Question: Is there an advantage to submitting this application as early as possible, in August or September? Or is it okay to apply closer to the EA deadline (Nov 1)?
I’m wondering about this because Purdue’s web site states, “If you’re a high school student, you should apply early in your senior year; admission will be much more competitive if you apply later. The freshman application is available beginning August 1.”
Purdue has several short supplemental essays (plus the longer essays for the Honors program) and my son would like to take a bit more time considering his answers, but we are wondering if he would be better off trying to submit ASAP?
As Momofboiler1 said, no need to hurry. Definitely get everything in before the Early Action deadline, however. Applying EA seems to make a difference, especially if applying to the engineering or computer science programs. My daughter is in the Honors College and has a nice dorm room in Honors Residences and got all her first-choice classes without any of the stress and drama a handful of others experienced (though it does seem to have worked out for everyone in the end).
Anything submitted before the deadline will be considered equally.
But admissions does become more challenging for high demand programs after the EA deadline. And Honors/Merit Aid requires EA application. So any time up to November 1 doesn’t make a difference. After it certainly does.
Question about self reporting the Courses & Grades section for Purdue on the CA:
-HS grading scale is 4.0 (confirmed with school). However, a bump is given for Honors & AP courses.
-If 4.0 is selected as the grading scale, then the highest class grade option to select is a 4.0. How can my student input all the grades that were higher than a 4.0? She has several 4.3s and 4.5s. Want to make sure what is submitted ultimately matches the transcript.
You can use the 4.0 scale on the Common App. The student has to type in each class anyway, and select the level for each class typed in (AP, IB, dual enrollment, etc.) Your student is not slighted in any way for weighted grades.
I have a child who is planning on applying to Purdue early action. It’s sort of midway on his list of desirable schools and he is getting burn out on essays at this point. Curious what the benefits are for the honors program? I think he would be a competitive candidate. I noticed that they have done away with priority registration for honors. He is not interested in living in an honors only dorm. Any other benefits? Does Purdue honors suffer from what a lot of honors programs in engineering tend to do – kids dropout because they can’t get honors classes to fill their requirements that fit within their schedule.
We have a friend with a first year engineering student at Purdue. He did not apply to honors but did apply and was accepted as a Goss scholar. Purdue was a “back up“ school for him so he didn’t do the honors essays. According to him, you can apply later for honors if you want to do it. Thoughts?
My daughter is in the Purdue Honors College now and loves it. She did get priority registration, which was a huge benefit, so it is a shame to see that go. The dorm is a HUGE plus. She says hers is nicer than the others she has seen, and frankly, as Purdue has had some housing issues, getting that building saved a lot of stress (Purdue continues to work on its housing and is revamping the process for 2023/2024). Also, the Honors College Residences are two blocks from the computer science building, so it is very convenient for her personally (lots of CS majors in the HC!) and very central to campus in general. Between taking Honors Calc 3 (25 in the class vs. 400 in the regular Calc 3 lecture hall) and her spring and fall honors seminars, she has all the credits she needs to fill the year’s requirements. The HC is on a “house system” and students compete with their house to earn points. It is really just another way of meeting people and making connections. My daughter has made connections with HC faculty already that could lead to some neat opportunities - I was impressed this happened in the first couple weeks of classes, especially at such a large university. Students can apply to join HC in subsequent years, but the freshmen tend to get some of the more obvious benefits. I understand what you mean about essay burnout (that happened to mine), but it is in the student’s best interest to push through. While applying to colleges will eventually end, applying for scholarships could very well be part of their life for several more years (so get used to writing essays).
My D is an honors senior. Beside being in the honors residence which is a huge perk, there is a an honors pacific engineering design class which was her very favorite freshman year. Super profs!
Honors has their own engineering advisors, honors seminars, honors study abroad, leadership opportunities, some companies will only talk to honors freshmen, etc….
My d had no trouble getting her required honors credit. They’ve made it super easy.
My older daughter graduated a few years ago, not in HC. My younger is currently a Freshman in the HC.
From the feedback so far, it’s a very worthwhile investment.
Yes, I believe a lot of Engineering/CS students drop from the HC program after a couple years (course requirements appear to become more demanding), but HC admission automatically put her in the CS Honors program, and the benefits for even just 2 years seem to be worth an essay.
An example, similar to above - her favorite Professor is one teaching her Honors Seminar. She was very nervous about a required 15 minute 1:1 with the Professor. She came out of it after a 40 minute conversation, and when he found she was in a Film elective/possible Film minor, he invited her into a group developing a Public Service video for a local nonprofit.
Thanks all. Very helpful. I’ll try to convince him. Sounds worthwhile. By the end of the weekend he should just have 3/4 schools left and a month to do it so maybe I can convince him!
My daughter is working on her application. She is applying to the School of Health and Human Sciences. She wants to study sports nutrition and fitness which she lists as her first major. She could also apply to general nutritional science or dietetics as a second choice since her goal is to get a masters in nutrition. The application only lets her choose a school for her second choice major(which is HHS like the first choice). It doesn’t let her specify a major within that school as a second choice. We were thinking of emailing an admission counselor about this but thought we’d check there first. Is this because it is the same school? Does she even need to apply for a second major in this case? (I know it’s optional). Thanks in advance for advice.
Fwiw, the data shown at the HC session at Parents Weekend shows a much higher persistence rate than indicated in the data I had seen from a few years ago. So my statement above about many students dropping from the HC program appears to no longer be as accurate as it was.
Question about reporting test scores. When self reporting from common app it lists the ACT for each section and composite, test date and date submitted but not score. On checklist page there’s no section for test scores. Just wondering if others have this and we shouldn’t worry about test scores transferring over from common app or if we should send them directly from testing agency.