Hi!
I was accepted to UTD and Purdue for computer science and I’m trying to decide between the two universities. The cost shouldn’t matter too much. The things that matter to me are people, experiences, and job prospects.
For me, ‘people’ also includes what I would do with those friends (I don’t really care about partying) - which is why the location and things to do around campus matter. It seems like Purdue is more friendly and has more clubs, but isn’t in the city. Indianapolis and Chicago don’t seem to far away though. UTD is more of a commuter school and seems to be slightly less friendly, but it’s in Dallas, which is nice. I’m interested in a lot of things and I want to meet other people who are as well. Purdue offers many clubs that are good at what they do - like their robotics team and cybersecurity team. UTD seems to have less clubs.
I have also had to deal with a lot of ‘idiots’ in high school (don’t take this too seriously pls) and haven’t really found a good community of nerds like me who like to learn. Based on Purdue vs UTD’s stats for CS, I’m assuming Purdue would be better for what I’m looking for (I don’t know though which is why I’m asking). Of course, I’m not saying that I want to go to a college where everybody is like me and where I can make friends extremely easily - but it’s much easier to be surrounded by people I like in a community that already has those kinds of people.
I would like to have a good experience living on campus. Compared to Purdue, UTD’s dorms seem much better: the rooms are triples, with a shared living room and bathroom, but individual bedrooms. Purdue’s dorms don’t seem seem bad either, but most are doubles/triples with a communal bathroom. I would probably move off campus for either college after my first or second year.
Both schools seem to have study abroad programs that cost around as much as tuition would be normally.
Purdue’s job prospects seem better than UTD’s. Its name is more well known, and its job fairs seem like they have active recruiters, while recruiters at UTD’s don’t seem as enthusiastic. Since CS majors usually apply to many many jobs and only get offers from a few, getting a job offer for an internship from a job fair would be really nice.
Purdue also has a lot of cool people on their alumni list
after writing this i realized that this post is mostly made of statements but really I’m trying to gauge how true or not these statements are. so… even if it seems like purdue scores better in some of these categories i am not decided at all yet. ty for the help!