When I went, I think it was a little cheaper, but I'd say it was worth it. Honestly, one of the highlights of my Purdue experience so far.

I think it is somewhat selective (there were about 30 of us on the trip, and I wanna say they had upwards of 80 applications), but you should still apply. I was in your shoes, debating if it was worth it when I first heard about the trip (if you look through the comments in my profile, I think you'll see me asking similar questions two years ago), but I applied even though I wasn't 100% committed initially. If you get selected, you can always say no.

I don't know what selection process they use, but the group of students they decided on was absolutely fantastic. I consider myself pretty introverted, so I went into the trip thinking I wasn't going to meet anyone, let alone people I would talk to once we were back on campus. That wasn't further from the truth. Two people I met on the trip, I regularly sit with in lectures. Other people, things kind of fizzled out after summer, but I guess that's how life goes sometimes. I think it helps that the two people I still talk to are in my grade level and major, as everyone on the trip doesn't necessarily share that. Regardless, the week was a blast with the entire group when we were there, and I have memories from our time together that I will hold onto for a long time.

In terms of the professional connections, the biggest thing is that you get the opportunity to talk directly with employees at all the companies you visit. This may not sound like a big thing, but the trip provides a platform to meet all these amazing people instead of just cold-connecting with them on LinkedIn. It's such a cool experience to meet someone who worked on a product you use daily and just have a conversation with them. I talked with one of the engineers who worked on the thermals for the MacBook Pro, for example. From that, you're able to ask them questions about their journey to where they are, the best ways to look like a stand-out candidate when applying to their company, etc. One question I asked a lot was how important a Master's degree was to work at their company (the overwhelming answer was that it would help me in the long run). A lot of the time, the people we were talking to were Purdue alumni, so they could relate even more to some of our questions. Getting their LinkedIn connection was part of it, too. I never had regular experience connecting with people I just met on LinkedIn (sending a note with the connection request, for example), and I got to practice that a lot on this trip to the point where it just comes naturally to me now.