The Engineering Experience

This story starts in 2018. At 13 years old, I watched the movie Interstellar for the first time. It was ambitious as it was whimsical, and I was swept up in all the possibilities the universe had to offer. And thus, my heart was set: I would be the person building the things that would help us explore each and every single one of those possibilities.  So naturally, when filling out my college application for Purdue, I happily clicked on the “Aerospace Engineering” button when asked which major I would be interested in. This is what I had wanted throughout my high school career! Of course, Purdue in West Lafayette doesn’t admit first-year students directly into their desired engineering majors. Students are admitted to first-year engineering and complete first-year requirements before going through the Transition to Major (T2M) process, through which students enroll in a specific engineering major. As I navigated my first few months at Purdue, I remained confident in my choice to pu...

Discipline-oriented organizations can be a great way to become more involved within your engineering related interests and gain great leadership and networking skills. They are also a way to collaborate with other like-minded individuals and have access to professional developmental experiences. Purdue offers a multitude of different organizations that are tailored to the different disciplines offered through engineering. These organizations are a great way to start and develop your pathway to the engineering industry while still being a college student. American Society of Engineers/Engineering Purdue offers professional societies of engineering in which students can join to be involved in projects, programs, workshops, and social events. The American Society of Civil Engineers is the only professional society at Purdue that includes all specialty fields within Civil Engineering. Student members compete in regional competition events, Indiana ASCE Section Meetings, and national confer...

Founder & CEO of Inuitap Medical, Jessica Traver Ingram I showed up on Purdue’s campus on a very hot and humid August morning in 2009, not having the slightest idea of what the next few years were going to entail. I knew they would be challenging and that I was headed on an adventure that would determine the path of my future, but I don’t think I really understood the extent to which those two statements would be true. Engineering is hard. It’s extremely hard. I’m pretty sure you know that by now, but in the off chance someone has told you differently, I wanted to get that out there. I don’t know a single person who has been through Purdue’s engineering program that thought that it was easy. I still consider graduating from Mechanical Engineering to be one of the hardest things I have accomplished thus far in my life (and I started a medtech company at the age of 25). But, that is why Purdue engineers graduate and do so well in the world. We have been prepared to deal ...