<p>im really torn between these two colleges, can anyone help me? thanks :) (btw i got ful rides to both)</p>
<p>I don't know if you have been to Purdue's campus but it is a mix of old and new buildings and it is pretty compact. The campus appeared to be well maintained. Some shops and restaurants, bookstores, etc nearby. Lafayette is about a mile or so away with more shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. We were there in the summer, so we didn't see many kids, however the kids/parents on the tour were very nice. They had a bus tour done by a grad student because it was too hot to walk. Admissions and staff are very friendly and helpful. The union seemed nice (restaurants, game room, etc). They have a brand new engineering building which looked very nice. Huge fraternity/sorority school. Football stadium and basketball arena are on campus. I think you can get on campus housing for 4 years, but there was off campus housing available very near the campus that seemed fine. Food is supposed to be very good. Looks like they get a good amount of snow/cold weather. Area seemd very safe. We liked the school and felt very comfortable there. Hope this helps. Best of luck!</p>
<p>so Purdue is a small campus? how big is it compared to the UCs? when i looked up Google Images, it looked pretty big to me :O does the campus require a bike? (like stanford)</p>
<p>It has over 40k students; its quite big. It would most likely require a bike, less you want to keep off that freshman 15 the hard way.</p>
<p>They have regular bus routes that run on campus and we did see some kids on bikes. The campus (to us) did not seem as spread out as some of the other ones that we saw. It is probably still big, but seemed more manageable than some of the others. Sorry, I don't know anything about the UCs.</p>
<p>NifeBlade,
Where will you be coming from?
Their climates are vastly different.
Personally, I think Santa Clara's size is perfect for an undergrad experience. The CalTrain is right across the street for easy access into San Francisco.</p>
<p>I'd do Santa Clara. It seems like a nicer campus, with more reasonable class sizes. And the surrounding cities are really cool (San Francisco and San Jose).</p>
<p>Purdue is a good school, but I don't really care for the surrounding area.</p>