Purdue University
Public research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States
About This School
How does this school stack up?
Purdue University was founded in 1869 with substantial financing provided by industrialist John Purdue. Its purpose was to train students in agriculture and engineering. The school officially opened for business in 1874 and grew quickly.
By the end of the nineteenth century, Purdue had been organized into five schools: agriculture, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, and pharmacy. Later, schools of education and home economics were added. An early attempt at creating a medical school was later abandoned.
In other respects, Purdue was spectacularly successful. By 1925 the university was home to the largest number of engineering students in the US. It remained the nation’s largest engineering school for the next half-century.
Today, Purdue operates four satellite campuses: in Hammond, Fort Wayne, Columbus, and Indianapolis. Overall, the Purdue system has a student body approaching 75,000 souls.
Purdue is associated with 13 Nobel Prize winners, including:
- Physicists, Ben Roy Mottelson, Edward Mills Purcell, Julian Schwinger & Wolfgang Pauli
- Chemists, Ei-ichi Negishi, Herbert C. Brown & Akira Suzuki
- Economist, Vernon L. Smith
In addition, the Turing Award winning computer scientist, Alan J. Perlis, spent time here as a researcher.
Among other prominent Purdue-connected individuals, we may note the following:
- Astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Roger Chaffee & Eugene Cernan
- Heroic airline pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger
- Mathematicians, Andrew Majda, Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar & Feydoon Shahidi
- Computer scientists, Mikhail Atallah, Markus Kuhn & Jill Zimmerman
- Computer software developer, Sanjiva Weerawarana
- Physicist, Albert Overhauser
- Chemist, C.N.R. Rao
- Chemical engineer, Rakesh Agrawal
- Molecular biologists, Seymour Benzer & Ronald Breaker
- Microbiologist, Rita Colwell
- Nanotechnology pioneers, Supriyo Datta & James Tour
- Physiologist, Leslie Geddes
- Economist, Hugo Sonnenschein
- Anthropologist, Peter Peregrine
- Novelist and playwright, Booth Tarkington
- Actors, George Peppard & Kenneth Choi
- Stand-up comic, Jim Gaffigan
- Photographer, Margaret Bourke-White
Admissions
What does this school look for?
Annual Applications
53,722
Acceptance
58%
Graduation Rate
77%
Median SAT Score
1295
Median ACT Score
28
Costs
How much does it cost to attend?
Tuition (in-state)
$9,208
Fees (in-state)
$784
After Graduation
Averages for 10 years after enrolling
Avg Earnings
$62,200
Employed
92%
Campus Life
What's it like to attend this school?
The People
Full time on-campus stats
Student Body
40K
Under-Grads
32K
Graduates
9K
The Campus
Where will you be attending?
Location
Hovde Hall of Administration,
West Lafayette IN
47907-2040
On Campus Crime Rates
Property Crime
8k per 100k
Violent Crime
0k per 100k
City Crime Rates
Property Crime
10k per 100k
Violent Crime
1k per 100k
What is Purdue University known for?
Our answer to this is to show you the disciplines in which a school's faculty and alumni have had the highest historical influence. A school may be influential in a discipline even if they do not offer degrees in that area. We've organized two lists to show where they are influential and offer corresponding degrees, and where they are influential through scholarship although they don't offer degrees in the disciplines.
Top areas of influence with degrees offered
Other areas of influence
Influential People
Who are Purdue University's Most influential alumni?
Purdue University's most influential alumni faculty include professors and professionals in the fields of Engineering, Nursing, and Communications. Purdue University’s most academically influential people include Neil Armstrong, Martin Atalla, and David Starr Jordan.