Engineering Admissions Index (EAI) Calculation Rules

The Engineering Admissions Index (EAI) along with the Grade Point Average (GPA)—and other factors in some cases—are used to determine the competitive admission from First-Year Engineering (FYE) into the Schools of Engineering. Students must have an earned EAI of at least 2.00 to complete FYE and enter a school. Some schools use higher limits.

In general, the EAI is analogous to the GPA, with two important distinctions:

  1. The EAI includes only courses taken to meet FYE requirements
  2. If a student meets an FYE requirement in more than one way, only one way will be used in calculating EAI

The rules presented below apply to students entering Purdue in Fall 2014 and later. Earlier entrants should consult with an FYE Advisor.

Courses included in the EAI

The EAI is determined using earned grades on courses used to meet FYE requirements, or approved substitutions. (For example, the Honors calculus course MA 18100 can meet FYE requirements for calculus, and therefore is included in the EAI). The FYE Advising Office has a current list of the courses that may be substituted for FYE requirements.

Transfer courses, AP credit courses, and other courses which do not include a Purdue grade are not included in the EAI calculation.

Choosing the course for EAI if more than one is available

In some cases, students may meet an FYE requirement in more than one way -- the most common is a student who will take more than one FYE Selective course, usually both CHM 11600 and CS 15900. In these cases, only one course is used in the calculation of EAI, according to the following rules.

  1. For all requirements except the FYE Selective, the grade used in calculating EAI is the most recent grade.
  2. For the FYE Selective requirement, the grade used in calculating the EAI is the highest grade of all FYE Selective courses (if same grade, use course with most credits; if same grade and credits, use most recent course). It is possible that some students with credit in ENGR 14100 and 14200 will have no other FYE Selective course to be included in EAI.
  3. If a student meets the requirement through a Purdue course and a non-graded course (e.g., transfer, AP, etc.), and the non-graded course is higher priority, then the non-graded course will remove the FYE Selective requirement from the EAI calculation.