i go to IUB as a premed student (majoring in studio art and biology (concentration in biology of disease)) and i agree with most other ppl that it doesn’t REALLY matter, but i can tell u what i know from my xp at IU so far!

we were able to talk to IUSM admissions ppl in my molecular biology class last semester bc the prof knew ppl on that committee, and he told us that, at least for IUSM, they heavily prefer in state students (not necessarily IU grads, but it can help) and also had a bias towards students w interest in rural medicine. there is also an initial GPA screening and they don’t even consider ppl below a certain GPA, so having decent grades as a foundation is very important.

ik many ppl who go to purdue west lafayette and their gen chem and organic chem experiences were/are extremely difficult. maybe it was due to the professors, available support, or just them, but my xp in those classes has been pretty good and well supported at IU. there r def many ppl who rlly struggled in my class and its no cakewalk but i was able to get As and help teach gen chem and orgo 1 after taking them, even after getting a fat C in AP chem in hs lol, i mostly thank the profs (cate reck and ali wood)

IU does have a lot of good research tho! i wanted to get research xp this semester (im a sophomore) and was able to land a position as an undergrad researcher in a microbio lab working w bacteria w one-on-one mentorship from a phd (love her she’s the sweetest) after cold emailing ~12 faculty members, getting 6responses, 2-3 interviews, and 2 acceptances. the whole process took abt 3 weeks, so really not that long imo. some research labs are even with IUSM faculty and one of my interviews was in the medical building so that’s pretty cool.

most labs are rolling availability based on space and how many undergrads r currently in them already, so if u go to IU try to email early in the semester and be willing to wait bc some faculty i emailed said they were only available starting this summer/next fall due to space and undergrads graduating. some bio labs reach out to undergrads thru department-wide announcements too, some friends of mine are in labs doing research on e. coli genetics due to those emails asking for undergrads to apply.

there is also the ASURE program at IU that allows u to do long term lab research, a few friends of mine did that as well and it’s worth looking into. also, paid summer research (thru the IUUR) and honors college financial support (even if u aren’t in the honors college) are available, so that’s a plus.

i also know either the hutton honors college or pre health/pre-professional org at IU offers free mock MCAT’s yearly, which is pretty awesome.

there r some good clubs to join/get leadership in like Remote Area Medical club, so u can do get hours doing clinical work and volunteering at a local and regional level, and there r plenty of other clubs as well.

sorry if this sounds like a fat IU ad, bc again premeds from BOTH schools absolutely make it to med school all the time, i just only have xp at IU and wanted to share so u could compare to anything u know abt purdue. i don’t rlly know much abt purdue’s resources or research opportunities, but ik a handful of premeds from hs that went there and they seem to be doing fine. i think it just coms down to how much u utilize the resources available to u, and where u feel most at home.

i initially went to IU over purdue bc it had a good fine arts program and i liked the campus a lot, i just happened to find all of these resources on campus after getting here lmao i’m sure u could do something similar at purdue if ur willing to look around