I recently received my acceptance to the engineering colleges at both TAMU (In state, Honors College) and Purdue. I intend to declare for either mechanical or aerospace next year.
My parents are willing to pay for Purdue but need to see that it’s worth it.
I personally want to go to Purdue as I have cousins that go there and family within a 2-3 hour drive of the university and much prefer the Midwest to the south.
I have yet to visit either university (will visit in the coming months).
Which one is better in terms of Job/internship opportunities, environment, education, and activities?
Purdue is an excellent engineering school especially if you want to go in to aerospace(Ranked #8 for engineering compared to TAMU which is ranked #14). I currently have a student at Purdue and live in Texas and would be willing to answer any questions you or your parents might have about the university.
They are two totally different types of campus. So part of your decision should be based on what you are looking for in your college experience. If you haven’t visited either I would suggest you start there.
Best of luck in your decision and Boiler UP!
Carefully look into how difficult it will be to get into your major at each. Both admit to a pre engineering program where students must complete by college GPA (and essays at TAMU) to get into their majors.
Rank#8 and #14 does not make any difference for undergraduate study. If you get in Honor program in TAMU, you better choose TAMU. You will gain more there.
@RingleDingle I don’t know about TAMU but Purdue doesn’t let you know about Honors til March. If you get into honors college at Purdue it is really geered towards engineers. And the new Honors College dorms that opened last year are super nice.
My D actually never considered any Texas schools. She knew she wanted to go to school up north. She applied to 2 northern schools got into both, fell in love with Purdue at the Purdue is for Me admitted student days. Also, Purdue offered a very generous scholarship and the other school gives nothing to OOS students.
When she initially applied though she had never been there and knew no one who had and applied solely based on rank.
When it comes to “Jobs, internship opportunities, environment, education, and activities”, these two schools are comparable. Both are great schools with strong Aero programs. Pick based on fit and cost.
I wouldn’t put too much weight on the honor’s program at either school. Engineering student tend to drop out of these programs to focus on their classes and design teams (and to a lesser extent undergraduate research). Think of the honor’s program as a nice perk and as one factor to consider, among many.
“I wouldn’t put too much weight on the honor’s program at either school. Engineering student tend to drop out of these programs to focus on their classes and design teams (and to a lesser extent undergraduate research). Think of the honor’s program as a nice perk and as one factor to consider, among many.”
I agree with this. My Chem E D was admitted to the Honors College at Purdue. The main advantage was that she was able to schedule some classes sooner than others as a freshman and sophomore. She finally decided there was enough on her plate without having to try and design honors curriculum for the classes she needed to take. There were not typically “honors courses” she would need to take with the exception of some first year engineering courses. She would have submit additional work she would do to complete the honors work. In the end she did 4 semesters of research and a 5 term coop. Those two items had a much greater bearing on her education than an Honors diploma.
One thing to consider at TAMU—the “25 by 25” growth initiative for engineering. Some say it’s good, some have had bad experiences. You need to research for yourself to decide if you can deal with it but I would comb through a variety of sources.
News releases will tell you the puff and smoke the officials want you to hear, the threads on Reddit will tell you what the students are actually seeing in the classrooms (or lack of classrooms and availability as it turns out). Somewhere in between I suspect lies the truth. Their goal is to build a massive engineering department with 25,000 undergrads by the year 2025 in engineering alone.
We visited both. We are in-state for TAMU but Purdue gave a merit scholarship that made the costs roughly equal. My daughter already had a first choice but Purdue would’ve come in a strong second. We have a family member who is a dedicated life-long Aggie. His two engineering major students do NOT attend TAMU. We did our own research and came to the same conclusion.
How much of a price difference are you talking about? Personally I would pay 5-8K more per year but after that I would be hard pressed to choose Purdue over TAMU. As much as I despise the whole “bigger is better” thing going on at TAMU, that’s a lot of $$ per year for very similar rankings, post-employment possibilities, etc.
Both schools make you apply to your major after the first year. First year engineering is rough at any school. Be prepared to dig in early, dig in hard and put in a lot of time.