I talked to my friend (Dad of Purdue Mech Engr student). He said: “You go to Purdue to get a job.” Their students are heavily recruited because of Purdue’s reputation. During his freshman year, his son was offered 3 paid internships. His grades were ok, but not great. Semester-long internships are strongly encouraged at Purdue, and most students have multiple offers. My friend’s son is in 4th year now. He’s had 2 full-semester internships and 2 summer internships. All were paid internships and Purdue dad said “my son has over $40,000 in the bank.”
Dad also said: “classes are brutal at Purdue.” A lot of help is available for motivated students that pursue it. There’s a Living Learning Community (specific floor in dorm) for freshmen interested in mechanical engineering. The Purdue student is still in study groups with students he met freshman year at LLC.
At Texas A&M, Mosher Hall is a dorm for freshmen engineering students only. A&M doesn’t group students in the dorm by first-choice major. In the past, Mosher Hall has offered “peer tutoring” (by students who had already taken Chem, Math, Physics, & Intro to Engr courses). My son chose to attend off-campus group tutoring for Chem & Math.
The Purdue student repeated 3 courses because he had made C’s & needed higher grades to meet 3.2 GPA requirement for entry into Mechanical Engr. Purdue only used the higher of 2 grades in each course when calculating GPA. From my son’s experience at Texas A&M, both grades count in GPA when courses are taken more than once. I can’t find online info on A&M’s current “admissions to major” process & requirements. It was available when I looked on website in March 2016. When my son applied for his major (summer 2015), specific GPA requirements hadn’t been published. Apparently, it was more of a holistic review in 2015. Some student with high GPAs (3.5 and above) didn’t get into their desired major the first time they applied. Especially if it was a high-demand major like chemical or mechanical engineering. My son applied for a lower-demand major & was admitted (GPA 2.9).
If you can’t find current online info for “admissions to major” at A&M, I recommend that you call & ask what the requirements will be for Engr students who enter A&M Fall 2017. A&M didn’t publish those requirements until midway through my son’s first semester.
If you’re interested in study abroad, Purdue Engr. has an interesting (and very favorable) policy. Courses are only graded pass-fail (not for a letter grade). My friend said that’s because Purdue Engr wants as many students as possible to study abroad. I think the pass-fail grading system would also allow you to more fully experience the cultural aspects of study abroad (a major reason for SA programs).
Correction to my earlier comment: Like at Texas A&M, class sizes are very large for engineering pre-req courses like Chem, Calc, & Physics.