Rose-Hulman vs. Purdue

drusba
Wed, 09 Feb 2005 10:06:02 +0000

Both are highly regarded. Rose-Hulman has the edge over a lot of universities nationwwide for quality of teaching undergrads engineering/science. Professors teach all classes, they are all required to be able to speak English fluently (at most large universities you will find an inordinate number of professors and TA’s teaching science, math, and engineering classes though they can hardly speak English) , most classes are small. There are actually a lot of engineering/science undergrad textbooks used at many universities that are authored by RH professors. Even so professors are not required to do research or publish (although most do) and tenure is based on teaching experience. RH’s employment placement rate is always close to or at 100%, i.e., those grads seeking jobs upon graduating (rather than going to grad school) get jobs. The campus is small but very nice with everything is kept in first rate condition.

Nevertheless, at RH you have the risk that if you change your mind about majoring in engineering, science, or math, you will need to head elsewhere. It is also expensive. Males outnumber females 5 to 1 and most of the students are white and from the midwest (it tries hard to recruit minorities with only some success). Also, Terre Haute is just a small city/town with nothing but farmland around it (for excitement you go to the movies, the Dairy Queen, or go bowling) – however, Lafayette (where Purdue is) is not much different.

Purdue provides the true large university experience, although that experience is mostly midwestern styles and values. All freshman are admitted to “general” engineering without declaring a major, which you do not do until after the first year. That is a good idea as it allows students to first become familiar with engineering and the departments and to grow a year before committing. It has many support programs to get you through but even so many freshman in engineering do not end up graduating as engineers. It is a “research” university where professors are expected to do research and publish. Many classes are large. That does not mean poor quality and, in fact, it is very good. Also, many prefer the large university experience over the small one. As someone once told me: At the large university you seldom get to know your professors and rarely have the same one twice. At the small university you are likely to know professors personally and have the same professor for two or three different courses over four years. Which one of those sounds better – being anonymous or being well-known to your professors? Well, it depends on what the professor thinks of you.