Purdue Engineering as an International Student

Seunghun Lee is a senior in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue originally from Seoul, South Korea. Below is a recounting of his experiences as an international student at Purdue!

What drew you to Purdue?

            I knew I was going to do engineering throughout high school and I specifically wanted to focus within the aerospace field. I attended high school in Pennsylvania and the local Korean community supported and talked about Purdue a lot, which is how I originally heard about it. I really wanted a school that I felt had a real-world engineering program and saw that at Purdue. I also found something calming about the pastures and wanted to stay around that 😉. 

Did you use any resources on campus geared towards international students?

            If looking for international friends, there are a lot of club meetings and programs that help you meet people from the same country. There’s also a group of American students that host international students for dinner parties to help them learn more about American culture. I’d suggest attending a church or a study group or the like because you have to step out of boundaries. It’s a big school and the opportunities are there, you just have to seek them out. There’s a variety of people and resources around campus.

How did you find a group of friends on campus?

            I was mostly involved in the Korean church group but also attended some other clubs I was interested in for fun, like the League of Legends group. Mostly, though, I found a good group of friends from my group projects or lab classes, like fluids, heat transfer, or controls classes.

Why did you choose to study Mechanical Engineering?

            I knew I wanted to study engineering and was interested in the aerospace department. The mechanical field is broader and I felt it was easier to apply the degree internationally. Many mechanical engineers work in the aerospace field. I’ve noticed that areas like heat and mass transfer or thermodynamics are more overlooked but they were my favorite classes.

            I also got to work on some pretty fun projects through the classes, one of them being the Toy Design Class, where we learned how to design with manufacturing considerations through a 3D software. I actually got to design a custom clamp for one project and a dynamic mechanism for our toy that oscillated alien figurines up and down. Our toy, ‘The First Contact’ is up in the Toy Museum now if you stop by the Mechanical Engineering building!