My son has been accepted into both. Beside the obvious of Cost, Weather, and Area how do the actual programs stack up against each other? The ability to work hands on as a freshman, class sizes, etc. Super impressed by both. We are from So. Cal and visited Purdue last summer.
Thanks for the advice
I can’t speak to USC but am happy to give you a parent’s perspective of Purdue engineering. My daughter is finishing up her second year and is a chem e.
All freshman start in the first year engineering curriculum. Part of that is the engineering design course which is a hands on, project based class. My D was in honors college so her design course had physics integrated into the class. She said it was both the most challenging and more rewarding class she took freshman year. They did everything from programming model mars rovers, to modeling hydroelectric dams, to old fashioned egg drops. She also had the opportunity through that class to get certified to use the machine shops, 3D printing labs, learned Matlab, etc…
D’s class ranged in size from two with 20 students, to one class with nearly 400. All the larger lectures have mandatory weekly recitations with no more than 25 students, so plenty of time for discussion. Profs are very accessible and have weekly office hours and help sessions. There are also free help rooms/tutoring for all the freshman year engineering classes. Lots and lots of opportunities for help and support.
Purdue also has a mission to graduate students in 8 semesters so there are no issues getting shut out of required courses. Students may not get their preferred time, but they’ll get their courses.
D has been very impressed with the advising at Purdue as well.
What really stands out to us is their career readiness focus. 1,000 companies come to campus in the Fall for the “Industry Roundtable”, the career fair. The Career Center is an amazing resource and internships and co-ops are well supported. They tell freshman to come prepared with a resume and interview suit so they can start practicing their skills right away. D went to the Career Center during freshman orientation and they did an incredible job coaching her on her elevator spiel and shoring up her resume. There is another engineering specific job fair at the end of January and then another in March.
There are also lots of leadership opportunities on campus and Purdue offers a certification in collaborative leadership.
My D went abroad last spring after her freshman year for Maymester and then got an internship on campus when she returned. She starts her co-op in 3 weeks.
Super communication from the university with parents as well.
From a parent perspective, Purdue has far exceeded our expectations.
Weather…well…Purdue is not going to compete with Southern CA on that front, although no earthquakes, fires, or mudslides ; ).
My son has the same decision: Purdue or USC–both engineering. Did Purdue give you any additional $? It’s not as pricey as some schools, but he got very little scholarship/grant aid.
USC gave us a little money after sending in an appeal. I did not try at Purdue as I felt the OOS cost was close to the same as a UC for us.
We were basically down to the same decision for our daughter. It was a tough choice until USC offered her a Trustee Scholarship (full-tuition), distinction as a Viterbi Undergraduate Fellow with an additional stipend, and a guaranteed research opportunity. We just could not turn down that package.
With Purdue, you aren’t guaranteed getting into your major. You start as FYE and have to hit the GPA targets to have a high probability of getting into your specific major. At USC, you are essentially admitted to the entire CoE. Lateral movement is much easier, and it is easier to customize your major. That was an important factor for us since our daughter is interested in robotics, which sits at the junction of several engineering disciplines. If your major is siloed, this may not matter to you. Since USC is a private school, class sizes are much smaller and always taught by professors. USC Viterbi is also almost 50/50 gender ratio for the recent incoming classes. That was a big deal for us too.
Would we have paid full freight (>$77+K/year) for USC? Unlikely. We believed the Purdue Honors College approach as @momofsenior1 described in #1 would offset the Purdue “big school” problems at the start. Purdue is much more of an “engineering school” than USC. Last time I checked, Viterbi was only around 13% of USC’s student population. Purdue has superior engineering facilities and a much larger program.
Outside of academics, you are comparing a small Midwestern town with brutal winters (West Lafayette) to sunny but not that safe downtown Los Angeles. There is a reason the USC campus is fenced. If you prioritize what happens outside of campus (arts, sports, etc.), it is not going to be much of a contest though.
I guess what I am trying to say is you are asking to compare apples and oranges. You can’t. They are entirely different things, and the ultimate experience will be very different. Since USC Viterbi is much smaller, you need to research the actual department, not so much the CoE as a whole. That said, if the apple is $30+K/year more than the orange, I’d take the orange.