First of all, it was a wonderful surprise. We hadn’t toured a big school before Purdue, and we all loved it. I was just wondering why such a good school has such a low 4 yr graduation rate. Also, they mentioned there were some housing issues where freshman were put in alternative housing situations or they were in dorms with upperclassmen. Does anyone know what the deal is with these two issues? I heard they are building new housing so I’m thinking things will get better. Thank you.
The grad rate has been steadily increasing and the university has added a ton of resources to help students succeed and graduate in 4 years. The 4 year graduation rate for the college of engineering is now 4.1 years and that’s only because it includes students doing co-ops. We’ve been super impressed with the academics support so far.
Purdue does have a housing shortage which was magnified this year because they miscalculated yield. They are building two new dorms with the intention of adding 1000+ beds. My daughter is in a quad that was supposed to be a triple but honestly it’s working out great.
So far my daughter is LOVING being at Purdue. Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions.
Thank you @momofsenior1 and I will pm you tomorrow:)
Many big state schools have graduation rates under 50% in four years. They do tend to go up for 6 year rates.
Big public schools rarely meet full financial need, so students might need to take a semester or two off to earn some money, deal with a family problem, may want to travel but can’t afford study abroad. The average age of the students is slightly higher than at LACs or private schools where every freshman might be entering right from high school.
Science and engineering schools often have students graduating in over 4 years/8 semesters as the students need more credits to graduate; my engineering daughter needed 131, my arts and sciences daughter needs 120. Ironically, the engineer graduated in 4 straight years, no extra courses or summers and my history major is going to ruin her school’s stats since she took a semester off to do an internship so will take 4.5 years to finish. It really is no big deal and it wasn’t her school’s fault she took longer - they had the classes and she could have easily finished in 4 years.
Thank you @twoinanddone
Also, freshman aren’t required to live on campus. There are many fully furnished, leased by bedroom apartments near by. West Lafayette/Lafayette has an awesome bus service so you can easily get to campus. I lived off campus all 4.5 years and took the bus. Worked out great! No fighting to park and no walking 30 plus minutes in sub-freezing temps. I really miss the convenience of a bus service at my vet school.
My concern is since they miscalculated yield last year, that the acceptance rate will be lower this year. I can’t imagine those dorms being ready for Fall of 2019. Will they?
The new dorms are projected to be complete for the '20-21 school year. I agree that I would think the acceptance rate will be lower this year. It’s been already declining for engineering the last few years.
Are schools really miscalculating their yield or are they taking more students on purpose to make more money? So many schools are claiming, “our biggest class ever.” Yet, they keep jamming kids in housing meant for less. I don’t buy it. I think these colleges and universities are all trying to enroll the maximum number they can squeeze into their facilities.
I disagree that this is happening on purpose, at least at Purdue. Two years ago they miscalculated yield for Honors College. Last year, they extended fewer offers. When overall yield turned out to be higher than expected, a few more students came off the wait list for HC (so that it totaled 10% of enrollment), but those students were told upfront that they wouldn’t be housed within the HC residence.