I just came across this. Thought this might be of interest to some people: Purdue Engineering Combined BS-PhD Degree Programs - College of Engineering - Purdue University
1 Like
RPI has the same
4 Likes
My two cents is if you are in an undergrad program and it turns out you want to do a grad or professional degree and it turns out you want to do it at the same institution, then it is nice if they in fact have some sort of streamlined path to that end.
My concern is that knowing so many kids in some way change their minds about what they want do in college, I would not necessarily encourage paying any sort of significant opportunity cost associated with such a program. Like, if there is another undergrad program which would cost you a lot less financially, or you would like the non-academic experience more, or it would be more flexible in the event you decided to do something different, or so on, then I would suggest strongly considering going with such an alternative even if it did not have a formal program like this.
But if you have two options which are really just as good overall, and you want to use the availability of something like this to help “break the tie”, that of course is fine.
So basically, it is definitely worth knowing about these things, but I would caution against putting too much weight on them.
I agree. I am a big believer in optionality. Still, there are people interested in doing a PhD, and this saves time to get there. And the back three years you will get a fellowship. I am guessing you can drop out after 3 or 4 with a BS if you change your mind.