Here is a second attempt to get some real input from people. My last post on the topic was delisted for being deemed inappropriate.
How is diversity at Purdue? My son is a US born Asian American and comes from a school that has many ethnic minorities and is fairly liberal politically (at least on social matters) and LGBQT+ friendly.
He will be studying engineering.
Please someone tell me how I can post something iike this without getting it blocked.
You really want me to post the reason? I doubt it
Alternatively, PM me
I wouldn’t worry (about your concerns vs. anywhere else). There’s prejudice everwhere, even where you live. But Purdue has a large Asian (domestic) population. But you can’t fix stupid, no matter where it is. Btw - the Chancellor you mention was at the Northwest campus, not main campus.
From the CDS - below. You can always have your student ask to speak to a student ambassador (that’s of Asian descent) to ask about their experience.
Case would be a very different experience urban, smaller. PSU will be less diverse and a more wide open campus. Kids from all three likely compete for similar jobs. In engineering, the name matters less than most think. My Bama kid turned down Purdue, against my desire. Told me rank is to sell magazines etc he’s proven me right. He had Purdue and Michigan but also W Michigan and Akron amongst others in his cohort. His internship had from Ga Tech and UT to Miss State and Tennessee Tech etc
Best of luck. 3 great choices. Go where the student feels best. Not the perceived best reputation.
I’d encourage your child to reach out directly to the Purdue Asian American student association to talk to current students about their experiences.
My daughter found campus to have a ton of diversity, and it’s a very open and welcoming community.
All perspectives are welcome. Purdue really has a good reputation for Engineering and so I do not want my child to miss the opportunity, but I also want him to have a positive social experience at college. Every school is not a good fit for everyone.
100%. All pick what they feel is best. But there are no guarantees. All have bad roomies or dorms or food. You take your best guess but people who get into their dream school end up transferring. So there is no 100% assurance.
It’s great you are doing research. All three will have kids excel and all three will have kids that struggle - socially, career wise etc.
Best of luck as you come to a final conclusion.
While I understand your concern, it’s hard to know what will happen based on stereotypes.
We live in New England and when my D24 said she was going to Rice University, people had all these preconceived notions of Texas which we thought was comical considering Houston is one of the most diverse cities in America.
Bottom line is it’s hard to predict. I’m not sure there’s a robust Asian population at Penn State either. Good news is you have a lot of choices and perhaps you should consider going to admitted students day to get a better feel of the student body.
Yes. Visiting in person is probably the best idea.
If your child hasn’t been on campus yes that is definitely the first step!
We toured 15 schools and Purdue was hands down the most welcoming and friendly campus of any that we visited.
FWIW, my D identifies LGBTQ and we were out of state. She had the most amazing experience at Purdue (chem E).
Thank you. That is good to know 
100% - all three are very different. We went to large publics - Purdue and another Big 10 school less than two hours away and they were night and day.
You will find PSU a large, beautiful campus, Purdue more compact, and then CWRU is adjacent Little Italy, urbanesque.
Don’t just walk the campus but the surrounds. Stop kids on campus, especially near the engineering building. Maybe set up a meeting with a club of interest - whether an engineering, religious, or ethnic. Eat in the dining hall.
These three are all different than one another. Hopefully one will stand out.
I promise you there are kids at all three that got into all three or two of the three - and chose one - even what you might think is the lowest ranked one.
And check out the maker space at CWRU. We didn’t when there (my son was out on the campus just from looking at it) but everyone talks about how amazing it is.
Also, is your student interested in sports? Obviously Penn State and then Purdue will be at a different level than CWRU. Depending on where you’re coming from, you might also look at transport - Cleveland has a major airport, University Park a secondary and I believe Purdue kids mostly fly to Indy an hour or so away but some from Chicago - if these aren’t drivable for you.
One can’t beat state policies (Indiana and Ohio are politically more conservative government wise than Pennsylvania) but that’s not an indictment of people you’ll encounter every day. So only you can decide how important state policies are.
Good luck
Just to clarify, has your son been admitted to Purdue, and matriculating this coming Fall semester?
Someone just posted this on another thread, that may be of interest to you asking about if you visit Case.
Yes. Accepted. Undecided where to enroll. Still waiting to here from few other schools too.
Costs little different. Penn State and Purdue similar. CWRU bit more expensive, even with merit scholarship.
Thank you for the info.
These days I am wary of schools w 60:40 m:f ratios but maybe not surprising for a STEM oriented college.
Purdue sounds at least somewhat diverse, though not as much as I would hope.
From what I have read, the school is full of busy, bookish students, and the social life in general is miserable.
Kind of like what I have also heard of Case Western.
Housing at both also seems to be terrible.
From pictures, Purdue campus seems beautiful.
For many, the Cleveland location is a major downer for CWRU.
For Purdue, the town itself seems kind of backwards socially, and people say Indiana is a deep red state.
But then most students spend almost all their time on campus anyway I imagine.
These statements couldn’t be further from the truth!
Please go visit!
Purdue has over 1,000 clubs, huge sports, wonderful theater options and arts, and there is something going on constantly.
My daughter lived on campus for 2 1/2 years (1/2 because of co-op) and was very happy with her dorms. (Albeit her first dorm was in the honors residence).
West Lafayette is a wonderful town - lots of restaurants, shops, etc…. W. Lafayette is blue. (You can look up the voting maps).
Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss Purdue further.
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And Cleveland is a great, vibrant city and CWRU’s location is adjacent to museums and one of the finest symphonies in the country.
We visited Case Western’s open house day last year. It wasnt bad. The campus was fine and the professors seemed engaged.
But yes, the tour guide told us some of the housing was old and not great. Cleveland is underrated but the winters can be brutal. There was one professor who told us that even in an upper division class, sometimes there may still be a large number of students which surprised us.
We did see one girl on campus and she seemed very stressed out. We asked her about the school and she said it was a lot of work (which is to be expected).
Our daughter is a senior in HS (interested in engineering) and she also had both Northeastern and Case Western on the list because there were no supplemental essays.
I agree with others that visiting would be a good idea if you can. We did several visits after our daughters were accepted to universities, and I think that this was very worthwhile. One good thing about visiting at this point is that it is very real – your child knows that they really can be there in September if they just decide to do it.
Purdue is quite good for math and computer science and technology. Having worked in high tech for multiple decades, I personally would expect there to be quite a few Asian students at any university that is very good in these areas. Looking at the information posted by @barrons above, I would suspect that quite a few of the international students for example would be Asian, although I do not know how many.
The thing that might concern me a bit more is the male/female ratio. This is indeed not surprising for a school that is technology oriented, but at least IMHO is not ideal.
