They toured campus, talked to female engineers and engineering students, visited labs and met professors. Purdue has more than 6,000 female engineering graduates, tops among U.S. engineering schools. About 20 percent of its engineering majors are women.
Engineers hold a career day for interested high school girls and their parents.
I haven't decided which school I want to go to, but I like mechanical engineering and transportation. Women engineers are in great demand, are well paid and have nearly unlimited opportunities, said Patrice Bertsch, a 1976 Purdue engineering grad who is an environmental program manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Cincinnati. Many high school girls who are good in science and mathematics are intimidated by the idea of an engineering career, she said. It is hard enough for people to figure out what an engineer is. We don't drive the train.