Decision brief · College of Science

For fall 2027 entry · researched Sept. 25, 2026

A direct answer for Case

This is AI,
not “AI engineering.”

At Purdue Indianapolis, the exact program is a Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence, housed in the College of Science’s Department of Computer Science. It blends computing, math, cognition and ethics in one 120-credit degree.

BS degree120 creditsDowntown IndianapolisDirect-to-major application
Editorial illustration of an artificial-intelligence processor connected to an urban street grid
Computing at the center of an urban campus — an editorial illustration.
01 / Academic shape

Four threads, one degree

The published plan is unusually interdisciplinary. Every major core or elective course requires a C or higher; the catalog details below should be reconfirmed because the live catalog blocked research access.

Build the systems

  • CS 176 Data Engineering in Python
  • CS 180 Object-Oriented Programming
  • CS 253 Data Structures & Algorithms for DS/AI
  • CS 381 Analysis of Algorithms

Learn the intelligence

  • CS 243 Artificial Intelligence Basics
  • CS 373 Data Mining & Machine Learning
  • CS 471 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
  • SELECTIVES Visualization, large-scale analytics or web search

Master the math

  • Calculus I, II and multivariate calculus
  • Linear algebra
  • Probability and statistics
  • Introduction to data science

Understand people & consequences

  • Elementary and cognitive psychology or behavioral neuroscience
  • Ethics of technology or data science
  • Philosophy of science or technology
  • Science writing and presentation

What CS 471 actually covers: heuristic search, knowledge representation, expert systems, game playing, machine learning, computer vision, planning and neural networks. Purdue CS

Capstone caveat: the reviewed AI plan did not show an explicitly named capstone or senior-project requirement. Advanced CS inventory includes NLP, statistical machine learning and robotics, but Purdue should confirm which count toward this degree in Indianapolis. Degree plan

From the Sept. 25 Indianapolis info session (auto-generated transcript, so verify specifics): the AI major was described as code-heavy and the only AI degree in the College of Science at Indianapolis. It shares CS core courses (object-oriented programming, Foundations of Computer Science, data structures and algorithms), adds statistics, and rounds out with human-science courses chosen by CS faculty. Elementary psychology comes first, then intro behavioral neuroscience taught by Liberal Arts faculty, with examples tied back to AI, such as how neurons firing resembles large language models. Foundations of CS (logic and discrete math) is not in the course list above, so confirm which course number applies. Every Purdue student also completes an AI competency. On capstones: Data Science ends with a faculty-mentored research capstone and CS uses tracks, but the session did not say what the AI degree ends with.

02 / Application

The five-week runway

The application is open. Early Action is the practical target: it is tied to merit-scholarship and Honors College consideration.

Aug. 1Application opened

Common App for fall 2027 admission.

Nov. 1, 2026Early Action

Deadline is 11:59 p.m. Eastern. Merit scholarship and Honors deadline too.

Jan. 15, 2027EA decision / Regular deadline

Early Action decision date and final Regular Decision deadline.

Mar. 31, 2027Regular decisions

Purdue says decisions are released by this date.

Important nuance: Purdue’s published priority/space-limited list names Computer Science, but not Artificial Intelligence (Science). That is not a promise that AI is easy to enter—Purdue still reviews applicants holistically and against available space. Live deadline page

1

Choose the exact major

Select Indianapolis as the campus and “Artificial Intelligence (Science)” as the major. Purdue admits to individual majors.

2

Submit by Nov. 1

The $60 application is nonrefundable. Indianapolis applicants by Early Action are automatically considered for Indy Scholars (minimum $10,000/year, renewable with a 3.00 GPA).

3

Send a test score

Purdue describes itself as test-flexible and expects SAT or ACT scores. Confirm the current policy directly; school codes are SAT 1631 and ACT 1230.

4

Make the essays specific

Use the live Common App prompts. Purdue’s prompts can change; connect interest in AI to this curriculum and the urban Indianapolis setting.

Indiana resident check: ask Brownsburg High School whether Case has the Enrollment Honors Plus Seal. Purdue says qualifying Indiana graduates need a complete application—including SAT, ACT or CLT—by Nov. 1 for the associated resident-admission path. First-year criteria

03 / Indianapolis edge

Career infrastructure is already real

The AI degree is young and Indianapolis-specific results are not published, but students do have a downtown career office, internship-for-credit, co-op routes and employer events.

Engineering, Science & Tech Connect

The September 2025 Indianapolis career fair brought together more than 640 Purdue students and more than 60 employers. Cummins drew the most student interest, with 155 students.

640+students
60+employers

Purdue Indianapolis

Ways into work

  • Career + Experience Collaboration Hub and a downtown Center for Career Opportunities office.
  • Internship-for-credit: major-related, at least 10 weeks / 200 hours.
  • Co-op, Interns for Indiana, EPICS and VIP pathways.
  • Guaranteed Work Experience program: 600+ enrolled as of the cited 2026 update.

CCO · Professional Practice · Work Experience

2024

A new campus

Purdue Indianapolis launched July 1, 2024 after the IUPUI split, retaining engineering, computer science and technology programs. IPM

2027

A building due

A 248,000-square-foot, $187 million Academic Success Building—with labs, classrooms, dining and housing—is targeted for completion in 2027. IPM

?

AI labs unverified

Research did not identify Indianapolis-specific AI labs, GPU resources or confirmed access to Purdue’s RCAC clusters. Ask directly.

Heard at the Sept. 25 session: staff said Indianapolis students are ahead of their West Lafayette counterparts on internships, and that some in the first Indianapolis cohort were already on a second or third internship by junior year. That is an anecdote, not published data, so ask for numbers. Study abroad runs from a one-week trip to a full year, with a three-week winter session, and the main destination mentioned was the UK in or near London.

04 / Campus choice

Indianapolis vs. West Lafayette

The AI BS is a Purdue College of Science degree at both locations. The campus experience and surrounding options differ more than the name on the degree.

Indianapolis

URBAN + NEW
  • Downtown proximity to tech, advanced manufacturing, pharma and biotech employers.
  • Smaller, newer campus environment with expanding facilities.
  • AI (Science) is not currently on Purdue’s published priority/space-limited list.
  • No major-level acceptance or placement rate published.
  • Per the Sept. 25 info session, the College of Science here also offers Computer Science (Machine Intelligence and Software Engineering tracks) and Data Science.

West Lafayette

FLAGSHIP + BROADER
  • Larger CS faculty and research-lab footprint.
  • Same AI BS, plus a Liberal Arts AI BA. Indianapolis staff described that one as more theoretical, with less coding, and offered only at West Lafayette.
  • Computer Science is on the priority/space-limited list.
  • Same Common App, dates, holistic review and direct-to-major model.

Do not overread outcomes: Purdue CS reports 90%+ employed or in graduate school within a year, but the figure is for its May 2014 class—not this AI major or the Indianapolis campus. No AI-specific placement rate or salary was found. Purdue CS outcomes

05 / Ask while you’re there

Five questions that close the gaps

These are the facts Purdue’s public pages did not settle.

What computing resources can Indianapolis AI undergraduates actually use?

Ask specifically about GPU labs, cloud credits, and access to Rosen Center for Advanced Computing community clusters.

Is there a capstone, research requirement or team project in this degree?

The reviewed degree plan did not name a capstone. Ask what every student builds before graduating and whether CS 407 can count.

Which advanced AI electives are offered in Indianapolis?

Ask whether NLP (CS 577), Statistical Machine Learning (CS 578) and Robotics (CS 458) count toward the AI BS and run in person downtown.

How do AP and dual credits land?

Confirm articulation into CS 180 and Calculus I, especially for AP Computer Science A, AP Calculus and any Brownsburg dual-credit courses.

What happened to the first Indianapolis AI cohorts?

Ask for the most recent internship employers, first-destination results, average starting salary and graduate-school destinations—even if unpublished. At the info session, staff said Indianapolis students are ahead of West Lafayette peers on internships, so ask them to back that up with employers and counts.

Primary reading

Purdue Indianapolis undergraduate majors ↗ Artificial Intelligence (Science) major ↗ 2024–25 AI degree plan (PDF) ↗ First-year deadlines ↗ First-year admission criteria ↗ Purdue Indianapolis application guidance ↗ CS 471 course topics ↗ Indianapolis career groundwork ↗

Research was completed Sept. 25, 2026. The admissions-deadlines page was read live and listed “last modified July 15, 2026.” Other facts were available through indexed official-source text where direct pages were inaccessible. Curriculum details should be reconfirmed with Purdue because the catalog returned HTTP 403 during research. No AI-major-specific Indianapolis outcomes were published.