Early Start - West Lafayette

What is Early Start?

Early Start is a 5-week summer program run by Purdue’s Office of Summer and Winter Sessions built to provide incoming Purdue students with college readiness opportunities, such as becoming familiar with campus, taking classes to jumpstart degree progress, and finding a community, all before the hustle and bustle of their first regular fall semester.

 The transition from high school to college is challenging. Purdue started the Early Start Program to foster a sense of belonging in students, prepare them for the academic rigor of Purdue, and ensure they hit the ground running in the fall of their freshman year. Since then, Purdue students have felt more prepared academically with a boost to GPA, more aware of the support available to them as students, with knowledge of all of Purdue’s resources, and more integrated into the student life at Purdue by spending the summer with a tight-knit community of peers, all of whom are practicing being successful Purdue students through Early Start.

Over the 5 weeks of the program, students work with their assigned peer mentor, an upperclassman student trained to help guide incoming freshmen to a path of success at Purdue using their own experience to give relevant, specific guidance. Peer mentors come from different programs all over Purdue, and every Early Start student has access to all the peer mentors during the summer for a wide variety of experiences to utilize on their path to college readiness. The relationship students build with their peer mentor as they navigate college life and begin to network among their new community really underscores the mission of Early Start: to ensure that all students connect, thrive, and feel like they belong at Purdue.

Need help? Contact Think Summer for assistance.