Purdue’s Location: Where Is the University?

Getty Purdue is located in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Purdue University is located in West Lafayette, Indiana and is nestled on 2,468 acres, per US News. The school has an enrollment of 43,411 students, per Purdue University.

Purdue has a rich history with the school hosting its first class in 1874. Here are a few notable facts about Purdue from the school’s website.

HOME TO:

Three of the world’s TOP500 supercomputers (Rice, Conte, and Carter).
23 NASA astronauts – including the first and most recent men on the moon.
The largest university-affiliated incubation park in the U.S.
4 Nobel Prize Laureates, 2 World Food Prize Laureates, and 3 National Medal of Technology and Innovation Laureates.

IN ADDITION, PURDUE:

Ranks fourth in the nation among top public universities in the U.S. (Wall Street Journal).
Has more than 400 study abroad opportunities for students in 60 countries.
Conducts more than 2,000 undergraduate research projects across campus each year.
Is a welcoming campus, with Purdue among only 7% of U.S. colleges with an LGBTQ Center. Campus Pride Index has awarded Purdue an LGBTQ campus rating of 4/5 stars.
Has generated 131 licensing deals, 178 U.S. and global patents, and 25 start-ups. The Big 10 average number of start-ups is 6.
Is located in an excellent place to live and work—Forbes ranked Greater Lafayette as the #2 best small place for business and careers.

Purdue’s alumni include Drew Brees, Jim Gaffigan, Herman Cain, Neil Armstrong and Orville Redenbacher. US News detailed some of Purdue’s top programs.

Purdue is made up of 13 schools and colleges, many of which serve both undergraduate and graduate students. Professional and graduate programs include the well-ranked College of Engineering, Krannert School of Management, College of Education and College of Pharmacy. Purdue’s esteemed School of Aeronautics and Astronautics within the College of Engineering has acquired the nickname “Cradle of Astronauts.”

What Is a Boilermaker?

Purdue’s athletic teams are known as the Boilermakers and the mascot is the Boilermaker Special, a vehicle that looks like a 19th-century steam engine. What is a Boilermaker and how did the school get its nickname? The name dates back to the late 1800s and how a newspaper described some of their rivalry matchups with Wabash College, per Boilermakers.org.

Wabash students and the people of Crawfordsville were devastated by the defeat…One newspaper reporter wrote this line: “A blacksmith they had would come into the Wabash boys like a mogul engine and the more they choked him the happier he seemed to be.”

Over the next few years, Purdue’s reputation did not dim, and when their team gave Wabash College a 44-0 drubbing in 1891, the local press wrote wildly about the carnage. One sports writer for the Daily Argus headlined his story “Slaughter of Innocents,” with the line under that reading, “Wabash Snowed Completely Under by the Burly Boiler Makers from Purdue.”

Purdue’s basketball team was named national champions in 1932 by the Helms Athletic Foundation. This predates the first NCAA tournament that was held in 1939. Purdue also has national championships in men’s golf (1961), women’s basketball (1999), women’s golf (2010) and cheerleading (2018).