My son was awarded a 4yr NROTC to Purdue as well and accepted into the FYE -First Year Engineering-program hoping to be a AE major and be on the flying team, has his PPL. He goal is to be a naval aviator and Purdue has a huge success rate in pumping out cadets into their pilot programs. He was turned down by the USNA however received an appointment to to the USAFA. We have been to Purdue several times. I can tell you we toured Iowa State, the USNA, the USAFA, University of Illinois and Purdue majoring in AE. He applied and was accepted to ER too however his first choice for NROTC was Purdue. Purdue has a top ranked NROTC program. Their labs are first class and their facilities and faculties top notch with professors still teaching the classes like the SAs and that most TAs take over at other universities. You cannot go wrong with either college or NROTC program. Purdue has a CO and XO typically with strong Naval officers. The NROTC program at Purdue also hires tutors to assist their cadets and the cadets will clean the stadium every Sunday afternoon after games to raise $ for their programs. The town and campus are beautiful. The main thing you will need to remember is ER automatically enrolls students into their AE program where as Purdue's freshman in engineering all fall into the FYE program until spring. Where later if they are accepted into the AE major/program, it's competitive for slots and their GPA is highly a consideration for AE and other highly competitive engineering majors so it is not a guarantee. The other is I connected my son with a Purdue NROTC AE cadet I found on FB. He took the time to talk to my son about the program, flying, his commission to the pilot program he was awarded and also AE. He said when he was a freshman 300 kids were in AE and now as a senior only 30 are left. He told him it is a tough but worthy major. The other is Purdue doesn't give NROTC kids a discount for room and board and ER does along with merit scholarships which would have had my son attending ER for no cost. Purdue does not give any help or discounts for R&B for NROTC and they rarely doll out any merit scholarships. Purdue R&B runs between $10-12K a year. I know as we have researched and as he is making his selection between NROTC at Purdue or the USAFA that the NROTC program at Purdue is highly comparable to the AE program at the SA. We visited the USAFA last weekend and I sent my son to Purdue just today with his dad to review it all over again, talk to NROTC and it's cadets, get tours, view the dorms, flying team etc. It is highly worth the cost and trip to visit if you can. My son's dream college has always been Purdue and he has always wanted to be part of the Navy thus his confusion with the USAFA for a choice. He cannot go wrong either way but I have a strong feeling he will chose Purdue NROTC and that is fine with me.