Seems like a pick’em. Purdue likely has the better Coop program, if that matters to you. Nephew is at VT for Systems Eng, son is looking at Purdue for ECE.
For Civil/Env, I think you just go for the right fit for him personally. Purdue is a powerhouse when it comes to ENG, but VT is good enough that you can justify going to it if feels better to your son, and gets him more excited about going to school.
For us, we were taken unawares by Purdue. We went on a visit to do our due diligence, and were kind of blown away by the place. As Minnesotans, we think of Lafayette as somewhere warm, so no issues there. We also come from a HS that tends to be quite left leaning/PC. S2 appreciates what appears to be the neutral political leanings of the Purdue campus. He was surprised to see a lot of Asians there, which is a positive for him- he is of mixed race. The Asian restaurants were relatively plentiful in West Lafayette, which seems minor, but does matter a bit.
On the downside, like most ENG heavy schools, the gender ratio skews heavily male…not sure about VT. I told S that he’ll need to work on his charm if he expects to get a date Friday nights.
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