Hi, I’m an international student from S.Korea. I’ve got admissions from the two schools as transfer student. Both are EE. Here are pros and cons I thought of.
Purdue’s advantages:
1.higher ranking
2.closer to major cities(Chicago,Indianapolis)
3.relatively cheaper tuition
Purdue’s disadvantages:
1.students are dying from school work.
2.i got tired of corn fields since I currently live in Illinois. The city seems boring.
Penn state’s advantages:
- Higher students’ satisfaction
2.beautiful campus
Penn state’s disadvantages:
- More expensive tuition
- Lower ranking
I know both schools have really wonderful engineering program. I’m honestly more into Penn state. Study is important. However, I don’t want to spend my rest of college life studying all the time. My girlfriend is also going to Penn state as well, which is pretty important for me.
My ultimate goal is to get a job in the United States. Ranking really matters when it comes to getting a job? If ranking doesn’t matter that much, I would choose Penn state. Considering every factors, which school is better choice for me? Tell me your honest opinion.
Thank you!
My daughter is a chem e at Purdue. She is not “dying from school work.” She participates in theater, goes to sporting events, is continuing with her music, and goes out regularly. She certainly works hard, but has balance.
The key to being employable in the US for an international student has nothing to do with where you go to school and everything to do with getting your work permits/H1B visa. It’s getting harder and harder to do under the current administration. You’ll have that issue no matter which school you choose.
Sounds like you want to go to Penn State. If your family can afford the higher tuition, go for it.
I agree.
Do contact each university’s department and ask them whether international students routinely get internships on CPT, how any for opt after graduation. Ask the same thing to the office of international students.
Girlfriend is going to Penn state then why the question? ? you answered it yourself… it’s important to you! @Seungkeu
For engineering, the relative ranking of these two schools is irrelevant. Penn State is an excellent school.
Penn State has better ice cream and is surrounded by rolling hills. It’s larger and has a more diverse group of students. At Purdue you’ll have proportionately more Science and Engineering people.
The only thing that matters for international students who want to stay here after graduation is the CPT and OPT placement. You will need a good OPT placment with an organization that can keep you for the maximum allowable time for your major, and that has a good track record for successfully arranging H1B visas for employees whose OPT has run out. Whether you are sick of cornfields is immaterial.
I think the ranking difference between Penn State and Purdue should be a minimal/non factor. In either case, if you graduate with solid grades, no one will doubt your education. As noted above, if there is a school that’s better in dealing with the immigration issues, that would be very important.
Both are very good engineering schools. Rankings are close enough to be nearly equivalent.
My D is also a rising Junior in Engineering at Purdue. There’s a lot of work, but no one is “dying”. I’d be shocked is Penn State engineering students are hanging out all day with nothing to do. Engineering will be demanding no matter where you go. If you don’t want to be studying all the time, you may want to rethink Engineering as a major.
The Lafayette MSA has 80K more people than the State College MSA. If you’re tired of corn fields near Purdue, don’t think you’re headed to a thriving urban metropolis at Penn State. Having been around both campuses many, many times, I’d put State College closer to the “middle of nowhere” classification.
Having said all that, if you’ve visited both, researched both, etc., and feel PSU is the place, then it’s probably the place.
And it does have better ice cream.
“The Lafayette MSA has 80K more people than the State College MSA. If you’re tired of corn fields near Purdue, don’t think you’re headed to a thriving urban metropolis at Penn State. Having been around both campuses many, many times, I’d put State College closer to the “middle of nowhere” classification.” ~ RichInPitt
Not to mention that the PSU campus is about 3 hours from Philly and about 2.5 hours from Pitt. Whereas Purdue is only about 1 hour from Indy and only about 2 hours from Chicago, with free shuttle buses to Indy running daily.
The PSU campus is actually classified as rural, there’s essentially not much there besides State College and a few surrounding small townships. Anybody who thinks they’re going to be attending university there in a “thriving metropolis” better do some more research.
Ok, obviously I’m biased. I don’t know any students that died doing their school work at Purdue, however google Penn State frat party deaths. But, I currently live in PA and know plenty of people that go to Penn State and they are not in mortal danger either.
My son competed at Penn State for State Indoor track championships. It is in the middle of nowhere and in the winter you will have a hard time getting in and out of State College if there is 3-4" of snow and ice. It is a brutal place from that standpoint, but much like the poster above says. Cornfields are just as irrelevant if you are there to study.
I also agree with the international placement statements above. Ask the office at each how they do placing international students. I do know that when I was at Purdue, they have a very large international population. In the 1980’s I was told it had the highest percentage of international students of any US university. I can’t verify that today, but Purdue has always had a large international presence.
At the end of the day and if you can just as easily place out of PSU into the US job force. I think that is where you want to go