2 of my triplets applied too and both accepted OOS. One in CS the other Mechanical engineering.
Good luck to your deferred one!
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When offering you your 2nd choice major that means the door is closed on your first choice. They offered you admission. There is not an appeal process for contesting being denied your first choice. You can ask to be considered for a third option as momofboiler1 pointed out, but your #1 is not an option.
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Son accepted to Honors College, no merit
FYE (Aerospace hopeful)
OOS
8 APs, seven of which were 5s, one 4
4.0 UW, 4.7 W
1600 SAT
Competitive swimmer
Lifeguard
Orchestra (violin)
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I would love to know how merit aid is actually decided. Some of these make no sense.
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There is always going to be something inscrutable about black-box decisions like these. The stats reported on this thread look very strong indeed. By way of rationalization, here are some things that are probably true, although they are just a surmise on my behalf:
- Iād guess that Purdue prioritizes Indiana residents for merit aid. Maybe not, but seems likely.
- Iād guess that some majors are more likely to receive merit aid than others. As I asked upthread, why would Purdue give 40-60k over four years to students entering programs that have rejected hundreds if not thousands of viable students?
Thereās also the question of geographic diversity. Perhaps not all OOS candidates are evaluated equally; perhaps Illinois and Pennsylvania submit more competitive applications than do Wyoming or Oklahoma. Maybe thereās even a hidden need-based consideration at work?
These are just guesses, but perhaps it might help to remember that when large numbers of people are clamoring to get into a limited space, the possibility of absolute equity (whatever that might be) is quite low. All of the kids described here sound great - both their parents and they have already won the lottery!
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Deferred at West Lafayette for CS, did not select Indianapolis while applying. Any one know if I can send a request to be considered for Indianapolis CS now? How would I do that?
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From what Iāve seen, it seems that Honors College admits are not getting merit; and those that got merit donāt seem to be going to the Honors College. There are a couple exceptions. Weāre thrilled though and are not complaining at all.
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Do you know the name of your regional admissions officer? I would call or send an email to that person and ask.
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I suspect Purdue is more generous to in state students - as it should be. I think they use merit to entice people into less popular or undersubscribed majors. There really is no need to award merit to OOS engineering or CS or professional flight students given the heavy competition for those seats. There is no need to offer merit to the honors college either since many students are only doing it for the nicer housing and may not stick with the program in future years.
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I think some factors that affect how Purdue gives merit awards are:
- The major the student is applying to. FYE and CS are well-regarded programs, which have a lot of qualified applicants. No need for Purdue to offer merit to have a full class. Lots are willing to pay full given that Purdue has one of the lowest COA even for OOS.
- The studentās gender. Looking at the CDS of Purdue, there are about 5k more male undergrad students than female undergrad students. If Purdue wants to have a more even class gender-wise, it would offer more merit to female applicants to entice them to enroll.
- Geographic location of applicant. Maybe this year they want kids from the West Coast or East Coast or a specific state.
- Other factors that are beyond grades and test scores
As someone mentioned in another chat, merit award should be renamed as institutional focus award (or something like that) because really, it is not based purely on merit but on what the school is looking for, for this particular admission class.
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Highly recommend continuing with violin as part of one of the 4 Purdue orchestras. Thereās a hard core philharmomic, a highly competitive quartet and 3 orchestras (some string only) that are more chill/fewer rehearsals but great experiences. All are loaded with engineers. Basically 2 concerts per semester with some variation for philharmonic and the quartet, which was newly endowed this year. Boiler Up!
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because people are more than their test scores. Purdue is a land grant institution and Purdue awards merit based on that fundamental mission. Automatic cash is available at any number of schools. If Purdue math doesnāt work on finances, of course go where the money is.
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thereās also club swimming if DI NCAA swimming is not in your studentās futureā¦
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Excellent analysis
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As a faculty who has worked at Purdue almost 20 years I can tell Purdue has changed a lot. The current administration runs Purdue like a business. The goal is to increase throughput (which correlates with revenue). Purdue took over part of IUPUI just for more space. The Indy campus is new and so far nobody knows who will teach what, not to mention Indy campus admits students directly into majors. I donāt quite believe the quality of education will be the same given there is still no solid plan. But in any case they need students to go to that campus. I would not be surprised if they try to fill spots at Indy first by sending students to Indy if they show interest.
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I assume you are aware that the Game Development and Design major is offered by Purdue Polytech. We are talking about completely different sets of faculty and students when compared to CS or engineering.
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It is likely a mix (as you said). I know of students who (in this cycle) are OOS FYE and have received merit. I suspect this will make the tuition more attractive and broaden geographic reach. They did, however, not receive honors.
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In other words you werenāt necessarily considered first for your first choice major like they indicated they would in the application? Theyāre shuffling certain kids off to Indy if they checked the box in order to fill the spots?
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For everyone regretting being open to Indianapolis and disappointed in being offered admission to Indianapolis, this might get you more excited: guaranteed paid internships in the form of internship, co-op or research for Indianapolis engineering students announced in Oct 2023.
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My OOS FYE son received the Trustee Scholarship and got into the Honors program. His stats are pretty much perfect but Iām thinking he filled an institutional priority.
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