purdue university (concerns on weather and local stuff) (Hammond, Lafayette: house, school)

[ldorans]

hey, im going off to college this coming fall and i need to make a decision about where i want to go ASAP. im 99.9 percent sure i want to go to purdue because it looked fantastic when i went to visit, but im worried about the weather (is it just cold or does it snow a lot?) and local entertainment. ie what can i do off campus. i care about the weather because i want to be a pilot and a lot of snow would mean less air time. thanks for any help you can give.

[LIS123]

Are you talking about the main campus or the Calumet campus in Hammond?

[ldorans]

the main campus

[artemis]

West Lafayette is about an hour South of Lake County via I-65. You might get a better idea about the area if you posted in the general Indiana forum.

Indiana Forum - Relocation, Moving, Local City Discussions - City-Data Forum

[ldorans]

ok thanks for the tip. ill do that.

[hindsight2020]

It all depends where you're coming from. I came to Purdue for grad school and from the south, so for me it was a lot more snow and cold days than I had previously been accustomed to. It's mild compared to UND (University of North Dakota, the other big university with a recognized aviation department), but brutal compared to Florida obviously. Be prepared for a lenghty winter, snow fall accumulation is about average for the Midwest, but it's there and it will affect how many days you can fly, without a doubt. Temperatures get negative with the wind chill, but only for sporadic periods (week or two at a time) compared to the outright hazardous North dakota winters, which can literally maim you by simply getting locked out of your house by mistake.

Regarding your concern about flying, I happen to be a military pilot, but I didn't go to Purdue's aviation program nor did I major in aviation science for that matter. I think you'll discover that flight instructing does get hurt during the period between December through early April, the rest of the year it doesn't affect weather enough to hamper general aviation. You'd be better off flight instructing in Florida or the south in general, as the weather allows for general aviation activity year round. That said, Purdue has a decent (albeit expensive) aviation program and their facilities and airplanes are well maintained. I can't in good conscience recommend you go to college and major in "pilot", as you can get all your ratings on the side (outside of a pricey college program) while majoring in something you can actually get a job with, and not spending 6 figures getting the same certificates for 3 times the price, and a useless degree in aviation science to end up making 20K/year at a regional airline. But that's for you to decide.

Regarding things to do, Lafayette/West Lafayette is your standard college town. I hated the weather but the town suited my needs while in grad school. Most of the ammenities for college students is your standard bar strip and collegiate sports. Some people considered it boring if they came from a big city, others considered it a HUGE overwhelming town, but that's because they came from even smaller places. I think aside from your preference for weather (which is the only large variable) you shouldn't find it any different than any other midwestern college town. Again, speaking to the collegiate audience only, there are things in said college towns that vary from town to town for the working family, but I'm keeping that discussion out of this response.

If your decision to attend Purdue is based solely on said aviation programs, I presume you've already researched Embry-Riddle, Purdue and UND. You won't get any appreciable difference between the three as far as ability to complete the ratings in the alloted time, but you'll probably find the Florida market more conducive towards finding flight instructor work. Other than that, it's all about what kind of weather and how far from home you want/can be, and of course Purdue and UND being public universities it would cost you less (although their flight programs have separate tuititon that's insensitive to in-state or out-of-state status) than Riddle IF you happen to be a resident of any of those two states. Good luck.

[ldorans]

wow. thanks for all the info. very helpful. and im from north jersey. so all of it is relative when talking distance. and im joing the AFROTC program when i get to college.

[domergurl]

I'm assuming you are referring to the main Purdue campus in West Lafayette ... hence, I am moving this to the regular Indiana board.