Purdue University - Main Campus Data & Information Overview

Want the scoop on Purdue University - Main Campus? We've put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors Purdue offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more. All you need to do to learn more about a stat is click on its tile, and you'll be taken to another page that analyzes that data more closely. Also, you can use the links below to scroll to any section of this page.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning
• Related Schools

How Well Is Purdue University - Main Campus Ranked?

2021 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Purdue University - Main Campus was awarded 209 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is engineering technologies.

Overall Quality

Purdue landed the #84 spot in College Factual's 2021 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 1,715 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation.

Purdue also holds the #4 spot on the Best Colleges in Indiana ranking.

See all of the rankings for Purdue University - Main Campus.

Is It Hard to Get Into Purdue?

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at Purdue University - Main Campus is a competitive 57%, so make sure you take your application seriously when putting it together. Even leaving out a minor detail could be a reason to move you to the rejection pile.

Average Test Scores

About 69% of students accepted to Purdue submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 570 and 670. Math scores were between 580 and 710.

Purdue received ACT scores from 59% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 25 and 31.

Learn more about Purdue University - Main Campus admissions.

Purdue University - Main Campus Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At Purdue University - Main Campus, this ratio is 13 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Purdue University - Main Campus is 96%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Purdue University - Main Campus

Freshmen Retention Rate

Purdue University - Main Campus has a freshmen retention rate of 91%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Purdue the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 47%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Purdue University - Main Campus.

Excellent Overall Diversity at Purdue

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 33,735 undergraduates at Purdue with 31,849 being full-time and 1,886 being part-time.

Purdue Diversity Score

For each college and university, College Factual calculates an overall diversity score that takes four factors into account: gender, ethnicity, age, and home location of the student. Then, the schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest.

With an overall score of 89.61 out of 100, Purdue is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Purdue University - Main Campus.

How Much Does Purdue University - Main Campus Cost?

The overall average net price of Purdue is $12,527. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Purdue

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$4,855	$4,923	$8,420	$16,012	$20,546

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Purdue, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Purdue, approximately 34% of students took out student loans averaging $7,894 a year. That adds up to $31,576 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Purdue is 2.3%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Purdue University - Main Campus.

How Much Money Do Purdue Graduates Make?

Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Purdue with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $55,100 in their early years. That's great news for Purdue students since it is 38% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

See which majors at Purdue University - Main Campus make the most money.

Location of Purdue University - Main Campus

Purdue University - Main Campus is a public institution situated in West Lafayette, Indiana. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

Get more details about the location of Purdue University - Main Campus.

Contact details for Purdue are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	Hovde Hall Of Administration, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2040
Phone:	765-494-4600
Website:	https://www.purdue.edu
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/PurdueUniversity
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/LifeAtPurdue

Purdue University - Main Campus Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 116 majors graduated from Purdue University - Main Campus. Of these students, 7,616 received undergraduate degrees and 3,270 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors	Bachelor’s Degrees	Average Salary of Graduates
Computer Science	418	$84,800
Mechanical Engineering	363	$69,200
Business Administration & Management	300	$53,700
Mechanical Engineering Technology	268	$59,300
Industrial Engineering	249	$68,900
Finance & Financial Management	246	$40,000
Electrical Engineering	229	$65,900
Computer Engineering	206	$71,600
Child Development & Psychology	187	$28,700
Computer Information Systems	183	$65,800

Learn more about the majors offered at Purdue University - Main Campus along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Purdue

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2017-2018, 9,238 students took at least one online class at Purdue University - Main Campus. This is an increase from the 7,841 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	9,238	2,597
2016-2017	7,841	2,494
2015-2016	7,085	2,108
2014-2015	6,346	1,891
2013-2014	5,371	1,448

Learn more about online learning at Purdue University - Main Campus.

Related Schools

If you’re considering Purdue University - Main Campus, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

• Oklahoma State University - Main Campus
• Pennsylvania State University - University Park
• The University of Tennessee - Knoxville
• University of Florida
• Virginia Tech

Curious on how these schools stack up against Purdue? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Abhijitsathe under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.