I have been accepted into a few schools so far and my top choices are Purdue, Wisconsin-Madison, and UCSB.
My first choice major for Purdue is ECE and I was accepted into both Wisconsin and UCSB for computer engineering. I’m a CA resident and I plan to work in CA in the future. Which one would be the best option?
Congrats on wonderful acceptances!
Are the costs all affordable without loans?
I can’t speak to UW or UCSB but am happy to answer any questions you may have about Purdue. My D is a senior.
Thank you!
Money isn’t a huge problem for us (of course, cheaper is better 
).
How are internship and research opportunities at Purdue? Also, I have heard a lot of stories about grade deflation and how challenging courses are at Purdue – is there any truth to this?
One of Purdue’s strengths is their career center. Internships, co-ops and research opportunities are plentiful. Career readiness is integrated into nearly everything. It was one of the things that really attracted our D to Purdue.
You will need to work hard in engineering at any school. I don’t think Purdue is any harder or that they actively grade deflate but you will work hard. But, they want you to succeed. There are free help rooms for all the first year engineering courses, office hours, test review sessions, and an online data base of old exams. You will just need to avail yourself of using those resources.
My D has gone to office hours and review sessions regularly since 1st semester, and still does. It’s not only a great way to solidify understanding of the material, but also a way to get to know your professors.
My daughter is a freshman at Purdue. She’s finishing up FYE and plans to go into computer engineering. Meeting with her counselor recently, she was told it wouldn’t be an issue.
Classes are hard, graded on a curve. Even tests where she felt she did horribly she didn’t because of the curve. She made deans list and semesters honors first semester. She’s definitely studying more than partying, but that’s no surprise for her.
She had gone to a couple internship or co-op career fairs and landed a co-op for the summer. Happy to answer any questions.
Maybe they are stressing about the competitive secondary admission to some majors if they do not hit a 3.2 technical and overall college GPA in the first year for automatic admission:
However, the first link says that the majors with capacity limitations are “currently AAE, BME, MDE, and ME”, so if your target is some other major, it may be less of a concern.
Be careful with Wisconsin, since it has GPA requirements that may substantially higher than 2.0 to stay in an engineering major:
Looks like EE was recently 2.8 technical, 2.5 overall, while computer engineering was recently 3.2 technical, 2.5 overall to avoid dismissal from the major.
These are three excellent schools. You can’t make a bad decision. I think the best option is the one where you think you feel most at home.
S1 was accepted to Wisconsin and Purdue for engineering and chose Wisconsin. He is having a great experience there.