My son has gotten acceptance to the following so far:
- UC Merced: Major Business management : 33K/year
- Purdue/Krannert: Industrial Business and Engineering: 40K/year
- Cal Poly Pomona: Business management: 23K/year
Which one do you folks think he should go to. He’s very dismissive of UC Merced and CPP and is saying he would like to go to Purdue. But it’s my money and He’s not contributing anything. I’m not sure that’s a prudent decision spending that much, just because he “likes” it.
Is Merced or CPP that worse compared krannert?
-Confused Dad
In national recognition, yes.
Two majors are business. One (Purdue) is engineering. That’s a big difference.
Two are in CA. One is a mecca of jobs.
Not telling you to spend. I get it. College is expensive.
Purdue will be his most “collegiate” opportunity, have name recognition, etc. That said, you can have a great experience at lesser named schools. You may have to work harder to find a job but you save a lot of money.
That’s an unusual mix of schools. Pomona and Merced are both regional in scope; Purdue is a strong national school, especially in engineering.
Unusual your other two choices aren’t…that’d be my first question. What major does he want. If you’re going to be an engineer, then be an engineer - and you can’t do much better than Purude in that regard.
If money is an issue, you still have time to apply to Arizona…they give big bucks based on GPA.
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Purdue: Industrial Business and Engineering is not from their engineering school. It’s from their business school(Krannert) and not engineering.
Money is strictly not an issue and I can pay for Purdue. But is it worth $50K more than merced or $75K more than CPP?
Is that actually $50k more than Merced? Isn’t Purdue more like $42k? So against Merced it would be $9k x 4 = $36k difference. At CPP is your son going to be commuting from home? Otherwise isn’t CPP around $30k? Or is he getting aid at CPP?
My son has similar admissions (the 3 colleges you mentioned and Florida, SJSU, SDSU and ASU) - also a tricky decision. All CS except for Purdue which is for Physics. Florida is the highest ranked - but Purdue may have been a better choice if he had got into CS (initially he favored Physics and now he favors CS).
Krannert is fantastic. There’s a huge difference between those schools - reputationally, etc. Maybe go to their career departments and look at job placement.
It’s not Harvard to Purdue - it’s less a gap.
But it’s close.
So the question is - do you want to pay? It’s a similar situation many of us are in. Do we want to pay?
btw - check out arizona. I think you can still apply - auto merit. Check out their target. Then you get your big school reputation your son wants and you save.
In that case, yes.
Even if it’s in Krannert, Industrial Engineering will be understood as Purdue Engineering (even if it’s tied to Management.) It’s a big deal.
Does he have the chops for it though?
If money is a problem, Arizona is a good idea, it will be a good compromise between a national powerhouse and a regional university.
Did he not get into any other UC?
I think the main reason why Purdue might be worth the extra cost is if your son is seriously interested in doing business management in engineering/technical sectors. If that’s why your son “likes” Purdue better, that seems justifiable. He could take engineering courses at UC-M and CPP, just like at Purdue, but the reputation of Purdue engineering will have an impact if he some day wants a business management job at an engineering/technical firm. Plus, having a degree that explicitly integrates business and engineering will make it easier to get past the first recruiting hurdle (without having to explain that he is a business major with an interest in engineering as evidenced by these X courses on his transcript), and it will set him apart from the masses of business majors that will be applying for the same jobs or business schools. By the way, the Purdue major is Integrated Business and Engineering (not Industrial Business and Engineering).
Thank you! Sorry about the “industrial <> integrated” mixup. Too many things.
I want to clarify something. He’s currently a direct admission to Krannert for Finance and has requested a change of major to IBE. We are assuming they will allow that.
Even if it’s in Krannert, Industrial Engineering will be understood as Purdue Engineering (even if it’s tied to Management.) It’s a big deal.
Does he have the chops for it though?
Thanks!
See the clarification above. He’s currently admitted to Finance@Krannert and we are banking on the fact that he can do a change of major to IBE.
Yes , Maths is his favorite subject and does well in that. He’s also thinking of doing a minor in Data science
I know how you feel…too many things for sure. It would probably be a good idea to talk someone at IBE about switching. That’s a frequent topic of conversation on the Purdue parents Facebook page, though it usually relates to CS and engineering, where changing majors can be difficult. Since IBE is a brand new program, there presumably is no track record for how hard it would be to transfer.
Despite the fact that Purdue seems to have 10,000 minors available, Data Science is not one of them. Maybe in the near future? I would imagine there would be a pretty high demand for that, so I’m hoping it becomes an option soon for my potential Boilermaker to consider.
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It would probably be a good idea to talk someone at IBE about switching
Yea we spoke with a friend who has his kid at Krannert and the feedback we received was that IBE is just a rebranding of existing Industrial Management(IM) . That’s the closest to STEM from Krannert.
My son doesn’t want to do anything with CS(we both are CS and that may explain 
) but do love STEM field stuff.
Quite honestly he was planning to go to some UCs and never thought he’d want to go OOS. The fact that he got waitlisted at UCSC(his safety) has him spooked and hence all the questions.
thank you so much .
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I disagree with this. Industrial Engineering is a major in Purdue’s College of Engineering. Integrated Business and Engineering is in the Kramer’s School of Management.
While an average person on the street may confuse them, any company doing hiring knows the difference.
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OP subsequently clarified the major in question.
IBE is actually a selective program (there’s a further selection process after Purdue admission and only 50 students get in) that seems modeled after Penn’s M&T or UCB’s MET.
However because the process is so selective, I’m not sure a student admitted for Finance (even if it may be more quant than other programs) can switch to IBE.
@califlow: has he not been admitted elsewhere? I know UCs still have 2 weeks, but it’s hard to imagine a student who gets into Purdue doesn’t have choices beside CPP and UCM.
What major did he apply to UCSC for?
Note:
Industrial Engineering IS Engineering regardless of the college it’s in and Purdue is Purdue. (It’s common for some Engineering majors to be outside of the confines of the COE, ie. Petroleum and mineral science, college of agriculture… but if they’re ABET accredited, they’re recognized as Engineering.)
BTW - cost wise - Purdue is very competitive OOS and they haven’t raised tuition in…forever. Not saying it’s cheap…but it’s cheap for an OOS highly rated school.
I know, but such is the case 
He is waitlisted at UCSC for Business management economics. Rejected from UCI and UCSB.
Is there a geography question? Meaning you want him close to home that you have Pomona and Merced? Purdue is obviously 2/3 away across the country.
Have you looked at AZ? It’s a very easy app or can use Common App.
If your Arizona GPA (unweighted is a 4.0, you get $35K (of $37K tuition).
3.9 is a $30K.
3.75 is $20K.
You need to be admitted by May 3rd - they accept you two weeks after applying.
You clearly want a bigger name but either Purdue is too far or too expensive - you can afford it but you don’t see the value. I get it…I’m similar.
The Eller School at Arizona is well regarded, especially in Info Systems. Tucson is much closer than Indiana…depending on where you live as close as Merced or CPP.
It’s an easy admit.
Go for that - if your GPA is a 3.9 or higher (AZ GPA - you have to see the classes they count) - that’s a nice substitute. It’s also a very nice campus.
Not really. I frankly do not care about any of that. I don’t care about the name tag either because IMHO, if he’s doing business school he probably will have to do masters anyway and can use all the money that he can save now.
If I were him, I’d probably go for the cheapest option(CPP) and then try to get to a top20 for MBA/Masters.
In all honesty, I will support him. But I also worry in that what type of life example am I setting by supporting the argument of “Well send me here, because I Like it”.
Only you can decide as a parent.
For B School, he’s going to need at least two years work experience and you are correct, he can and will get that from anywhere.
For me, it’s not can I pay. It’s do I want to pay. To your point, if education is education, why would I pay more to go to Purdue.
it’s a fair question. I do believe you get more - but is it worth it.
In the end, only you can answer.