- Sep 10, 2005
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I've asked ATOT this question before and it was pretty even judging from the poll. But a lot of people close to my mom are saying that I should definitely go to Purdue for engineering. The school is well known in engineering after all. And according to this guy my mom knows, who attended the #1 college in Taiwan, the staff at Purdue > Penn State. He's been to both schools. He graduated from Purdue over two decades ago so things might have changed.
The message I got from my last post about this was to visit both schools and then decide. Well, that's what I did. Penn State looks AMAZING. The campus is extremely clean and literally spotless. There's a lot of school pride at Penn State, which probably explains why the place is so clean. Everything is vibrant and colorful. The stores surrounding Penn State have the same charm as those you would find in Boston. And people were up and about. I was kind of hoping Purdue would be the same way but a tad bit smaller. This was not the case.
The road leading to the school was a long winding one hudled between a large yellowing lake and a squat housing complexes. This was okay, because I didn't mind a more remote location. Entering West Lafeyette, I noticed cracks developing on the road we were on. The only reason I had noticed this was because the roadways at Penn State looked newly paved. This was a minor observation that I could forget. Getting closer to the school, I noticed the "old"-feel had not gone away. I could describe the scenery in two words. Yellow and brown. The place felt like it was old. And the dominant colors were either yellow or brown.. and maybe a touch red. There weren't too many stores and the ones that were there did not stand out. There was an odd pizza place here and there and I remember seeing a McDonalds somewhere. Being a future engineering student, I was sad to see that there was one lone computer hardware store that was located in the basement floor of some building(you had to walk down a set of stairs to reach it). To top it off, the door was covered in graffiti. This was the complete opposite of what I had saw at Penn State.
The school itself wasn't a standout either. It was surrounded by a parking garage and other taller buildings. Every building that belonged to Purdue was brown. Inside, the walls were yellow. When you walked in, you had to choose between going up a flight of stairs or going down one. But the hallways all looked the same. Yellow and musky with poor lighting and ceiling lined with pipes that you could touch if you reached upwards. The noise made by the pipes were extremely audible. I knew Purdue's team was called the Boilermakers, but the amount of noise coming from pipes was unacceptable. While I was walking around, I peeked into one of the class rooms. Inside, it was dark. I forget if there were windows or not; there might have been. To my surprise, there were actually students in there. They all sat in front of these bulky old CRTs. CRTs? All I saw at Penn State were LCDs. I've been rambling for a bit, so I'm just going to sum up the rest real quick. The pathways are covered in paper advertising school events. Certain areas smelled like sewage. And the dorms consisted of 4 room complexes that sat next to each other in a grid. The distance between the school and the dorms was far enough; most kids biked judging from numerous bike racks. Engineering was actually getting a new building, but it was still under construction--to be completed 2007 or so. The library sported the school colors of yellow and brown. There was a wall of famous alumni. Again, very obscure and no standouts. All I remember was one guy becoming an astronaut. No big corporate execs and no groundbreaking discoveries on that wall, to my knowledge. And what was up with the lighting? Maybe it's just me, but I absolutely hate lights that make a room look yellow. It puts me to sleep. I'm sure everyone prefers white lighting. I was never a star student who excels at studying for long periods of time, and the atmosphere at Purdue wasn't making it any better. I settled for Penn State because it was reasonably high ranked (#19 in engineering) and the atmosphere was nice. Then the above happens (See Paragraph 1). Now I'm really not sure. I can't judge the teachers at all, but from what everyone's been saying, Purdue is where I should be looking to go. But I really hate the environment. What should I do? I'd like to get opinions from actual engineers plz.
Cliffs:
-Deciding between Purdue and Penn State
-People my parents know say go to Purdue including some guy who went to #1 Taiwan college
-Penn State's campus rocks
-Purdue is very old, yellowing, full of pipes, and a horrible environment for studying.
-Penn State's campus rocks
-Purdue has a better staff(?)
-Engineers are saying Purdue is better
-Better or not, I don't think I can have a clear head in a place like Purdue (I'll suck it up if I have to tho)
I've asked ATOT this question before and it was pretty even judging from the poll. But a lot of people close to my mom are saying that I should definitely go to Purdue for engineering. The school is well known in engineering after all. And according to this guy my mom knows, who attended the #1 college in Taiwan, the staff at Purdue > Penn State. He's been to both schools. He graduated from Purdue over two decades ago so things might have changed.
The message I got from my last post about this was to visit both schools and then decide. Well, that's what I did. Penn State looks AMAZING. The campus is extremely clean and literally spotless. There's a lot of school pride at Penn State, which probably explains why the place is so clean. Everything is vibrant and colorful. The stores surrounding Penn State have the same charm as those you would find in Boston. And people were up and about. I was kind of hoping Purdue would be the same way but a tad bit smaller. This was not the case.
The road leading to the school was a long winding one hudled between a large yellowing lake and a squat housing complexes. This was okay, because I didn't mind a more remote location. Entering West Lafeyette, I noticed cracks developing on the road we were on. The only reason I had noticed this was because the roadways at Penn State looked newly paved. This was a minor observation that I could forget. Getting closer to the school, I noticed the "old"-feel had not gone away. I could describe the scenery in two words. Yellow and brown. The place felt like it was old. And the dominant colors were either yellow or brown.. and maybe a touch red. There weren't too many stores and the ones that were there did not stand out. There was an odd pizza place here and there and I remember seeing a McDonalds somewhere. Being a future engineering student, I was sad to see that there was one lone computer hardware store that was located in the basement floor of some building(you had to walk down a set of stairs to reach it). To top it off, the door was covered in graffiti. This was the complete opposite of what I had saw at Penn State.
The school itself wasn't a standout either. It was surrounded by a parking garage and other taller buildings. Every building that belonged to Purdue was brown. Inside, the walls were yellow. When you walked in, you had to choose between going up a flight of stairs or going down one. But the hallways all looked the same. Yellow and musky with poor lighting and ceiling lined with pipes that you could touch if you reached upwards. The noise made by the pipes were extremely audible. I knew Purdue's team was called the Boilermakers, but the amount of noise coming from pipes was unacceptable. While I was walking around, I peeked into one of the class rooms. Inside, it was dark. I forget if there were windows or not; there might have been. To my surprise, there were actually students in there. They all sat in front of these bulky old CRTs. CRTs? All I saw at Penn State were LCDs. I've been rambling for a bit, so I'm just going to sum up the rest real quick. The pathways are covered in paper advertising school events. Certain areas smelled like sewage. And the dorms consisted of 4 room complexes that sat next to each other in a grid. The distance between the school and the dorms was far enough; most kids biked judging from numerous bike racks. Engineering was actually getting a new building, but it was still under construction--to be completed 2007 or so. The library sported the school colors of yellow and brown. There was a wall of famous alumni. Again, very obscure and no standouts. All I remember was one guy becoming an astronaut. No big corporate execs and no groundbreaking discoveries on that wall, to my knowledge. And what was up with the lighting? Maybe it's just me, but I absolutely hate lights that make a room look yellow. It puts me to sleep. I'm sure everyone prefers white lighting. I was never a star student who excels at studying for long periods of time, and the atmosphere at Purdue wasn't making it any better. I settled for Penn State because it was reasonably high ranked (#19 in engineering) and the atmosphere was nice. Then the above happens (See Paragraph 1). Now I'm really not sure. I can't judge the teachers at all, but from what everyone's been saying, Purdue is where I should be looking to go. But I really hate the environment. What should I do? I'd like to get opinions from actual engineers plz.
Cliffs:
-Deciding between Purdue and Penn State
-People my parents know say go to Purdue including some guy who went to #1 Taiwan college
-Penn State's campus rocks
-Purdue is very old, yellowing, full of pipes, and a horrible environment for studying.
-Penn State's campus rocks
-Purdue has a better staff(?)
-Engineers are saying Purdue is better
-Better or not, I don't think I can have a clear head in a place like Purdue (I'll suck it up if I have to tho)
)...but go where you feel comfortable. The material you will learn will probably be the same (accredation means you have to meet standards) and the main different is the faculty and what they research. The only problem is 95% of students don't approach the faculty about that stuff so you get the same education anywhere. I say go to the college that you like better (regardless of name...if you are good they won't care WHERE you went) beceause that is the college you will preform better at.
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