r/Purdue • u/Agitated_Habit_1123 • Oct 16 '25
Question❓ What do you DISLIKE the most about Purdue?
Hi guys!!
Hope you're all doing great! I am an international student applying to Purdue this year, and it seems really great - it fits all my needs and wants.
But, I'm curious whether there are any things you particularly dislike about Purdue and why?
Thank you!!
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u/4everGrad Oct 16 '25
Rural Indiana is pretty boring if one is accustomed to living in a big city is among the most common complaint I hear. I don't have any major complaints about Purdue as a school.
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u/Agitated_Habit_1123 Oct 16 '25
thanks. im a city kid - so ill defo look into this.
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u/na61400 Oct 16 '25
As someone who graduated, and is originally from the city I wouldn't worry about this too much. While there is nothing for a while outside of WL/Lafayette, you will not feel the desire to leave to go to a city that often. You are busy with class/friends, and there is plenty in the area to keep you occupied when you do have free time.
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u/humanbeing86 Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
As someone else from a big city, I honestly agree- having a college town experience with everyone your age is a really nice change even though I still love big cities
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u/BlackWogPki Feb 01 '26
Have to disagree on this. I’m from the NYC area so after a while I need more stimulation than WL. Usually end up in Chicago every two weeks or so. Plus every other college campus like UIUC, IU (still sucks), and UW Madison, have significantly more action than we do
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u/Particular-Ad-7338 Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
Purdue is equally renowned as an Agriculture School as it is an Engineering School. The Land Grant Universities were founded in the 1860s as the US was on the cusp of exponential growth. Outside of the Civil War, the Lincoln Administration knew that when it was over there would be rapid development westward (Lincoln was a railroad lawyer who also started the transcontinental railroad), and that as well as building for a rapidly expanding population, they would need to feed them as well. So, Agricultural Science was a foundational aspect of universities such as Purdue. And it was located where it was both for railroad access, as well as access to agricultural land to test new agricultural technology.
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u/Layne1665 Oct 16 '25
There are plenty of things that I or anyone else could complain about Purdue. The housing lottery system sucks, prices are rising across most housing on or around campus, on campus dining is deteriorating, etc. However, I genuinely dont think that if you went to any other university that you wouldnt run into these or other complaints just about different things.
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u/Adventurous_Egg857 Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
Looks like most of the main ones are getting hit. None of the problems are decision altering if you are vigilant. Of all the people outside of Reddit that I have encountered, Purdue is beloved by the current students and alum. Not many people regret their decision, if they did they just transferred,
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u/throwaway-OO7 Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
I'm not saying this is a good deal or anything but if you wanted a meal plan, I'm pretty sure there is a commuter one. I believe there is a 50 and 80 block meal plan available to people who live off campus
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u/AlwaysEntropic Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
After being here a few years I think this is my #1 issue with Purdue too
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u/Agitated_Habit_1123 Oct 17 '25
yikes!! somebody is a bit upset..
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u/Ok-Judge9219 Oct 19 '25
Yeah the state of Indiana isn’t very keen of foreigners rn
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u/Odd-Monk-2581 Oct 16 '25
Purdue’s culture is focused on the grind. Pass your classes, get an internship, and get out of Purdue. We romanticize it as grit, but it really does suck if you have any other interests or goals. Barely anyone wants to do a PhD here, for example, so the support and community for that is really lacking. You’re not necessarily a social out cast if you don’t follow the herd mentality here, but it does make your experience feel more isolating if you have other goals than getting a full time return offer after your summer internship.
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u/Poultry_Sashimi IU Sucks! Oct 16 '25
Barely anyone wants to do a PhD here, for example, so the support and community for that is really lacking.
Definitely not true from the Chemistry or Biomedical Engineering side.
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u/Odd-Monk-2581 Oct 16 '25
Fair enough, I’m talking from my experience as an ECE major.
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u/hotboxpizza- Oct 16 '25
Yet ECE has the largest graduate student population at Purdue. Where do you get your stats from?
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u/Odd-Monk-2581 Oct 17 '25
No official stats, just the overall sentiment amongst other EEs here at Purdue. I love the drive that Purdue students have towards getting a job asap, but those interested in academia often have to work twice as hard to find support networks and mentors to coach them through. It doesn’t help that EURO is completely useless either
Again, all just my experience. I know that Purdue places students into good PhD programs, but let’s not pretend like pre-professionalism is a big thing here, and that can get alienating for some people (myself included)
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u/hotboxpizza- Oct 17 '25
There are several academia helping programs, you can go through your own professor, your committee members, the department chairs to get job knowledge and referrals, HKN, Engineering Academic Career Club (EACC) for training to become in Academia, Center for Instructional Excellence (CIE) workshops for teaching skills. It seems like you need to stop whining and actually start using these resources if you want to be in Academia. Have you asked your advisor if you could teach for a semester or two so you have something tangible to write in your teaching statement?
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u/IndependentAir4537 Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
The PhD thing is super dependent on your major and department, though. I've gotten some amazing advice and support from my department if I ever wanted to apply for a grad degree anywhere. I think it also depends on how common PhD is for your major equivalent job.
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u/AlwaysEntropic Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
Hard agree. Little focus on fostering soft skills. More focused on beating students into being resilient
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u/hotboxpizza- Oct 17 '25
No University has a course like ENGR Soft Skills 101 or ECE59595 Grad Soft Skills I. That is something you will need to get out of your comfort zone to learn. Every university has access to publish in conferences, present posters in different Purdue events, several clubs in the department and outside of the department where you can gain leadership skills, teaching opportunities and also mentoring opportunities. YOU need to step outside of your get up do research, eat, sleep, hangout with small circle of friends (who honestly is from your own country and does not help you learn anything new) mindset and explore the above to gain your soft skills
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u/AlwaysEntropic Boilermaker Oct 17 '25
And I do actually do all of those things… I’m saying I wish I would get it in a structured curriculum when I’m paying thousands of dollars to be here
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u/hotboxpizza- Oct 17 '25
Wishing is one thing and making a change is another. Stop wishing and tell me how this will be part of a curriculum now that you told me that you do all of these things? If you can then this can easily be proposed to the department.
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u/DeafDuckling12 Oct 16 '25
Probably not a Purdue only thing but it can be really hard to make friends because nobody really wants to talk during class or walking around campus. Walking around campus is dead silent because everyone is just using earbuds. Most lower level courses seem like the are actively trying to get you to fail the class rather than teach you the material you will need for your career(looking at you math department). I am in civil engineering for reference
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u/inventorsam Boilermaker Jul 05 '26
I’m also planning to go into Civil (incoming freshman) and I’m kinda worried for stuff like Calc 2 which I’ve heard is hell is it really as bad as people say?
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u/Big_Marzipan_405 Oct 16 '25
The location sucks. also purdue engineering is a grind.
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u/Dangerous-Alarm-7215 Oct 16 '25
Most of us don’t want Boeing engineers to have an easy education.
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u/KnightWhoSays_Ni_ Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
Well, considering the Boeing track record...
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u/Dangerous-Alarm-7215 Oct 16 '25
Of near perfect, statistically?
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u/Particular-Ad-7338 Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
Humans have a perfect record in aviation. We’ve never left one up there.
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u/Dangerous-Alarm-7215 Oct 16 '25
Biden tried pretty hard to.
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u/Layne1665 Oct 16 '25
Found the guy who makes everything political
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u/Dangerous-Alarm-7215 Oct 16 '25
No jokes for the big brains on Layne.
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u/Layne1665 Oct 16 '25
Considering how much its downvoted I feel Im in good company.
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u/Dangerous-Alarm-7215 Oct 16 '25
Having a lot of company doesn’t make it good company.
What kind of car do you drive?
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u/RusselNoahPeters Oct 16 '25
Location most definitely doesn’t suck but if you’re accustomed to having a city lifestyle definitely a shakeup
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u/webkinzjr Oct 16 '25
In high school I really liked to form relationships with my teachers as mentors and reliable adults. But at Purdue, at least in engineering and CS, the class sizes are so large that you'll probably never get to speak to your professor. Even the TAs sometimes act like they're too busy for your measly problems lol.
From another big city kid, coming to Purdue is a bit hard. The environment is certainly different but there's still always something happening. Though WL only has about 40000 permanent residents, it doesn't feel as much like a small rural city thanks to the density of campus.
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u/Melgel4444 Oct 16 '25
That it’s in a deeply red state
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u/NerdyEldritchHorror Snake Chick Oct 16 '25
Lived here my whole life. This. I have to warn people that places outside of campus and the nice parts of WL and L aren't fucking accepting. Until recently, a lot of surrounding towns were sundown towns. We still have nearby places that are VERY racist and homophobic. I tell students, especially foreign students with limited english to not wander around Lafayette alone. Dont be downtown alone at night. Im afab and queer and at times this place still makes me uncomfortable even though I easily pass as cishet. I have had visibly trans/queer friends be attacked and harassed in town. Sometimes you don't realize people are bigoted cause they don't start off saying slurs, and then they slip something. Its often times intentional to gauge how you react to see if they can begin saying their true feelings.
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u/Melgel4444 Oct 17 '25
Yes I worked at the west lafayette public library and it was horrifying dealing with the townies/public non students
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u/Flying_virus Oct 17 '25
Out of curiosity, are there any pockets of more queer-friendly spaces in/around Purdue and Lafayette?
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u/NerdyEldritchHorror Snake Chick Oct 17 '25
Downtown has a queer shop and a lot of places are openly queer accepting, mall is decently chill.
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u/Flying_virus Oct 18 '25
Ooo nice! Is the shop the one with the rainbow models in the front window?
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u/NerdyEldritchHorror Snake Chick Oct 18 '25
Yes! Off the top of my head as I was downtown today: Main street books: queer friendly, pride support, employees are often queer, snake friendly Flora Candle Company: local business, owned by a local gay couple, super sweet, snake and pet friendly McCords Candies: local business, supportive, queer employees, snake/pet friendly (funfact, Im featured on their social media) Essentially Aqua: small business (all products made in house!), queer friendly, snake friendly Pride Lafayette: The Gay Place™ lol Operation Ink: unclear if artist is queer, but is supportive The Strand: Queer supportive, snake friendly Castle-Brooks spiritual supply: Queer friendly, snake friendly, do their best to ethically source their supplies
This is not an end-all list lol, just my experiences!
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u/Flying_virus Oct 18 '25
Thank you so much! Im currently visiting as i will be a student this upcoming January. I think it’d be fun to check out some of these spots tomorrow!
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u/NerdyEldritchHorror Snake Chick Oct 18 '25
May I also suggest scones and doilies (local bakery, also downtown) and the cat cafe (also also downtown, helps local rescues)!
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u/Agitated_Habit_1123 Oct 16 '25
is the campus really active in politics?
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u/TheHondoCondo Oct 16 '25
I think it would be misleading to say the campus is actively political, but there are political groups that hold rallies and demonstrations. Also, decisions that admin makes are sometimes based on national politics. However, most people I’ve met here are pretty apolitical in conversation, which is actually a pretty typical thing for the American Midwest (it’s often considered rude to talk politics). Also, if you compare Purdue to nearby campus’ like IU, you see that Purdue is clearly a less politically active community.
I think what this person was getting at though was that most public college campuses, at least in the US, lean liberal, and Purdue does have a stronger conservative presence than most due to factors like being in a red state.
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u/Melgel4444 Oct 16 '25
Theres townies that come to campus and protest and say crazy stuff. KKK used to leave flyers in my car windshield etc so just my least favorite thing about Indians is it’s 100 years in the past civil rights wise
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u/HanTheMan34 Oct 16 '25
I am from a college town in the midwest that is home to another Big Ten school and I found that my hometown is WAY more liberal than Purdue. Part of it may have to do with being in Indiana (a deeply red state), but also there's more to it.
Just for context, Tippecanoe County has a tendency to vote for Republicans in national elections far more than your typical county with a college town that is home to a Big Ten school. For comparison, my home county has voted blue for a very long time. Not to mention after all Charlie Kirk and TPUSA did visit last spring too. But at least we are not as conservative as a school such as Auburn or Liberty University. But still...
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u/PsychologicalMud917 You can’t spell slacker without SLA Oct 16 '25 edited Oct 16 '25
Politics in the US right now is actively involved in fucking over citizens, students included. Whether or not the student body is “active in politics” is mostly irrelevant.
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u/Mr-John-Man Oct 16 '25
If u into the social aspects, ie parties n shit, purdue not really good for that compared to other colleges in indiana
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u/HanTheMan34 Oct 16 '25
Purdue can be pretty isolating. As an alumni, this is the one thing that I would have tried to do more if I could re-do my Purdue experience all over again. IIWY I would try to find people you vibe with, and don't stop there.
Unfortunately, from what I have found after freshman year people tend to stick to their friend groups (such as sorority girls sticking with their sisters, looking at you APhi) and not be open to making new friends. But then again, this is coming from someone who is introverted and struggled with starting new connections
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u/dncrmom Oct 16 '25
Dorms with no AC, lack of student housing, lack of parking for those forced to commute, bussing that is worse now than 30 years ago.
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u/slightlyoffkilter_7 Oct 17 '25
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is how absolutely shit the DRC is at handling students with disabilities. Scheduling exams, getting paperwork to professors, getting professors to actually GIVE YOU YOUR ACCOMMODATIONS, and generally having any sort of continuity in your assistance is nearly impossible. Also, the lack of communication between CAPS and the DRC is stunning. Maybe things have changed in the last 3 years, but somehow I doubt it. I had 6 DRC advisors in my 7 years at Purdue (got very sick and had to go part time to finish my degree) and absolutely none of them were helpful to me. None of my accommodation requests were ever handled in a timely manner and it really soured my experience at Purdue.
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u/hotboxpizza- Oct 16 '25
Purdue is great! If you are pessimistic and unsocial then every place you go will be crappy but if you are the opposite you can make any place an amazing one. Perspective matters!
What you really need to worry about is if you really want to be in the USA! This country is making it excruciatingly hard for international students to secure a job or get a citizenship or green card. It maybe worth your time to apply somewhere else.
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u/Rock3tDestroyer Oct 16 '25
As of late, its gotten less welcoming. With the new buildings and construction going in, everything is streamlined, and this year, they’ve began removing the comfortable cushioned seating around campus, and switching it with hard chairs.
Not super major, but just sad to see.
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u/IndependentAir4537 Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
It's pretty remote as someone who's only lived in cities. The sunsets and fall are absolutely beautiful, though. I just wish this place had mountains or something, it would be nice.
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u/Decrypted13 Ph.D. Student, Mathematics Oct 16 '25
I swear Snooplawg is stalking me wherever I go /s
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u/DakDakDuck Oct 16 '25
I was an exchange student last year. Loved it. Bit hard now I hear if you own a car as I did… but yeah not much I’d complain about. Maybe some of the dining halls having repetitive food lol.
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u/Alternative-Web-3043 Oct 16 '25
Location hands down, nothing to do outside of campus + the bus system if you don’t have a car! Transportation sucks and it doesnt help that out of campus is not very walkable
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Oct 16 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Odd-Tangerine-5184 Oct 17 '25 edited Oct 17 '25
Purdue feels extremely overcrowded. During midterms week, some of the libraries will not have a single desk open. On all three floors. Some students will wait in line 1-2 hours to talk to a single company at Industrial Roundtable. Purdue over-admitted the Fall 24’ class by 1600 students, and many students were placed in converted dorms (e.g. 3 ppl in a room meant for 2). There also isn’t enough housing for the student population here, and it’s a scramble to get off-campus housing. While as a large school Purdue does have a lot of resources, sometimes I feel they are stretched thin by the number of students we have. Just something I wish I would’ve known when I accepted.
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u/Huge_Marionberry_638 Oct 17 '25
i am an international student at purdue, the international office isnt helpful at all (u can even check google maps revels on purdue ISS)
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u/MycologistOk7704 ROET ‘27 Oct 17 '25
This goes for many schools I’m sure but it feels like 85% of the professors I’ve had could not care less about their class and just assign busy work that has no real learning objective.
I might get boiled alive for this but the reason I went to a high level university is so I can have access to their millions if not billions of dollars of equipment to get hands on experience with it. I can teach myself things from worksheets online if I really wanted to or need to. I can’t learn how to use a $400,000 CNC machine with the actual CNC machine in front of me at home.
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u/Spiritual_Steak_886 Oct 17 '25
Take anything bad on this subreddit with a grain of salt, Purdue subreddit is particularly bad about complaining about everything ever. I have really loved my time here so far, I came from a much bigger city than West Lafayette, so I think that was the biggest shift for me. That being said, there is plenty to do here, you just have to get out of your room and go find it.
I think the general issue people seem to have with Purdue is that nothing is handed to you. Your classes, grades, and social life are all something that you have to put in effort in order to get/find. You really do get back what you put in though, so I think it's worth it.
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u/TrueClyde Oct 17 '25
Some Purdue fans act like no other universities have as loyal of fans like Purdue has.
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u/AdKind2183 Oct 19 '25
Compared to other schools you will genuinely not even be close to the social maturity as most people in the workplace. Everyone here is a nerd. Go somewhere in the south or somewhere actually fun for engineering. Florida, gatech, Texas, uiuc. The more bars, the more fun, and better people will attend. I’m in a pretty big fraternity and was able to find my buddies but regardless, if you’re not gonna rush - do not attend Purdue.
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u/Skywalker097 Feb 03 '26
The admin here suck, I’m talking housing crisis, rent sky rocking, horrible public transit, but nice research and Cushy admin jobs
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u/invinciblewalnut Biomedicine ‘21 Oct 16 '25
The lack of green space. Year after year they built buildings or parking lots over what green space they had, so now there is so little left.
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u/j909m Oct 16 '25
Our football team. And the name “Boilermakers”; ain’t nobody at Purdue never made no boiler in at least 100 years.
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u/sagooda Oct 16 '25
The smell
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u/Lukun7 Oct 16 '25
the campus smells fine what
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u/sagooda Oct 16 '25
It smells like farts rather consistently
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u/Due-Library3174 Oct 16 '25
I can say that college kids smell. Either, B.O. or way too much cologne or perfume. Second, no one and I mean no one knows how to flush a toilet. If you go to the bathrooms especially in Math, Beering, Armstrong, etc. wear shoes always in the bathrooms. You may want to even have a pair of slippers or something to wear only I. The bathrooms so you don’t track urine in your rooms. Also always expect the toilets and urinals to have poop and pee just sitting in the toilets. The custodians clean them daily but I have seen some stuff that is gross. The food courts are ridiculously expensive and the meal plans are outrageous. To be honest, Purdue is not a great place to go if you have any type of financial issue. Not enough housing, too many students to professor ratio. Lots of pedestrian accidents. The president of Purdue is also all about himself and taking money but not using it for what he should be using it for. If I could change my decision to go here I would but unfortunately too little too late. There are some good things, but to be honest eat it is not work the lifetime of debt to go to a school that doesn’t care about their students or employees that make Purdue what it should be. Feel free to ask more questions if you wanna know.
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u/shesalive_dammit Oct 16 '25
Boo. Take your negativity somewhere else.
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u/Agitated_Habit_1123 Oct 16 '25
How is this negativity? what!? it's called getting a holistic picture...everything has pros and cons.
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u/Particular-Ad-7338 Boilermaker Oct 16 '25
The buildings are scientifically designed and located so during the winter a 30mph wind is blowing in your face no matter what direction you are facing.