Purdue freshman retention rate

TiredAndAbused
Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:53:42 +0000

During a recent Purdue Engineering tour I learned the following:

Evidently all Purdue freshman engineering students start off as "undecided’ engineering during their freshman year. After their first semester they fill out a form expressing which engineering major (ie EE,ME…) they wish to pursue during their 3rd semester and beyond (sophomore…). Here is where it gets interesting: Depending on how many people are requesting a certain major (ie EE), Purdue picks a “cut-off” GPA for that major and THEN informs the students (at the beginning of the 2nd semester?) what freshman GPA they will need to pursue that major after their freshman year.

Supposedly 2/3 continue on with their first choice of engineering majors during their sophomore year. What happens to the other 1/3? Evidently some stay in engineering (included in the “retention” portion of freshman retention rate) and re-take core (Calculus, Chemistry & Physics) classes to improve their GPAs to continue into their sophomore year in their specialty. Others (also included in the “retention” portion of freshman retention rate) choose to change engineering majors to a less competitive (lower GPA) field.

While I don’t personally have a problem with Purdue using a minimum GPA cutoff to determine who should move on with engineering, I don’t particularly care for their method of adjusting that GPA number based on how many engineering students THEY admitted. Seems to me that if the Engineering Department thinks that a 2.8 freshman college GPA is the minimum necessary for a student to succeed and continue in engineering during their second year, they should state that BEFORE accepting the student and requiring them to enroll. Smacks a little of admissions manipulation.

Do all engineering programs wait until students are attending classes before determining/informing them of what criteria will be needed to continue in their major?