These numbers concern me a little honestly. 4% non international Asian is not a lot. International Asian students don’t interact much with native born Americans. Maybe I am wrong?
I cant control where my kid applies to and he likes their engineering programs, and they are good for engineering. He hasn’t so far made the cut for other places I would prefer like CMU. I personally would prefer a school like Northeastern which is a little more diverse academically, in case he changes his mind, and not so engineering focused.
It’s 14% not 4%.
For reference a quite google AI query tells me that basically less than 8% of the US population identifies as Asian So basically Purdue is almost double the national rate - and without getting into the ‘racial sterotype’ debate - I would guess they are disproportionately concentrated in the STEM fields there for several reasons.
I have heard this before - as well as some Asian subgroups not interacting with other Asian subgroups - but to me this sounds like another problem not specifically a Purdue or College at Large problem.
Yes, and UVA too this year! 
No, but 10% of which are international, so 4% non international Asian?
National average is very different from where we live, where 20% of the school is probably Asian. So it would be different.
And international students, not surprisingly, are different culturally from Americans. Doesnt matter that they are Asian. And many also come from a different economic demographic. You have to be fairly wealthy to study abroad, and some come from families that are truly filthy rich.
College Navigator - Purdue University-Main Campus lists 15% Asian and 10% Nonresident. In these numbers, Nonresident is not included in any of the racial/ethnic groups. So 15% of the undergraduates are US citizens or permanent residents of Asian race/ethnicity.
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Ok, I misunderstood.
I think schools showing Asian are defining Asian American. An Asian from overseas would be international. Yes, like in life, cliques by ethnicity and other things are formed.
Purdue has a strong rep in STEM but it’s also strong in business and has most, if not all, the arts & sciences. It has 200 majors - from Classics to Professional Pilot, from Farm Studies to Italian. Same with CWRU - whether cognitive studies or creative writing, from business to nutrition. I don’t agree that Northeastern is more diverse academically but rather that you are making an assumption due to Purdue’s and CWRU’s perceived STEM rep. Im not sure NEU’s strengths besides co op and low acceptance rate. But all three are very diverse academically I believe.
Like your ‘pre established’ beliefs on location and social life, I think you need to look deeper at academics.
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What amazes me is how does Purdue do it at a much lower price. Even for out of staters, the tuition is quite low, compared to private universities.Maybe state subsidies?
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Purdue doesn’t give much out in terms of individual merit awards and instead has focused on keeping tuition lower for everyone.
They also focus of industry partnerships: Purdue, Purdue Research Foundation mark transformative year of growth, industry partnership - News
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Despite being a smaller school, I have also been reading that Case Western class sizes are very large, even for higher level classes. Not sure about Purdue or Penn State.
I think your child will find that at most schools, intro classes will be larger and then class sizes get smaller as they progress into their major.
My D had classes where lecture was 180-200 people at Purdue but all of the large lecture classes have mandatory recitations that are capped at 20-25 people. The PhD students who teach the recitations are great! She also had classes as small as 20, even starting her freshman year. Senior year she had classes for her major with under 10 students, so there is a big variety.
For perspective, back in my day, my psych 101 class at Cornell was taught in a concert hall with over 1,000 students. To this day, one of the best classes I’ve ever taken ; )
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As an Asian American, I actually experienced the most racism in my life going to school in Boston, which surprised me.
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odd it would surprise you - the city has a very racist history….which is interesting as a bastion of liberalism. But it’s true - as athletes have learned. And sorry to hear - it’s not acceptable.
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Town and gown. They are different.
Very large international Asian and non international Asian-American presence.
By and large, MA and New England in general tolerant culturally due to its Puritan history I think.
But then you had some less tolerant immigration waves. I hope that is not too inflammatory.
Maybe more against African Americans.
Just avoid certain areas. Boston is great.
But if you are not in your twenties, you will feel really really old.
only in certain areas (but very much so in those:) If you are in Allston/Brighton for sure - less so even in Cambridge, which has a wide array of residents (despite all the colleges) and not at all even the close suburbs (which would be part of the city proper in pretty much any other city in US).
Unless Purdue has a Boston campus that I’m unaware of, let’s return to topic
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My minority student has Purdue friends that were geographically, economically, politically and ethnically diverse classmates. Any of the schools you have mentioned in this thread will have that. Your student’s list includes places that are culturally different. CWRU and CMU are grad-student dominated student bodies. That’s a different experience than Big Ten schools like Purdue or Penn State. But Purdue’s culture is driven by the engineers and Penn State’s is not, so those are different experiences. (Purdue turns out more mechanical engineers each year than many colleges have students.) Northeastern may have gamed USNews but it’s not on the level of the other schools for engineering. Focus on the fit. The diversity will be there.
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Thank you. The more direct experiences I hear, the more helpful.