Oh jesus, do you sound bitter. Here we go...

1) I worked under two professors grading graduate level papers for the statistics dept. 2) I worked under a professor giving out surveys for the sociology dept.

So you more or less did grunt work, not any real research or professional experience. Did you learn anything from these experiences? Did you try and segue this into a learning experience with the professors you were working for? Doesn't sound like it, the way you talk about it.

3) I've worked for three research park companies including a biotech company and a disability service company.

Cool. I just started working with one this past fall semester. In the short time I've been there, I've watched a number of the students hired before me accept job offers with a different division of the same company or a different company that our company's recruiter helped set them up for. Wanna know how I got in contact with said recruiter? My friend met her the previous semester at IR and I talked to her at the CS round table. Soooo.....

4) The industrial round table and the CS round table are wank fests. There maybe "partnerships" but Purdue absolutely and positively does not actively engage in placing their students before or after graduation. I'd encourage you to to disprove that point. I'd love to talk with someone at the CCO or any other dept who takes active students (or alumni) or staff and places them with recommended employers directly in the same vein as a temp or recruitment agency. I honestly think if you seriously think an employer (any employer) just looks and sees "oh Purdue! wow! welcome aboard!" like it means something, you've swallowed some major bullshit.

First off, your majors were psychology and interdisciplinary sciences. You want to know why the CS round table was a joke to you? A sophomore in CS is basically as qualified for an internship as a senior in Interdisciplinary Sciences with a primary focus in CS. Looking at the degree requirements for your BS, you missed out on so much of what makes a BS in CS at Purdue so worthwhile, and quite frankly, I'm not sure you graduated with even the entry level knowledge for any sort of job in the spectrum of computer science. Since I've started on with my job at the research park, I've spent the past couple of weeks listening to job pitches and making contacts with a solid number of Purdue's "partnerships" (as you put it) when they come through the Lawson building. I've gotten to sit and talk with reps from some very big names in the defense and finance industry thanks to, who woulda thunk it, Purdue University. These are contacts I've made now that I can follow up again with after I have more time to devote to making the most of my coursework and my current job.

Now I'm gonna assume here (and forgive me if I'm wrong) that your first degree was the BA (BS now so you can call it STEM if you want) in Psychology. Why on earth you decided to not take that to grad school and instead go into a BS a little while later is beyond me. From what I've come to learn from friends and people I know in the psych department, a bachelor's with zero plans for grad schooling is just four years and tuition down the drain. Since you're all about your experiences being the norm here, let me share with you some of mine. One of my good friends and current roommate is a psych grad and currently here as a Krannert grad student. He locked down an internship easily in a field relevant to his undergrad studies and plans for his grad program. Within the first half of his first semester as a grad student, thanks to the Krannert grad program, he already has an internship for this summer that could easily segue into a job post graduation. I don't know what you originally had planned for yourself with either of the degrees you sought, but I don't think you had the faintest clue of what you were doing when you set out on either degree path. With how light your breadth of schooling in CS seems to be, have you done anything more on your own to bolster your studies at Purdue? Learned a couple extra languages? Done a side project or two to accurately show others what you really have learned? The core CS curriculum is a start, but even that on its own is still light, hence why actual CS majors have defined specialized tracks that give them more industry specific knowledge and skillsets and usually try to knock out one to three of them.

The reasons why I know I'm not wrong are I've watched plenty of friends and acquaintances make the most of their experiences here. I've watched plenty of people turn their work in the classroom, any undergrad interning experience, and research opportunities into a graduating internship or job offer. And I've watched them all do it using eachother and this university as a viable resource. Even if you don't want to believe it, plenty of people will see a Purdue degree and let that be a stepping stone to an interview opportunity and an avenue to whatever success they want to define and achieve for themselves. Since you've done work with the stats department, you should know that small sample sizes (read: you) do not accurately define the population trends, and just because you made two less than stellar investments in college, doesn't mean we're all doomed to swallowing some horrendous b.s. the university spouts out. With all this work you claim to have put in, you really need to learn to work smarter, not harder.