Hello all! Crunch time is here… And I’m looking for a bit of advice. I’ve been accepted to both Purdue and OSU for engineering, and will pay about 16K a year at OSU and 44K at Purdue… Between my family and I we could probably pay between 18 and 22K a year of the tuition before loans. I also plan to coop and/or work during the year.
Purdue, for me, has a great study abroad program while OSU is a bit lacking… (Studying engineering in Germany)
I also found to like Purdue’s campus more than OSU’s. Any reccomendation is extremely appreciated!
If all were equal I would be encouraging you to attend Purdue (I’m biased, I have a D there). However, things are not equal to the tune of $28,000 per year. Go to OSU.
There’s no doubt that Purdue’s aerospace program is better than OSU’s.
That being said, I don’t think it’s $96k worth of debt better (($44k COA - $20k expected contribution) * 4 years). Go to OSU.
I agree with other posters, you should go to OSU. My S graduated last year from OSU, and his engineering roommates all got great jobs upon graduation. The price difference is too great to make sense to go to Purdue. It is easy to say “get a loan” as a high school senior but when you graduate with that much debt, it can be tough to pay it back and still be able to do things like own a home etc.
There are a lot of colleges that will let you attend their study abroad program so that might be an option if you do not like OSU’s study abroad option. For example Georgia Tech has a summer program in China and they let students pay in-state tuition.
If you want to work during the year, Columbus would have more options since it is a larger city. My S loved going to school at OSU.