<p>The weed-out rate for engineers is like around 50% past the first year, whereas at other top engineering like Cornell, retention for all 4 years can be over 90%. Is it because Purdue admits more people of lower quality, classes are harder there than at other engineering colleges, or both? So if a student is part of the 90% who successfully completes Cornell Engineering, would s/he be just as able to succeed at Purdue?</p>
<p>You are very wise to ask this question! You want to be one who is not weeded, right?, and yet you want to know why you might be. I have no specifics related to dropouts at Purdue, but in general students drop out of eng’g for a variety of reasons. I’m interested in hearing why people feel Purdue’s rate is higher than some other school’s.</p>
<p>The weed out rate at every school is high. Im at USC and I wouldn’t be surprised with a figure close to 50. After all, engineering is extremely rigorous. However the original stats the OP has given are two separate things and have been interpreted incorrectly. The 90s rate is the retention rate for the whole entire school not just that at engineering. those who drop out of engineering will not drop out of the university entirely but rather switch to a different major.</p>