According to the office of engineers at Purdue https://www.purdue.edu/futureengineers/Info/FAQs/AdmissionsInfo.html. About 40% acceptance. Something is wrong with the data digest information. It appears polytechnic and engineering data is incorrect.
That number did seem high. Acceptance rate overall is 58.
Even the 40% seems high but itâs right there.
I wonder what it show up as next year.
I know your question wasnât directed to me but my H and I are both Cornell grads, H a Cornell engineer. We toured 15 schools for engineering and D has a ton of friends in engineering at schools all over the country.
Purdue is no joke when it comes to grading and course rigor. There are tons of supports in place but Purdue actively discourages and tracks grade inflation. As an example, my Dâs fluid mechanics class this quarter ended up shifting the grading scale AFTER finals were over because the department chair said too many students would have gotten As. Purdue calculus courses do the same thing in terms of wanting a bell curve for grades and will adjust accordingly.
In terms of facilities, the engineering labs, shops, makers spaces, etc⊠are second to none. The only school we toured that wowed us like Purdue was Michigan. (We also toured CMU, JHU, Cornell, Notre Dame, Northwestern, etcâŠ)
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Thanks so much for the info.
Sorry many be too questions. Since you have first hand Experience in Purdue really appreciate your help
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I heard classes work size are 600 students like CS or others , does all 600 students attend one session or do they have multiple lectures of same class
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I read they have 14:1 ratio student to teacher ratio how does this work for #1 with 600 students ?
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Do they have office hours and how friendly or easily accessible professors ?
I know the college rigor is very hard and same level as Standford or MIT what I heard is that true or I got this comparison wrong how do you compare with Rutgers or Penn state CS rigor ?
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How are the doctors or hospital facilities for kids in case they get sick as itâs quite remote
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Do kids go often to Indianapolis to party or watch movies on weekends ?
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Do they have busses run by college to Chicago or Indianapolis when you want to travel to home town to catch flight ?
My son is a junior studying Mechanical Engineering.
1&2. There are large lecture classes, but they are broken up into sections for lectures and then further broken down into weekly recitation classes. The largest of those will be courses taken across majors like calculus or physics. I donât believe the largest of those is more than 250-300. The smaller recitation classes which meet once a week to go over the materials are typically 20 students or so.
- There is a lot of outside class help (office hours, organized study groups, tutors, etc.) available, but your student has to take advantage of them.
The rigor is definitely on par with the most difficult of programs.
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PUSH (Purdue University Student Health) on campus and very accessible for basic illnesses. The school isnât remote at all. In West Lafayette there are several minute clinics and the bordering town of Lafayette has several medical practices and community hospitals. If needed, Indy is only 45 minutes away.
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Kids definitely visit Indy or even Chicago but for the most part spend their time on campus and in neighboring West Lafayette.
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Two shuttle companies (Lafayette Limo and Reindeer Shuttle) operate multiple shuttles to both Indy and OâHare daily.
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Most of your questions were well answered by NJEngDad but just wanted to add that any large lecture will have a mandatory recitation of around 20-25 students. My D found that the PhD students that ran recitations to be super knowledgable.
I think you will find that at most schools, class size gets smaller and smaller as you move further into ones major.
Iâve personally been shocked at how accessible professors are. D got hand written notes from professors, they all knew her by name, and they are very engaged. All professors and TAs offer office hours and review sessions before exams. For intro courses, there are subject specific help rooms and free tutoring. Lots and lots of support. Students just need to go and avail themselves of the help. (Dâs advice is to go to everything even if you think you know what you are doing).
Personally I think CS is going to be tough just about anywhere.
As noted, there is a health center on campus and there is a two hospital in town.
My D never went off campus to Indy or Chicago on weekends. There is a ton to do on campus - 1000 clubs, sports, theater, music, outings, etc⊠Even during Covid my D was never bored.
And yes, the shuttles run all the time between campus and the airports. In addition, there are ride share boards for car pooling.
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As for your questions about CS classes being large, youâre going to find that at most schools these days. My daughter is in CS at Cornell and her classes are all huge. Freshman year her first CS class had 1000 students. They had to move it to one of if not the largest lecture Halls on campus, they even used to hold Arts & Sciences graduation in that Hall! My daughter has never once complained about the size though because she has always had access to her phenomenal professors, even during remote learning. TAs on the other hand is another story.
My step-daughter went to Purdue and the only time she came to Chicago was to come home or sometimes on a date weekend with a fraternity formal weekend. But other than that like any other campus, kids donât really tend to do that in most places. My other daughter also doesnât do that at her college and I wouldnât expect my son to do it whether he ends up at Purdue or elsewhere.
There are buses that drop kids off to at Ohare which is how most suburban Chicago kids get home if they donât have cars.
At top CS programs youâre going to find this to be much of the same especially as the major becomes more and more popular at different schools and programs are trying to grow. But there are only so many professors so as they did at Cornell, they are just moving them into bigger lecture halls, hiring more TAâs and then having more discussion sections. The bigger problems are coming later on as often times students canât get into some of the classes they may need, which I suspect will ultimately force schools to have higher requirements to get into the major at schools that you canât declare until after sophomore year (like Cornell). Who knows if Purdue will ultimately go that route as well or just have entrance upon admission directly into CS.
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Thank you all @srparent15 @momofboiler1 @NJEngDad
Really awesome information appreciate it as this help us deciding best choice for my Son.
Yes totally CS is very tough program I believe my Son is well prepared with AP Classes and coding last 4 years or so and hackthons he is being doing.
Regarding the busses I guess these are private busses nothing to do with Purdue. Like some colleges Cornell or UIUC run their own buses to major cities by college ?
Like Cornel runs own bus to NYC etc agree I canât compare with Ivy 
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How is it compared? I looked at the material she is studying, the exams sheâs taking, and the grades sheâs receiving and then recalled the same material from when I was a student in the same major (MechE, CMU) and noted the similarities and dissimilarities between the two, finding many similarities.
When she tells me she just got back from running some experiments in the wind tunnel for her fluids lab, and is heading over to the 3D printers to create some parts for her project class, and I think back on what was available when I was an undergrad, thereâs no comparison. CMU, at least in my day, was extremely theoretical with very little hands-on lab work.
I agree with the note above - Michigan was the only other school with similarly impressive facilities (we toured Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Case Western, Penn State, Pitt, Lehigh, and Maryland for comparison). This is obviously only based on what they showed us on the tours, so take it with that caveat.
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No, Cornell doesnât run their own bus to NYC. There is a bus company that students who live in NYC pay to take a bus to and from. Kids really donât go from Ithaca to NYC for a weekend as itâs about a 4 hour drive. My daughter went to NYC last year to stay with her roommate over a 4 day weekend they had that they call âWinter Breakâ but otherwise no one really goes to NYC unless they live there and go for a family function. Most people are studying like crazy most of the time and just donât have time to take off for a weekend. There are a few breaks built in like Fall Break, and the Winter Break I mentioned above, and of course there are some kids who are huge partiers, but really not much time to escape for a weekend away. We had a family function last year in LA and my daughter came to it and it really set her behind. I would have rather she stayed but she really didnât want to miss it. She lost 2 days just from traveling to then only be in LA for barely 24 hours. Not worth it, IMO.
Same with UIUC and Purdue. Itâs not the schools that run the buses, itâs third party companies that do that run shuttles and they compete with each other to go back and forth at varying times picking up at airport or various hotels. My husband sometimes would drive to pick up his kid and his other daughter who went to Indiana would fly home or shuttle home, even though itâs only 4 hours. Just depends on the circumstances. But most kids really arenât running to the larger cities on a regular basis.
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Could you show me where I can find these stats?
Thanks for your insights! My student has gotten into Purdue and Pitt, for Data Science and Computational Biology respectively. Weâre waiting to hear from UMich.
We havenât been able to visit due to Covid. Do you mind sharing your thoughts on Pitt vs. Purdue, the good and the not so good? It would be SO helpful. Thank you!
Purdue CCO Is the visual dashboard for placement data. Select the Top 25 employers tab at the top, and filter for specific major on the right for details. Down in the text at the bottom are links to detailed Salary Data.
Another source of admissions, retention, graduation, etc. data can be found at the Data Digest. Dashboards and Data Sources - Business Intelligence Competency Center - Purdue University Then Data Digest at the bottom (the direct Data Digest link never works for me - âtoo many redirectsâ)
My D was accepted at Purdue WL campus for Computer engineering.
Are there opportunities for computer engineering students at Purdue to take additional CS courses to learn programing languages if they wanted?
Also, how is the job placement for Computer Engineering graduates from Purdue and where?
@GLP2AAMom- the Center for Career Outcomes has all that data: Purdue CCO
The Engineering FAQ also varies from the Data Digest on GPA, SAT, etc., though not to the same extent. Perhaps itâs a difference in time periods.
Admissions data may reflect what Iâve inferred from analyzing CMU data over many years, which has similar issues (take the weighted average of individual college admission rates and itâs nowhere the Universityâs CDS admission rate).
If a student is declined from CoE but admitted to their second choice, the DB/reports may record that student as an applicant to both and an âacceptedâ student, which gets attributed to both.
Below is specific data for Computer Engineering, as an example of the type of data available in the sources provided above.
I encourage others to visit the sites to answer similar questions. You can spend hours (or in my case, probably days) investigating data. (When looking at graduation data, keep in mind Engineeringâs extensive Co-op program. It has one of the lowest 4 year graduation rates but one of the highest 6 year graduation rates)
(click to enlarge)
Accepted (OOS)
GPA: 3.85 UW / 4.5 W, all non-electives were H or AP, at a competitive/excellent HS in Connecticut. ECs were âfairâ, not amazing.
Major: Game Development and Design
So we received an acceptance, but with no merit. This was a little surprising since she has applied to 10-11 great schools and all have given merit, except Purdue.
Virginia Tech, for example, is asking her to interview for a potential full tuition award (fingers crossed), and schools like WPI, Michigan State and such have offered good merit.
On the bright side, Purdueâs full cost (which is what they are asking us to pay essentially) is lower than the national average college cost based on it being in Indiana (I presume), but at the end of the day, they are asking for 40K a year.
I read recently that they are moving away from merit âas a thingâ, which is too bad because it makes them less competitive in the market for talent. I assume they have plenty of great applicants to have made such a decision, but it is still a bit disheartening for her.
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