Purdue University - visit report

 I spent a week at Purdue University, in West Lafayette Indiana in July 2009. I returned in April 2010 for a long weekend.

Purdue is a large state university of 30,000 students. It's huge! The campus is spacious, flat, and filled with large brick buildings that often number 5 stories. It's a great campus for biking, and biking lanes are  around the campus. I liked that students were friendly and many sported Purdue tee shirts, sweats, etc.

I stayed in a girls high-rise dorm, Shreve, on the edge of campus. It was a 10-minute walk to the academic buildings. The dorm was a standard cinderblock double and we shared the bathroom with everyone on the floor. And it was air-conditioned! Downstairs was the gathering place: a large living room with comfy furniture, and behind that a rec room with pool table and large TV. Here's a picture of the hall, as well as other residence halls at Purdue. Here's a virtual tour of a typical dorm room in Shreve.

In April, I visited a trio of dorm buildings that were singles, First Street Towers. They are directly behind Shreve, and are the size of other dorm rooms where 2-3 students are squeezed in. The students have their own bathrooms!

Purdue is best known for its engineering and agriculture degrees. Engineering students all take the same classes the first year and declare which of the 15 majors they wish to enroll in, at the end of first year. I spent a lot of time in the computer labs which were filled with the latest and fastest machines.

Cyber Forensics is also a growing and popular major. Purdue, Johns Hopkins Univ, and U of Central Florida are the top 3 in the nation.

Getting here is not too easy. I flew into Indianapolis airport, not a direct flight from Portland Maine. Then I took a shuttle for the 1-1/2 hour drive to West Lafayette. The scenery was typical midwest: farms, small towns, then corn fields and soybeans as far as the eye can see.

Visit and see if it's a good fit for you! Here are their Admission stats like GPA and SAT scores.
Reasons Students Flunk Out
--they don't know how to study
--they are unaware that there are resources on campus to help them, or refuse to access those opportunities.

Cheverus connections: Rob L is studying engineering and Heidi L is a pre-vet major.
links verified 4/2016