Purdue vs ERAU for NROTC

MammaBear

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My son has the option of attending Purdue or Embry Riddle on a 4yr NROTC scholarship. He wants to major in Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering and since USMA does not offer Aerospace Engineering he is declining his appointment. Any one have any information I can share in our discussion tonight? He needs to have a decision by next week.
 
Has he visited both Purdue and ERAU yet?
If not, I would do my best to get him to both places to finalize an informed decision.

It sounds to me that his first love is AE, and if so, it would be more difficult for him to deal with USMA's plebe year in a major that he is not as enthusiastic about.

Both ERAU and Purdue are well known for AE. Purdue has more public name recognition and they have Cessna and Beechcraft not far away recruiting from there.
 
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.
 
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I started my Masters at Riddle the programs there are amazing. Is he looking at Daytona or Prescott campus? I was at Daytona so happy to share info about the area if you want to PM. One of my DS's best friends is going to Riddle she is still waiting to see if offered one of the last 3 board results otherwise she plans to show up ready to pass everything in hopes of getting scholarship. My parents still live there in Daytona. If he want's flight training have him go to the other smaller schools since about 1/3 of Riddle costs.
 
Thank you for all the feedback. He has chosen to attend Embry Riddle in Daytona. He is excited about it!!!!!

As you may know ERAU is a very good STEM heavy program. He is in very good hands as that program produces high quality Officers! Congratulations.
 
Probably too late to give you an answer, but my son toured both ERAU (Daytona) and Purdue. His major is Professional Pilot. He didnt care for ERAU as it seem to be very regimented as if was part of the military already. He chose Purdue and loves it. It also doesnt help that ERAU has virtually no girls on campus and Daytona wasn't very appealing. I am sure others will say that ERAU is completely the opposite although not about the women on campus.. Everyone has a difference perspective. My son is currently in AF ROTC so it not like he doesnt like the military but Purdue is your basic Big Ten college and all that goes with it. It will be more of your typical college experience compared to ERAU. Not everyone is of course looking for that. The other issue with Purdue is that its not that hard of a school to get into for Engineering, but its a ***** to stay in the program as they have weed classes they make lots of the kids change majors. His best friend (known him since little league) happens to be his roommate at Purdue, is a Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering major at Purdue tells my son that its real tough.
 
....but Purdue is your basic Big Ten college and all that goes with it.

That's not true at all. Most of the Big 10 schools have football teams that are worthy enough to be playing Divison I football. That can't be said for Purdue. ;)
 
Funny. We root for Stanford at my house even if he goes to Purdue. Purdue at least had Drew Brees, Len Dawson and Bob Griese play there

That's not true at all. Most of the Big 10 schools have football teams that are worthy enough to be playing Divison I football. That can't be said for Purdue. ;)
 
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