Rank of Purdue

[hindsight2020]

The first thing you need to do to help yourself is toss out that US News ranking publication. It's total crap. Seriously. Do yourself a favor and consider schooling based on rational tangible criteria that actually has an impact in your life. If you still believe industry employers (highlight the fact I said industry, not academia) in this economy give a hoot about the year to year ranking of your department or even school, go back to the first sentence and re-read, only continue to second paragraph when such statment no longer holds true in your 'matrix-bound' by high school, forcefed brain, Neo. Unplug yourself, the sooner you do that the better off you'll be. It took me 3 years in school and a transfer before I woke up from the dream, I wish I would have done it sooner.

I've had the 'pleasure' of studying/working for "ranked" universities under their aerospace engineering programs in both the southeast and midwest regions; Georgia Tech, University of Alabama and Purdue to be exact. I can tell you from personal experience rankings don't mean squat. Purdue is a fine school, you'll be fine if you go there. Honestly if I were you I'd actually go to a school that's LESS competitive school and get that degree with a higher GPA (grade deflation is RAMPANT in engineering departments in places like MIT, Ga Tech, Michigan, Purdue etc). Also I would advise you to take advantage of your own state's university system and get that degree on the cheap. Part of the beauty of the ranking ponzi scheme is that it entices students (with no benefit of hindsight) to gravitate into the idea of starting the beautiful journey towards financial slavery by incurring the cost of a college education out-of-state. Believe me, a fiat ranking is NOT worth 80K dollars in debt differential for the same degree you could have had back home; rankings DO NOT equate to a higher compensation job offer or even more or better job offers. They don't in engineering.

Are you willing to get on the debt train (and hence economically locked into and psycologically stressed out for the first job that rolls your way) to find out what I just handed you for free? Good luck. But yeah, Purdue is a competitive school engineering-wise.

My source? BS aerospace engineering Univ. of Alabama '03 MS in aerospace engineering from Purdue '05. Take the red pill. Sorry for the Matrix references, but I honestly think the passage from college vocational debates to the ' real world' fits that movie theme to a T. Also, Lafayette/West Lafayette is your standard college town. It's not Houston or NYC, but it suits a college student fine. It's cold and that's Indiana for ya, but if you don't mind the weather issues then it's really a decent place. Again, good luck