U Mich vs Purdue Engineering

College Search & Selection
1

I got into the Engineering branch (undergraduate) of both U Mich and Purdue. But I’m not exactly sure which university to attend. I plan on pursuing Electrical Engineering. Overall, U Mich is around $12,000 more expensive than Purdue after 4 years.

Would it still be worth going to U Mich instead of Purdue? Is there a large difference in job opportunities and salaries?
Also, what is the atmosphere like at both colleges?

It would be great if you guys could help me out a bit in deciding which college to go to… All opinions are welcome :slight_smile:

2

Both super options!!! IMO, peer schools for engineering.

Purdue and Michigan were my D’s #1 and 2 schools. Both have great internship opportunities, study abroad programs, and amazing facilities. Campus vibe felt similar as well. Very collaborative, and Midwest friendly.

D’s in the honors college at Purdue. She committed before hearing back from Michigan, although they ultimately wait listed her( which she did not stay on their list since she committed a to Purdue).

The differences for her were very small. The couple of things she didn’t like about Michigan were the split campus with engineering on north campus, and that Michigan didn’t accept as many AP credits so she would have needed three semesters of going back and forth between campuses. Not a big deal for most students but my D had a big commute to her private HS and was over being on a bus for anything. Being from OH may also have played a small psychological role ?

I give Michigan the edge on location and having one of the best college towns in the country.

Is one school worth $12k/year more than the other? For engineeering, I say no. Go to your less expensive option. Boiler up!

3

Thank you so much for replying!

Michigan is around $12,000-16,000 more expensive than Purdue, but not per year… Overall. My main concerns about Michigan are the weather and travelling from the dorms to the engineering campus…

I have a few questions about Purdue.

In order to choose which engineering major I want, I would need a GPA above 3.0, right? Is choosing a major based on rank? Like the students with the highest GPA choose first or can anyone with a GPA above 3.0 choose their major…

I’ve also heard about the intense workload placed on students… Is it really that bad (pulling all-nighters to complete assignments) or is it manageable?

Last one, what is the student community at Purdue like?

I’ll wait for your reply :slight_smile:

4

$12-16K over the course of all four years isn’t that much. You have a hard decision!

Weather at Purdue is not going to be too different than that at Michigan. That said, everything is within walking distance and the engineering mall is the very center of campus (helps to have a STEM focused university).

To be guaranteed your first choice of major you will need an engineering index of 3.2. That’s basically your GPA for your stem courses.

The only major during my D’s year that had to move to a more complicated system was BME because they capped the major at 100 students. Then it was based on grades in certain courses and other criteria: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/InfoFor/CurrentStudents/enrollment-policy

Engineering courses at any school are going to be challenging. You will need good time management skills. My D has never needed to pull an all nighter. She’s been on the Dean’s List every semester so has done well academically while still having time to do theater, SWE, mentoring, dating, and having plenty of fun with friends.

My D feels the students are down to earth and generally happy. 48% of students are Indiana residents. The rest are from OOS and international. Purdue has one of the largest international student populations in the Big 10. Lots going on all the time on campus and great school spirit. (I’m sure that’s the same at Michigan).

I’m going to page @Knowsstuff to give you the Michigan perspective. :slight_smile:

5

First, they’re both excellent engineering programs and schools. The differences will be minute. @Knowsstuff can fill you in on the engineering specifics at UMich, since his S is an engineering student.

I have a kid in LSA at UMich, but I believe first year engineering students at UMich will have 3 of their 4 (or so) courses on Central Campus. So, a freshman student could take the bus to North Campus for their one course, if living on Central Campus, or they could just request North Campus for freshman dorms and take the bus to Central for their other 3 courses.

After freshman year, just live on North Campus when most of your courses will be there.

The weather has got to be a push. However, Ann Arbor is one of, if the best, college towns in the US. It’s not that dissimilar to the SF Bay Area, where we live.

And then you fabulous athletics program at UMich. Just in terms of football attendance, based upon 5-year averages, UMich is #1 and Purdue is #54. My kid is a big sports fan, so that was certainly a factor in her decision.

5-year Average Attendance for football:

UMich 110,000 fans
Purdue 41,000 fans

https://collegefootballnews.com/2019/07/college-football-attendance-rankings-no-1-130-2019-cfn-five-year-program-analysis/2

So, UMich is a huge sports school which typically comes with huge spirit.

In order to declare your major in the CoE at UMich, you will need a 2.0 or greater. No caps currently.

If you have any designs on coming to Silicon Valley, Michigan (#11) rates higher than Purdue (#19) in terms of hiring in Silicon Valley:

https://qz.com/967985/silicon-valley-companies-like-apple-aapl-hires-the-most-alumni-of-these-10-universities-and-none-of-them-are-in-the-ivy-league/

6

Michigan currently allows frosh engineering students to declare their majors with a 2.0 GPA and C grades in prerequisites. Purdue may require higher GPA for some majors.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/2174743-first-year-engineering-programs-secondary-admission-to-major-criteria.html

You need to decide whether greater assurance of getting into your major is worth the extra cost of Michigan over Purdue.

7

The football stadium analogy is a bit disingenuous because Ross Aide capacity is half of what the Big House. And basketball is a bigger draw at Purdue. But there is great team spirit at all sporting events. D goes to see volleyball on a regular basis and it’s amazing!

8

@PCyeol.

So I guess it’s my job is to convince you to spend an extra $4,000/year on Michigan. ???.

First off these are clearly peer institutions for engineering. Both are national brands for engineering. ROI will be identical or close enough. Internships /coops will be similar but coops are more common at Purdue vs Michigan. Both will have cool clubs and opportunities.

Both are going to be damn hard for engineering. Very hard.

Michigan is more forgiving with minors, changing majors and switching majors. Many change majors just because something else excites you as you learn more about it. This will be easier at Michigan.

My son’s in Industrial engineering junior. But if he wanted to change to nuclear or whatever not an issue (of course you want to do this sophomore second semester).Not as easy at other schools.

My son grew up in a major city taking subway train to bus to school 40 minutes each way everyday. Going from north to central campus is less then 15 minutes. Not really a big deal and it’s a social thing also. Not everything in life will be given to you cleanly. My kids go to New York and San Fransisco and get around using their mass transit. Guess it’s what you grew up with.

My son lived on central as a freshman and went to North for 1 class with other like minded students. Again, it’s also a social thing. His job was also on north campus… His choice…

As a sophomore and junior he is on North campus and it’s very quiet. It’s mostly engineers, dance, theater, medical, design students They want right and left brain mixed. Many universities do this on purpose . You will see deer on your way to classes ?.

All the engineering building are together. World class facilities! Every major company wants to be part of the campus.

You have engineering, dance, theater, medical design all on North campus. School of Information is moving there and they are building a brand new student housing also.

Central is more urban. North is more suburban to me. Both with good restaurants. No question more lively vibe on Central but depending on your attitude that can get tiring also. Bus system at Michigan is superb and free so that is not an issue.

So why did my son pick Michigan over Purdue, Wisconsin and Illinois and others? He went to the top public school in Illinois which was pretty much run like a private school. Needed 99.6 % on various tests to be considered for entry.

He honestly wanted to be surrounded by students, the whole student body, that were like at the same educational level and curiosity. This was actually put into one of his essays. He wanted to be pushed and tested, if you will. The LSA population at Michigan is 3.9 unweighted GPA with a 32-35 Act. Engineering is a 34 avg. So the whole school in theory could be competitive at these other schools engineering departments… In theory…

Getting a “B” in engineering is not easy. Every school grades differently. You will be pushed at any of these schools.

Rank in electrical. Michigan #6 and Purdue #9. This is a non factor.

Campus life… All campuses have their plusses and minuses but the minuses are tough to find at Michigan. It’s part of a thriving city typically rated as one of the best to live in and go to school in. It’s really a special place.

Both schools will have students working together. Both will have strong Midwest presence but Michigan seems to have heavy East and West coast as well.

On these threads in the last week, I have answered similar threads like yours for Wisconsin and Illinois for engineering comparing it to Michigan. Why do you think that is?

Again, normally I would just say go with the cheaper college if money matters especially in this new reality. But if your family is able to spend the extra money cleanly, to me, Michigan can be a better choice.

1 Like
9

I don’t think so. First, the link lists football attendance as a % of capacity:

Purdue 72% of capacity
UMich 102% of capacity

It’s the old “If you build it, they will come.” :wink: If you fill the stadium to capacity, and there’s still demand,. then they’ll likely increase the size of stadium. Money! Basketball is big at UMich. Hockey is big at UMich.

In terms of the Director’s Cup (20 sports, 10 men’s and 10 women’s), UMich finished #2 for 2018-2019 and Purdue finished #55:

https://nacda.com/documents/2019/6/27//June28DIOverall.pdf?id=3678

As I said above, UMich is a BIG sports school with huge spirit.

10

Didn’t clink the link, was just responding to the attendance figures. Hard to have 110K fans when the stadium only holds 50. No doubt that Michigan has big sports spirit, but so does Purdue… Northwestern sports…not so much ; )

11

Forget about attendance, look at capacity. UMich is over capacity, Purdue is not.

If Purdue had been selling out their current stadium football tickets for years, then Purdue would build a bigger stadium. Period. Football profits are important, beyond just the athletics department. Purdue could build a 100,000-seat stadium, but Purdue fans can’t even sell out they’re existing 50,000 seat stadium. So they don’t bother to expand.

We could argue all day long, but I’d like to think most sports fans would agree with me, UMich has a bigger sports culture than Purdue. Whether that’s important to the OP, I don’t know. Was it important to my kid? Absolutely.

One of the biggest rivalries in all of sports is the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry. There’s really nothing else like it here in the US. Maybe Auburn-Alabama.

I’m moving on now.

12

The other factors to consider is endowment and research expenditures, which may or may not impact any admissions decision:

Endowment

Purdue $2.5 Billion
UMich $12.0 Billion

Research Expenditures:

UMich #2
Purdue #37

https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/profiles/site?method=rankingBySource&ds=herd

13

Are you including the increase in tuition % each year in that 12-16K? What does Michigan’s tuition increase each year? I believe Purdue has tuition rate lock of some kind?

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Purdue has frozen tuition since 2012, but the years since then up until very recently have been during economic growth. State university budgets tend to be more stressed during economic downturns, so the risk of large tuition increases at any state university is greater now than it was before.

15

Thank you so much @momofsenior1 :slight_smile:

16

Thank you so much @Knowsstuff . One factor that I’m trying to look at a bit more is the job opportunities and salaries after going to either of these universities. If they are the same or similar, then I won’t take an extra $12,000-16,000 in student loans to go to UMich (my family isn’t financially well off) and will head to Purdue.

However, if there are better job opportunities and placements at UMich, then the extra cost would be justified. I need to look a bit more into this.

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@mom517 I am including the tuition increase of UMich. Purdue does have a tuition rate lock. If I ignore the tuition increase, UMich is around $3,000/year more expensive than Purdue

18

@ucbalumnus Thank you for telling me this. I’ll keep that in mind.

19

If the extra $12-16k is debt, how much debt would it be on top of? If it would push the needed debt over about $27k, then that would exceed the amount you could borrow without a cosigner.

20

Both are top tier and job opportunities would be similar. If you can afford it, Michigan is worth the extra $3-4k per year, IMO. AA is the quintessential college town, so I vote for the educational community.

That said, if the money would be a stretch for your family, Purdue is a fine choice.