Curious what you see is the current benefits of Honors. My senior was admitted to Honors but will not be attending (going to Georgia Tech), but a friend’s son also got into Honors and she asked. I see that they have done away with priority registration and housing preference. I assume there’s honors housing for freshman. Curious other benefits? At UGA, for example, there are honors classes in most majors that are smaller and frankly easier than some of the big weed out classes. Doesn’t sound like that happens at Purdue. Other benefits?
Also, I think Purdue would be at the top of his list if he had gotten his first choice major, professional pilot. Instead he got an aviation related major that he put as his second choice. What are the chances of getting your first choice major after you have been chosen for your second choice? Would like to relay that to her as well. I assume the professional pilot major is quite competitive.
Yes, pro flight is extremely competitive and is closed out every year. It’s one of the most difficult majors to change into :(.
Honors college has been super for my D. Yes there is honors housing freshman year and there is space set aside in different buildings for honors upperclassmen. Aside from the freshman year honors classes, which for engineering is fabulous, there are dedicated honors advisors, honors study away programs, leadership development opportunities, research, grant money and internships specific to honors. Frankly it far exceeded our expectations.
My D is accepted FYE and honors too, and it looks interesting. I do wish they still had housing/priority registration, but the engineering classes for first years look really good, plus I see there are some other small honors section classes. Mainly D is interested in it to make a big school smaller and have a community that isn’t solely engineers. It looks like they offer plenty of events? Hoping so! She is going to one of the events in March.
Is he going to go to any of the honors admitted events later in the spring? Looks like more of a meet and greet and tour, but I imagine we can still ask questions!
@divarose having friend diversity is a great goal. I know my DD hangs with engineers all the time due to all of the studying necessary. She’s at Pitt. Thank goodness her roommate is a business major! (but roommate dates an engineer-lol)
Thanks! There is only a red eye to Indy. And those Purdue tours/preview days start in the morning, the Boiler for me days starts at 8am so no way we could make it unless we fly in a day earlier- suggestions for spending an extra day?
Can you comment on the drive from Indy or Chicago? Traffic? Easy? Is snow/weather ever an issue? (coming in feb/march)
Thanks for the info! It is really helpful. I heard that there are some classes over 1,100 students in UCB, they have to separate the students into two lecture halls. If you get up late you will sit in the spare room and watch live steaming! Could you share the approximated numbers of the small class and the large class? Thank you very much!
Yes! Very excited! He is OOS, in a no class ranking and completive private school, NMSF, decent ECs like good summer programs and research paper, 4.5WGPA, 35ACT/1540SAT.
The drive from Indy is “easy”. Freeway all the way, with some alternate highway routes. There can be traffic near Indy, but you’d be out of it pretty quickly. The drive from Chicago is also “easy” (also all freeway with several alternate routes) when there’s no traffic. But traffic can make or break it near Chicago. Once you get out of Chicagoland, things are more predictable.
We’re coming in from Houston so we get way better flight choices (and pricing) on United flying to Chicago since it’s hub to hub. We did this for our summer visit and are doing it again for the visit in March. Both times we’re coming in a day early and spending the day in Chicago first. A nice little bonus! The drive wasn’t bad at all, but coming from Texas - our perception of driving distance is a little skewed, so take that with a grain of salt.
I can’t speak to the weather, but hoping it won’t be an issue in March for our visit.
So what’s the projected housing situation this Fall for incoming freshmen? Have read a number of housing issues the school has had which is concerning.
My son is a sophomore. The administration added some very early hoops for current residents to jump thru to remain in University housing. A lot of Purdue students stay multiple years in University Housing. Because of these unexpected hoops - many existing students missed the mid-October deadline to commit to live in dorms again for next year. They must find non-University housing. So - the University probably has a better reserve of spots for Freshman to get housing. This was a rough for those who lost out on returning to dorms - but I think it is important to get Freshmen those dorm spots. And my sophomore wanted to rent a house with friends next year – so it’s ok in his case.
I have one at Purdue (civil eng) and one at UCB. My boiler is a sophomore and he said his biggest class so far was his first semester freshman year in Calc 3 at about 300-350 (with discussion sections of around 30). He thinks calc 1 and calc 2 are even bigger classes. Not so bad considering my senior bear at UCB had a freshman CS class that was over 2000 (!!)
The UCB class size thing is somewhat misleading. Yes, the class sizes are huge in some of the gateway CS classes but that’s mainly for the lectures which most kids listen in on zoom. Most of the action happens in the labs and discussions where the numbers are much smaller and even in the most oversubscribed class there are plenty of resources. If anything, the biggest issue in Cal is that the size of the classes tricks people to resigning themselves to an anonymous college experience while in reality if you are willing to take initiative there are a ton of high quality resources.
At UCB (sorry - don’t mean to hijack the Purdue page), I’m pretty sure the professors for those large CS classes encourage students to watch over zoom (can watch live or recorded) as opposed to attending in person. My son had plenty of CS experience when he started UCB, so it wasn’t an issue for him. There are resources at UCB, as well as Purdue, for students who take the initiative to find/use them
My son is currently a freshman at Purdue in the Honors College and also in CS Honors. My advice is if you are offered honors, take it. As a freshman it has a lot of benefits- better dorms, more advising, special trips, and a smaller community (within a large school). My son made a ton of friends very quickly. He also has gotten every class and time he wanted, not sure if that is a coincidence or not. He doesn’t seem to mind the extra seminars, etc. so at this point he is sticking with honors and living in the honors suite-type dorms next year.
In general for housing at Purdue, I would advise that you do not miss the very-early deadline to sign up for housing which is in mid-April.
