As a two time PU grad with a son who is a current UMD Sophmore I have some thoughts that might be valid as I went to Purdue 30 years ago.
Purdue limits the number of students in each college of engineering and many of the posters here mention that like it is a bad thing. There are many slots in schools, like ME and EE, and those rarely say no to qualified students. Aero is a little more selective, and so on. However, my son’s biggest complaint, and a complaint that many of his co-students at UMD have is that there is no limit on undergrads in majors. Because of that, the faculty in the CS department is greatly overworked and many classes are hard to get into. So if your child is an above average student who applies themself, which sounds like the case, a set class size could be a very good thing. To look at it another, my son is excited at UMD to just be offered a position as a TA in CS for a 200 level class. Great for him, but he is a TA for the same level class he currently is classified as. I’m not sure if that is not a indication of more students then the department is set up to handle.
We also moved from Indiana to the East Coast 4 years ago so my son has many friends at Purdue and he has visited a couple times and is considering transferring there because he feels the campus life at UMD is either a party or nothing. While inside the beltway, the area immediately around campus isn’t that nice and there is very little in the area as far as good restaurants and shopping. I suspect much of this has to do with him liking or being more familiar with Indiana then DC. He has traveled inside of DC a few times, but it does require effort to get there.
I do believe in much of what the Purdue administration is doing. They have not raised the cost of tuition in something like five years and Id be surprised if they do soon.
If you child is set on Engineering or other STEM university you can’t go wrong at Purdue. When I was there they had a quote (I never verified it) that 1 out of every 4 engineers in the US are Purdue grads.
To be fair, UMD is strong in everything they do and there are a ton of internships, etc. However, I have noticed a large number of public sector type roles because of location. If working for the Government does not excite your child, it might be better at Purdue.