<p>Is Cal Poly improving its 4 year graduation rate for engineering? It seems that Cal Poly gets ranked lower by Forbes and the like because of its low 4 year graduation rate. In essence, its poor graduation rate makes it a more expensive school to graduate from. What, exactly, is Cal Poly doing to improve that? Is it having an impact yet?</p>
<p>I called Cal Poly’s Department of Institutional Planning in Analysis two years ago to ask what the graduation rates were specifically for the College of Engineering. Searching online I could only find the graduation rates for the whole university, not individual colleges. They told me that the 4,5, and 6 year graduation rates for Cal Poly Engineering were 8.2%, 48.5%, and 64.7% respectively for the most recent cohorts at that time. </p>
<p>If you want to know if these numbers have improved since then, I would suggest you give them a call and ask for the most recent numbers for CENG. (If you get the new numbers, please post them here as I’m sure others are interested.)</p>
<p>I don’t think Cal Poly is improving its 4 year grad rate. They have been canceling some senior classes that are required for graduation and only offering them at fall/winter (When they used to offer it year round) BUT the CENG advising centers offer alt ways to get them to graduate on time (e.g. research, etc).</p>
<p>Also I noticed that my year catalog requires LESS classes than someone who is graduating this year (5 years) but about same number of units. It is a state school so an extra year isn’t that expensive.</p>
<p>I studied Mech Engr btw</p>
<p>The engineering 4 year graduation rate is impacted by not only class availability, but also greatly affected by self-elected internships and co-ops.</p>
<p>Since most engineering students choose to partake in some form of co-op which typically lasts 2 quarters, they will invariably missed either Fall or Spring. This easily leads to them being delayed by 2 quarters due to being out of sync with class sequence.</p>
<p>But considering today’s lousy job market, graduating in 4 years without engineering co-op or internship experience may severely hinder the graduate’s ability to secure a solid engineering job; since many co-op students ended up getting offers from their employers.</p>
<p>So the question is whether graduating in 4 years is more crucial than gaining professional experience while in school.</p>
<p>^^ Excellent post!</p>
<p>The question is, how many of the “late” graduates are actually in school for more than 12 quarters, as opposed to having 12 quarters in school spread over more than 4 calendar years due to co-ops or other non-school quarters in between?</p>
<p>If some are in school for more than 12 quarters, what are the main reasons for that? If it is because important courses are offered only certain quarters, or important sequences can only start in certain quarters, that does make it rather problematic for students doing co-ops, which may be popular at a school like Cal Poly. One would think that the departments would offer the most important courses or sequences in all quarters so that students doing co-ops can finish within 12 school quarters and graduate to reduce overcrowding at the school.</p>
<p>I know that at the Open House for ME, the head of the department said since it is the largest at CP all major related classes are offered over all quarters so it would help to knock out a few classes in the summer.</p>