Any discussion of the Purdue undergraduate experience begins and ends with mention of the so-called “Boiler spirit.” This sense of school pride manifests itself not just on the athletic fields, but also through students’ appreciation of the university’s intellectual opportunities. “Purdue is a place of tradition and innovation. A place where not only are books read and papers written, but where lifelong friendships form and character is molded. An institution rooted [in] the likes of Amelia Earhart and Neil Armstrong, Purdue is the type of school that inspires excellence [in] those [who] associate themselves with it,” writes one junior.
Academically, most students find their courses to be challenging and stimulating. “Purdue is definitely not a slack-off institution. You have to work at it to graduate, but the reward is worth it,” notes a senior from in-state. Like at most other large public schools, classes for freshmen and sophomores are often filled with hundreds of eager undergraduates, but as junior year approaches, the classes tend to get smaller and students start to develop personal relationships with their professors. Of course, not all programs are created equal. “I cannot talk about Purdue's academics without mentioning our top-ranked agriculture, management, and engineering programs,” says a junior studying communications. “Although these are the most-recognized majors at Purdue, we have other great programs like pharmacy, the veterinary school, and hospitality and tourism management. Our liberal arts majors are not acknowledged much, but Purdue's standards would not allow there to be a mediocre program, except maybe organizational leadership and supervision.”
To mark Purdue as a haven for only the bookish types would be a mischaracterization of the school. The Purdue Boilermakers compete in the Big Ten Conference, fielding nationally renowned football and basketball teams. “The school spirit is everywhere; students wear Purdue apparel every day and the Bell Tower (our clock tower in the middle of campus) plays the fight song and other Purdue jingles every hour. Purdue also has what I (and ESPN's SportsCenter, I believe) consider to be the GREATEST pregame ritual in the nation: Breakfast Club. Each Saturday morning of a home game the campus bars open at 7:00 a.m.,” remarks one senior. In terms of extracurricular activities, there are about 380 student organizations on campus, so there are plenty of ways to stay busy with everything from the school newspaper to the exclusive Student Concert Committee.
With over 31,000 undergraduates roaming the Purdue campus, pinpointing the typical student is no easy task. As one junior studying communications explains, “People think that Purdue students are either farming people or engineering students and that's it, no in-between.” The consensus around campus is that these stereotypes don’t hold up. Still, a large majority of students are white, and three-quarters of the population hail from within Indiana, so it’s safe to say that the student body generally ends up reflecting the state’s mores. “When it comes to politics, Purdue, and Indiana as a whole, is pretty seriously conservative,” notes a senior from California. “I think a lot of students have leftist notions, particularly when it comes to wanting change, but we're often hesitant to push against the norm and actually fight for it.”
Socially, the Greek scene reigns supreme at Purdue. “One other great thing about Purdue is the Greek life,” writes a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. “Being Greek is big at Purdue. A lot of people ‘rush’ sororities and fraternities, and there are countless Greek houses on campus.” In fact, with 41 fraternities and 21 sororities, 16% of the men and 17% of women on campus end up going Greek. While that may not seem overwhelming in terms of percentages, when one accounts for the size of the student body, Purdue is home to one of the largest Greek systems in the country. Though much of the school’s debauchery occurs within the context of Greek organizations, that doesn’t mean that students have to join up to have a productive social life at Purdue. For some students, the party routine gets old after sophomore year. “After that, you feel a little old at these parties,” says one senior who has supposedly never even set foot in a sorority house. Still, she seems to enjoy the alternatives: “Last weekend, I went to the bars with a group of friends…you can go to a movie or to the hookah bar…You could also go to see a local band play.”
In many ways, Purdue might seem like a very large experiment: what happens when you cram 31,000 college kids into West Lafayette, a locale that might be entirely nondescript if not for the presence of the university? As one student explains, “The university defines West Lafayette, and instills it with (often dubious) character.” Reflective of the larger Purdue experience, the general consensus is that town offers a number of opportunities for those who make an effort to take advantage of them.
