Purdue Diversity

Colleges & Universities Purdue University
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Yes, to the male focus with STEM and other things.

I got news for you - there are partiers and bookish at most every school - whether Purdue, Indiana State, or Harvard. Misery is dependent upon what you want.

And I’d say Purdue is more diverse than most - but if you wanted true diversity, you should have looked at schools like Arizona, New Mexico.

Cleveland - by the way - is a FANTASTIC city, with the Rock Hall, pro sports and more.

W Lafayette is fine - it’s a small city, with restaurants, hotels, and more.

I think you’re awfully beholden to ridiculous stereotypes - I can’t imagine what you’ll think about Penn State.

But if you thought all this, then why did your student apply to these three?

There’s a ton of GREAT engineering schools out there - with ABET accreditation, which for most jobs, is what companies look for.

Wow - I’m just surprised at what I’m reading from you. As you’ve not been, these are things you could have known up front - and altered your list.

But this is why you need to go and I’m guessing you will change your tune - really at all three.

As I said, the campuses are very different - I personally loved Purdue and PSU (the walk to Old Main is gorgeous) and thought CWRU is sort of strange - with odd sculptures. But others on here love CWRU.

Go to all three and form your own opinions. Rather, don’t give your opinion but let your student do so (please stay quiet as they will be the one there for four years, day after day. Let them decide). You’d be surprised - my daughter, for example, loved her urban school that I thought was a dump. But I wasn’t the target - she was - and you have to let that go. It’s their life - not yours.

But I’m scratching my head as to why you picked these three then.

I’m just floored at what you wrote….without ever having given any of the three a chance. I get it - you want a “high” rated school - but honestly, these schools are substitutional with probably 50-100 out there - and in the end, you’re getting one job - and if you check career outcomes, they won’t be vastly different than one another (and tons of others).

Please have your student visit - and after each, record their thoughts - what did I love, like, whatever - so you don’t come by a month or two later and they don’t remember, or it all blends. You’ll have exactly what they thought immediately after the visit.

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22

I traveled to Cleveland a lot for work.

Great city with a lot for young people to do, especially.

This strikes me as a vestige of late 20th century stand-up comedy.

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23

This.

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24

You could look at politics too, as a proxy for views on diversity versus actual numbers

Niche (for all its problems and take with grain of salt- maybe handful) has self reported views on politics of students - leaning conservative etc.

honestly I look at bulletin boards on campuses when visiting to get vibes too as well as talking to kids

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I am going to send you a PM.

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Okay, so that didn’t work as intended and can’t delete it but;
TLDR:
Of the small student sample, 75% of the students reported believing the campus was ethnically/racially/culturally diverse.

And 14% of the student body identifies as “Asian”, with 10% as International/Non-citizen (I didn’t think of international/non-citizen as a race, but whatever)

Politically;
Self Reported- Self Identified;
2% Very Conservative
15% Conservative
32% Moderate
22% Liberal
8% Very Liberal
20% I don’t care about politics

Interestingly, when the same survey respondents report how they view the campus;
9% Conservative
54% Balanced
18% Liberal
1% Very Liberal
18% Not Sure

One could debate the very nature of US Universities (and whether or not they skew towards an average of moderate liberal bias to begin with - and what the nature of the academicians are, as well as how -young- people tend to skew versus middle age and senior)… so if Purdue is ‘balanced’ they are likely going to be to the right of many colleges and universities inherently.

Perspectives are important though as people who are in the far left 15% of the spectrum view 85% of the rest of us as “right” of them, conversely people who are in the far right 15% of the spectrum view 85% of us as being to the “left” of them.

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I didn’t say it leaned very conservative, I just said niche had data where one could Compare between schools.. I have zero doubt any college campus is less conservative than a state average around it. I also, personally, look at state laws and wouldn’t send my kids to Indiana, full stop, so non-issue in my household.

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28

Interesting comment - could you be more specific as to which state laws would keep you from sending your child to Indiana for 4 years for college?

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I didn’t read that entire thread but if you can visit it makes a world of a difference. Schools that are diverse have clubs and activities to show for it. Do a deeper dive in that.

A funny story when my daughter was looking at colleges. She also is LGBTQ. So she wanted schools that spoke to that. We were visiting a small lac and we asked the kid taking us on the tour about diversity and he said and I quote “Yes we have diversity. We have “both “Catholics and Protestants on campus.” We kinda laughed and we said no like minorities and he said and I quote “I had lunch last week with a really nice Asian student “……… but the funny thing is the school showed diversity. He actually kinda laughed at himself after hearing what he said and told us he comes from a very small rural town and college was his first time being exposed to different types of people.

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30

I am not looking starting a debate here, but share a story. I am sure you know that it’s the lack of women’s healthcare services. Seomone close to me had a life saving and fertility saving emergency abortion (ultrasound to OR in 30 Minutes) I don’t feel comfortable supporting in any way states with extreme bans that very well would delay care (or prevent it altogether). Bans cause delays. Obviously other disagree and most don’t understand nuance of that the bans mean IME.

I will not talk about it further, but I don’t feel the state is safe for women of reproductive age.

There report card on other human rights is pretty poor too

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35

I’ve taken you at your word and have hidden the 4 posts immediately following as off-topic. So let’s return to topic please.

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39

A student who is LGB or (especially) T may find some of the state laws in Indiana to have a negative impact on quality of life.

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40

So with every large school it seems they could be more diverse. My son went to Michigan and wanted a diverse student body like his high school but yet the numbers are close to what Purdue shows except it’s closer to 50/50 %men /women.

But yet lots of his friends came from diverse groups and backgrounds. I think if you want it you will seek it out. Many clubs and activities your son can join speaking to this.

When at Michigan just walking around and seeing students in study groups or hanging out it appears the diversity is larger than what the statistics say. This becomes the “fit and feel “ of the college. I would check out Reddit etc. I just read about those feeling welcomed with the lgbtq alliance on campus at Purdue with speakers and activities one person said to another that she won’t feel uncomfortable or out of place on campus. College isn’t high school and I have found student’s to be more welcoming of everyone. Probably just the growing up phase for many.

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One thing you have to be careful about is when counting Asian international students as reflective of diversity is that these students, based on the experience of my other children who have attended schools with many international students, mostly East Asian and Indian, is that they generally keep to themselves and socialize separately in their own cliques.

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