Hello all,
My son has narrowed his final choice between Purdue and Texas A&M (TAMU) to study engineering. Neither university gave direct admission to his first choice major (Biomedical Engineering, he has been directly admitted to BME at UT Dallas, Boston University, Illinois Institute of Technology - full ride), but that does not concern him. He’s in-state at TAMU and has received substantial grants/scholarships there, but not quite full ride. Purdue hasn’t given him anything in terms of financial aid.
He’s visited TAMU and only virtually visited Purdue. That being said, he does like Purdue more than TAMU - primarily because it is better ranked and seems to have better “perception” within the industry in general.
My question is really around financial assistantship availability at Purdue. For those that may have graduated recently, how easy (or difficult) is it for undergraduate engineering students to receive research assistantship? What other options (scholarships, grants, etc.) are available for students, especially in the college of engineering?
Not as much as we had expected. BU was his first choice, but the amount of financial aid they gave (on appeal) is ridiculously low. I don’t think it makes financial sense to go to BU and pay them upwards of $70K in tuition/living expenses.
I would echo this. Money comes from coops, but at the expense of delayed entry into the workforce. Plus, he can coop through TAMU also.
TAMU is very well respected for engineering. Grads from either school will make similar money and have similar opportunities. The TAMU alumni network is fabulous.
My niece is a Purdue BME grad. She’s a proud Boilermaker, but I guarantee she’d say take the money at TAMU.
You’re absolutely right. I would agree with @momofboiler1 - TAMU is the better choice. It is an excellent engineering school, and very well regarded in bioengineering. Out of state costs for Purdue will come out to around $160,000. The extra cost will erase any advantage that Purdue may have in employment post-graduation.
Getting into biomedical engineering at Texas A&M probably requires hitting the automatic admission college GPA of 3.75, since hardly any are admitted without automatic admission. See TAMU ETAM statistics - #172 by pbleigh and following posts.
So unless he is willing to take a less competitive engineering major at Texas A&M, it may not be a good idea to choose Texas A&M if there are other choices.
Remember that earning a 3.2 or 3.75 college GPA is typically harder than earning those GPAs in high school.
But why not take IIT full ride or UT Dallas in-state cost with direct admission to the major? It looks like you are concerned about costs at Purdue, so if it is too expensive, then he still has some choices that cost less and do not have the likelihood of not being able to get into the major.
This is a very good point. Remember engineering is very egalitarian out of the gate and then meritocratic from there. It’s more about what one does than where one goes.
He’s been directly admitted to BU (too expensive), UTD and IIT - full ride.
Why wouldn’t you take the direct admit - and if full-ride = room and board too, I’m not sure how you pass up IIT - short of he really wants a traditional college campus.
What if you don’t get into BME at A&M?? Or alternatively then UTD?
Purdue’s BME major is small and the most competitive entry engineering major. It’s the one major that hitting the 3.2 threshold still doesn’t guarantee entry.
I missed that there were full ride, direct entry options. I’d be inclined to advise taking one of those options.
I do not think Purdue is thought of within the general population of employers to be vastly superior (or at all) compared to TAMU. Now if the choice was between CalTech, MIT, GTech, CMU or some such and TAMU then maybe.
Also, BME as a major might not provide as many opportunities down the road as for many of these kids, they are often competing against EE, ME, CE, and ChE students. Unless of course, your son is thinking Med School but then I would strongly caution against choosing engineering as a major.
Sounds like it is time to go back to the drawing board for his final two.
He needs direct admit for BME and he has that. The other options sound like they range from risky to impossible.
You want an affordable solution and he has that option at a few places, but not Purdue or BU. There is no evidence that Purdue all of the sudden will start handing out piles of money.
So his actual choice is between UT Dallas or Illinois Institute of Technology.
Unless he is okay with BME not being an option at TAMU.
Have you visited IIT yet? It is a different kind of campus than the others. Also, if students want to take classes outside of STEM/business/design, for the most part they have to do them through nearby partner institutions. A full ride is great, but those are important factors to consider for some people.