evolution

it started on thursday morning after my calculus class. i drove home to eudora and met up with my dad, who had taken half of thursday off. we left for the kansas city airport three and a half hours before our flight was to leave, intending to get something to eat along the way. we didn’t, so we were about two and a half hours early. the northwest airlines ticket agent, however, offered to get us an earlier flight, one that was to leave in half an hour, so we jumped on it. we lost one of those hours due to bad weather in minneapolis (where we were to connect to indianapolis) and another navigating the confusing (at least to a neophyte) one-way streets of west lafayette.

we actually rolled into west lafayette at around 10:00pm, and in the process of getting lost we managed to see most of campus (albeit at night). purdue has many large buildings located closely together, and nearly all of the buildings are built of the same dark red brick, a la a new york city brownstone. the campus as a whole was very well-kept, and nearly a self-contained unit - purdue has an airport and a hotel right on campus. our room was quite nice (and cost us $12 for two nights - the only reason it cost that much was the fact that dad was with me, nearly all of my needs were taken care of on the purdue math department’s dime).

the town itself is actually an amalgam of two towns - lafayette and west lafayette. west lafayette is basically purdue university’s campus, with some apartment buildings and businesses thrown in for good measure, while lafayette actually predates purdue university’s foundation (under the same land grant act by which k-state was founded). both are neat old communities with a lot to offer, and similar in nature to the places i’ve lived. unlike manhattan, however, lafayette has a well-developed bus system. the city gets a cut of the student privilege fee so that purdue students may use the bus at no additional charge.

the mathematics department at purdue is generally excellent. the faculty seem to get very involved in the educations of their students, and they demand quite a lot of them as well. of course, the student is expected to provide most of the motivation for his or her education, but the faculty seem to recognize those who do and they seem to do a good job of guiding them along. the department’s building is old but well-kept, and there seems to be enough space for everyone.

all in all, i really liked the city, the campus, and especially the department and its faculty. i am thinking of accepting their offer, but i will wait a few days to be sure i am not contacted by anyone else. i doubt anyone will make an offer that can match what purdue offers.