The Engineering Experience

While spring classes conclude for Purdue students, a lot are left wondering what there is to do over the summer. As a former sophomore heading into my junior year at Purdue, I hope I can help point out a couple ways to have a gratifying, yet productive summer. Summer Classes Taking classes during the summer can prove to be a great way to spend your time. Whether it is to help work towards your minor, or to make your fall semester load a little lighter, a lot of Purdue students take classes over the summer. For myself, summer was a great way to complete some of my general education requirements, which allowed me to take more advanced classes during the fall semester of my sophomore year. Purdue offers a variety of online and in-person classes which students can take advantage of. While some may be worried about the lack of help online, I never encountered this issue. I found the teaching assistants and professors to be extremely flexible and easy to work with. A lot were simply a...

Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) is Purdue’s largest orientation program. It takes place on campus during the week before classes begin. In my opinion, BGR is a “must do” for incoming students. It is a great way to make friends, familiarize yourself with campus, and get adjusted before the stress of classes ensues. There are so many reasons why BGR is amazing that it is impossible to describe them all in one blog but, I want to highlight the key reasons why BGR is beneficial for incoming students. Familiarizing Yourself with Campus As I mentioned earlier, when students participate in BGR, they move in an entire week prior to the beginning of classes. This time is very beneficial in many ways. Most of all, it helps students get comfortable with Purdue’s campus. There are designated times built into BGR which give students a tour of campus. Students have the ability to ask upperclassmen to walk their schedules and point out important academic buildings. Outside of BGR programming, students have fr...

Congratulations seniors on making it to the end of your high school journey! You should be so proud of the hard work you put in the past four years, and while this current chapter of your life is coming to an end, your upcoming years as a Boilermaker will be just as, if not more, amazing. There are just under three months until Boiler Gold Rush starts, so as someone who just finished their first year, I want to share a few ways you can make the most of your last summer before college. My friends and I outside of Meredith South residence hall One of the most exciting things about freshman year is having your own dorm room, which you can personalize however you’d like. Last summer, I had so much fun slowly accumulating dorm decor, as I was always on the lookout for decorations whenever I went shopping. A fun way to hang out with friends over the summer is to go thrifting for dorm decor together. Thrift stores can carry stuff from posters and art pieces for your walls, to fun lamps, and f...

     As the spring semester and school year come to a close, two of our first-year volunteers wanted to share more about the experiences they enjoyed most and found most impactful here at Purdue! Here is what Natalie and Madison had to say. Natalie's Experience BGR      Before the school year began, I had the opportunity to participate in Boiler Gold Rush (BGR), Purdue’s orientation program that welcomes over 5,000 new students. This week was filled with informative and recreational activities designed to help students acclimate to campus before academic and extracurricular commitments stack up, and it made me feel at home at Purdue very early on. From riding the Boilermaker Special to ceremoniously jumping over the train tracks, Boiler Gold Rush allows freshman and transfer students a detailed and welcoming exploration into life as a Boilermaker. Engineering Projects      As expected, this year included a ton of engineering projects – from ...

A letter to the second semester high school senior (from a Purdue Second Semester Senior):                Senior Year at Purdue                    Senior Year of High School Dear Second Semester High School Senior, Wow, can you believe that it has been four years since we started this phase of our lives. We were both starting our freshman year during the peak of Covid, and I think that just made this time feel like it flew so much faster. But here we are, approaching the end of this chapter, and getting ready to move onto the next. I just want to remind you of a few things as you approach graduation. First, be proud of yourself. You have probably spent countless hours working on homework, and studying for tests, while trying to balance all your extracurricular activities and still being able to enjoy time with your friends and family. That’s a lot. People will try to say tha...