Purdue & scholarships

[northcoast]

Has anyone had experience with Purdue and getting scholarships?  What SAT or ACT score should we strive for?  DS wants to study engineering.  Math & Science scores were great - 33/34 but reading and English were 28 & 29.  Is it worth trying to test again?  He practiced well on English and Reading.  He said he felt timed crunched and that content was more difficult than the Real Practice ACT:   http://www.amazon.com/Real-ACT-Official-Prep-Guide/dp/0768934400/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461076810&sr=1-5&keywords=act+prep+book+2016.  We are still waiting for March SAT scores.  He thought that test went better.  It appears we won't have the March SAT test back in time to decide on June testing for the SAT without paying the late fee.

 

I've heard Purdue so competitive scholarship that it may not matter anyway.  DS does some volunteer work - church, plays for youth group worship on occasion. He is in 4-H but has never held an office.  He had one great year running for the local high school cross county team/ track until an injury a year ago that may put an end to the competitive running,    He's done DE pre-calc & calc and will do DE Chemistry next year.  Unfortunately due to the injury he won't have 4 years playing sport on his "resume".  The homeschool basketball team let him keep stats this past winter when he couldn't play and welcomed him despite the injury.  Physical therapy has eaten a lot of his time to be active in other things so we don't have the look on consistency on the "resume."

 

Thanks for any thoughts as we consider to pursue further testing!

 

[FaithManor]

I don't know personally. According to College Confidential their average ACT composite range was 22-30. If your son had two 28's and two 33's, that's a composite of 30.5/31. So that would put him in the top 10% of applicants. Of course this is based on 2014 info because 2015 data hasn't been posted yet.

 

Still, I would think that would make him rather competitive. I am not certain what their top scholarships are though, but with an ACT range like that, I would not think this is a school in which the extra-curriculars have to be "I saved the community and played a sport at the top of the stats) to get in and be considered for merit aid.

 

You can probably call the admission's department, tell them you are looking for next year, and get a good packet of information from them.

 

I don't know what you are looking for, but those scores would put him potentially in the running for the full scholarship at Michigan Tech. They give 20-30 of those to in state students, and 10 oos which if one lands that, make it affordable. Also, if one is invited to compete but doesn't receive the highest award, it is automatically a half ride. So if one were getting a little financial aid and was willing to take out the federal loans, the school would be affordable even on out of state tuition.

[cave canem]

I don't think the common data set will be useful for assessing how competitive your son is for admissions.  The applicant pool for the school of engineering will have much higher scores than the university average.  I would contact the school of engineering or the department of interest and ask directly.  Out of state versus Indiana resident will probably also have a big impact. 

[GailV]

I don't think the common data set will be useful for assessing how competitive your son is for admissions.  The applicant pool for the school of engineering will have much higher scores than the university average.  I would contact the school of engineering or the department of interest and ask directly.  Out of state versus Indiana resident will probably also have a big impact. 

 

This reflects our experience exactly.  We're out of state, and were told that dd's high ACT scores didn't matter because the money just isn't there to award many scholarships to out of state applicants.  

 

We got this information by talking to someone in the engineering department.

 

Having said that, things could change.  You should probably call or visit for current information. 

[teachermom2834]

This reflects our experience exactly. We're out of state, and were told that dd's high ACT scores didn't matter because the money just isn't there to award many scholarships to out of state applicants.

 

We got this information by talking to someone in the engineering department.

 

Having said that, things could change. You should probably call or visit for current information.

A friend's dd had a 34 composite and 12 APs and good extra curriculars. She got some kind of scholarship to Purdue oos but it wasn't a lot. She might go there but it will be expensive. Some public universities don't give much out of state. I can try to find out how much she did get.

[GailV]

I should've phrased that better.  What I meant to say is that a high ACT is great, but it isn't necessarily enough for an out of state student to get a scholarship that will bring the price down significantly.  Purdue costs as much as a private school if you're out of state.
 

We don't know if the OP is in state or out of state.  In state students will probably get more scholarships since it's a state school, as cave canem said.

 

Dd decided she wasn't that keen on the program there for what she wanted to accomplish, so decided against attending.

[northcoast]

We are in state.  DS is pretty set on Purdue but I appreciate hearing other options especially MI Tech.  DH & DS visited Purdue last fall, a little on the early side. Scholarship options weren't talked about.  Sounds like it may be time to do something like that.  :) 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Has anyone had experience with Purdue and getting scholarships?  What SAT or ACT score should we strive for?  DS wants to study engineering.  Math & Science scores were great - 33/34 but reading and English were 28 & 29.  Is it worth trying to test again?  He practiced well on English and Reading.  He said he felt timed crunched and that content was more difficult than the Real Practice ACT:   http://www.amazon.com/Real-ACT-Official-Prep-Guide/dp/0768934400/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461076810&sr=1-5&keywords=act+prep+book+2016.  We are still waiting for March SAT scores.  He thought that test went better.  It appears we won't have the March SAT test back in time to decide on June testing for the SAT without paying the late fee.

 

I've heard Purdue so competitive scholarship that it may not matter anyway.  DS does some volunteer work - church, plays for youth group worship on occasion. He is in 4-H but has never held an office.  He had one great year running for the local high school cross county team/ track until an injury a year ago that may put an end to the competitive running,    He's done DE pre-calc & calc and will do DE Chemistry next year.  Unfortunately due to the injury he won't have 4 years playing sport on his "resume".  The homeschool basketball team let him keep stats this past winter when he couldn't play and welcomed him despite the injury.  Physical therapy has eaten a lot of his time to be active in other things so we don't have the look on consistency on the "resume."

 

Thanks for any thoughts as we consider to pursue further testing!

 

My understanding on the SAT scores is that the March scores won't be out until after the May test (those two sets will come out together to give a larger pool of scores to set the raw to scaled scores with).

 

What you might do is go ahead and register for the June sitting.  If his scores from March come in at a level he's happy with, then shift to doing a Subject Test sitting on the June date.  Purdue doesn't require Subject Test scores, but several other tech schools ds applied to required them form all applicants or appreciated them from homeschoolers (WPI, CMU, VATech).  Double check that what I'm describing is possible.

 

DS was accepted into Purdue into Computer Science, which is in the College of Science.  He had SAT scores that were over 700 in each section and an overall ACT of 32.  My understanding is that acceptance to the College of Engineering was more competitive.  He was offered a renewable $5k per year scholarship as an OOS student.  It would have been a great bonus stacked with the NROTC scholarship he earned from the Navy, but not enough on its own.  I don't know if scholarship awards take in state/OOS into consideration or not.  To my eyes, Purdue seems like a great price at in state rates, but then I'm comparing it with some pricey private or OOS choices that come in around $45-60k per year for net price.

 

I thought that Purdue's admissions office was pretty easy to work with.

[anne1456]

If you look at the Purdue board on College Confidential there is whole thread on merit scholarships for this year, where parents and kids report what they were offered. I'll link it for you:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/purdue-university-west-lafayette/1841104-purdue-university-class-of-2020-scholarships.html

 

It is pages and pages long, but if you read through it you should get an idea of what was offered this year to students. Good luck!

[northcoast]

If you look at the Purdue board on College Confidential there is whole thread on merit scholarships for this year, where parents and kids report what they were offered. I'll link it for you:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/purdue-university-west-lafayette/1841104-purdue-university-class-of-2020-scholarships.html

 

It is pages and pages long, but if you read through it you should get an idea of what was offered this year to students. Good luck!

 

 

Thanks for suggesting this resource.  I have not been on the CC website.  I will have to delve in sometime.   :)  

[Grantmom]

My son is also interested in engineering, and I was also thinking about the issue of those applicants likely having higher stats than the general pool of applicants.  Does it make sense to contact each admissions office and ask them?  Does that come across as being too, I don't know, something, too pushy?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

My son is also interested in engineering, and I was also thinking about the issue of those applicants likely having higher stats than the general pool of applicants.  Does it make sense to contact each admissions office and ask them?  Does that come across as being too, I don't know, something, too pushy?

 

I think it would be great if your ds contacted admissions and/or the engineering department.

 

We went to a Purdue info night a couple years ago.  The admissions and departmental reps were extremely helpful, encouraging and informative.  I know that all admissions reps are supposed to be positive about their school.  Purdue's folks made ME want to apply.  The rep from the College of Science gave us her card and encouraged ds and I to contact her if we had any questions.  She was able to send us links to current course of study plans (what we'd found online was a couple years out of date).  

 

The times that I contacted admissions instead of my ds was when the question was related to what I needed to submit in the way of supporting documentation (transcripts, course descriptions, etc).  I also think parent calls about financial aid offers are completely justified.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I also found this, which seems to break down admissions factors specifically for engineers.  https://www.purdue.edu/futureengineers/What%20To%20Know/Common%20Questions/Frequently%20Asked%20Questions.html