<p>My son needs to decide whether to go to IU with a full tuition merit scholarship and little to no student contribution or to Purdue where he will have to borrow and/or earn 10K per year towards his college costs. What do you think? He has been accepted to the College of Science at Purdue or as a direct admit to IU's computer information science and honors college.</p>
<p>I looked into this about a year ago, and I honestly didn’t even apply to IU because I know purdue is really good for CS. Some statistic says that purdue is like #7 in the nation for job placement after graduation for CS, and purdue’s CS grad school is ranked like #19 in the nation. IU doesn’t come close to that. Even though IU is giving him lots of money, I would pick purdue. I believe there are much more opportunities at purdue for CS than at IU.</p>
<p>plus, if he does end up going through and graduating with a degree in CS, money won’t matter. job prospects for CS are great and CS majors make good money.</p>
<p>My son will likely make the same decision next year. You really need to study the programs at each school. Purdue offers a more technical pure CS degree with several tracks. And as stated, offers a fantastic job placement track record. Google even has its own “day”. However, the IU program has a little more flexibility with it programs within Informatics as well as CS. You can mix and match things a little more at IU–and perhaps pick a program that does not require such a heavy emphasis on “programming” per se. The math requirements are tougher at Purdue. You will find as many as 7 classes devoted to math around their program if you look close enough. It really depends what the student “thinks” they might want to focus on at this point–which is a very difficult task. This decision is not easy–and I have more experience than most as a father–I have been tracking the computer industry for the last 25+ years as a publisher in the field. Either way, your son will get a fantastic education at both of these schools. I happen to be a Purdue alum as well but things have changed a bit. And I still cannot decide. Another thing to consider, get a solid education at either school, hopefully land an internship to two, work in the field for a couple of years–and then specialize by going to a good grad school–especially if you want to get into a particular field. Your son needs to understand that there are more than one route for perhaps getting that “dream” job in a specific industry. Good Luck.</p>