VT for Systems Eng, son is looking at Purdue for ECE.
For Civil/Env, I think you just go for the right fit for him personally. Purdue is a powerhouse when it comes to ENG, but VT is good enough that you can justify going to it if feels better to your son, and gets him more excited about going to school.
For us, we were taken unawares by Purdue. We went on a visit to do our due diligence, and were kind of blown away by the place. As Minnesotans, we think of Lafayette as somewhere warm, so no issues there. We also come from a HS that tends to be quite left leaning/PC. S2 appreciates what appears to be the neutral political leanings of the Purdue campus. He was surprised to see a lot of Asians there, which is a positive for him- he is of mixed race. The Asian restaurants were relatively plentiful in West Lafayette, which seems minor, but does matter a bit.
On the downside, like most ENG heavy schools, the gender ratio skews heavily maleā¦not sure about VT. I told S that heāll need to work on his charm if he expects to get a date Friday nights.
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My daughter is making the same decision, with the additional variable of the University of Florida. She loves the look and location (mountains) of Virginia Tech, but as an OOS student, the pricetag is a little steep (even with $11,000 in merit scholarships and some F.A. it is still about $39,000 a year). She thought the āvibeā at University of Florida was great, and as an in-state student the price is hard to beat (sheāll receive BrightFutures scholarship as well as $5,000 in merit, bringing the total COA to around $6,500 a year). The downside is that UF isnāt well-known for their civil engineering program and Florida isnāt an āengineering school.ā Finally Purdue has offered a full ride (tuition, books, room and board, travel stipend, etc) for FYE Honors College. I think the only downside here is that she attended a summer program (1 week) last year and didnāt āfall in loveā with the school. I tried to explain that a one-week summer session with high school students is very different than what sheāll experience a real college student during the regular school year (and her cost of attendance is $0!), but it has caused her concern.
If she likes the vibe of UF and it is well within budget, that is half the battle. Engineering is very demanding and it will help if sheās at a school she is most comfortable at. UF has a good engineering school, ABET accreditation in civil. Sounds like it is between UF and Purdue, both very good schools. Good luck with the decision.
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Purdue and VT are both great choices. Hope your nephew is enjoying VT. Rankings in engineering to me are just indicators of general quality and reputation. itās all good and ABET accreditation is key. Current rankings in undergrad Industrial and Systems( if anybody is into that) are GT 1, Purdue 2, VT 3. You will do fine at any of a number of schools if that is what you want to study. Cost, fit, logistics.
Undergrad engineering rankings -same thing -Purdue #10, Virginia Tech #13, Florida ranked somewhat lower but still fine for engineering. Itās splitting hairs. VT has tons of kids that end up in the DC area, Purdue probably have lots of kids that end up in the Midwest, lots of Florida kids probably end up in Florida and adjacent states. But there should be opportunities in lots of places for a good student from any of these places. All great choices.
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What gave you the idea that UF is not well known for Civil Engineering? The UF civil students have won both the Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge national competitions several times over the last fews. My daughter graduated UF Civil Engineering and had 3 years of internships and multiple full time job offers with a 10K signing bonus from the firm for which she interned. Her entire graduating class had full time jobs or graduate school commitments. In my opinion, their Civil Department is a real value for an instate student.
Our younger daughter is accepted at Purdue, UF as well as several other prominent Engineering schools. Purdue and VT are great schools. She wants to pursue MechE with an Aero minor, so she has the same conundrum, but we have told her there are many paths to success and every school option you have will get you there is just a matter of what type of journey you want to be on.
Good Luck to your daughter on whatever she decides. Itās a lucrative time to be a Civil Engineer.
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S22 got into a lot of top engineering schools for aerospace, but at the end of the day it came down to Purdue vs UIUC. We had the opposite problem, S22 also did a summer program at Purdue and did fall in love.
Then, UIUC came in with a tuition waiver, and he got no money from Purdue. Luckily after a SITE visit and Illini day, my son got super excited about UIUC. He even said he would choose UIUC without the waiver. Have you guys done an admitted students day at Purdue? Does Purdue have any student led events? (The overnight admitted students visit at UIUC was amazing and really let me S22 get a feel for what it would be like to be a student there).
At the end of the day these are all peer institutions (for aero Purdue #4 and UIUC #5). Purdue is in the top ten for engineering, and if you can leave debt free, that is a huge win. All of these school will provide a great jumping off point for a career, but only one provides that debt free.
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Purdue used to do overnight events but Iām not sure if theyāve reinstated them since Covid.
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Unfortunately weāve pretty much run out of time at this point ā Purdue needs a commitment prior to April 15 to guarantee housing (and really April 12 because of a two-step acceptance process) so the decision needs to be made this weekend. We live in Florida and thereās just not time (or money) to make an impromptu trip to Indiana in the next 5 days.
The good news is that sheās done some research on clubs and activities and found some that really resonate with her, so Iām fairly certain sheāll be clicking that accept button for Purdue by Saturday night. What a long, strange process this has been!
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Gotcha, that makes sense. I do remember that the timing to commit to Purdue was essentially early April if you wanted guaranteed housing, since housing was due April 15.
I think Purdue is an amazing school. I know itās hard for kids to picture themselves somewhere they werenāt initially excited about, but sometimes those feelings can shift. Coming from a top 10 engineering school like Purdue, there will many options for top ranked graduate programs. It might be nice to put the money saved on undergrad towards one of those.
I agree this whole year long process has been a bit crazy. I am certain that as the dust settles, all of our kids will get excited about this new phase of life. Best of luck to your daughter!
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My nephew just committed to Purdue for engineering without a visit. He is really excited about it after reading all the emails, watching a bunch of videos and really getting under the hood about the opportunities available. Boiler up!
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I would love to see stars like this for school HHS. Why does only the business school openly release the stats for their specific school and the ithers donāt?. I think the school of engineering and CS inflate the stats overall.
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Thanks for all your helpful posts! I just found this site today. Any idea if picking a second major reduce chances of being admitted to FYE? Unless admissions is totally blind to second choices, it seems likely to have some affectā¦