<p>Just a word of caution for all incoming freshman and transfers. Take it easy in your first year. If you are a STEM major and especially if you are an engineering major do not take more than 12 to 15 credits per quarter in your first year unless you are a superhero with nerves of steel and energy to match.</p>
<p>Also, focus on knowledge acquisition rather than perfection. If you were a 4.00 GPA student in high school, do not expect to maintain that at Cal Poly. Not that the school practices grade deflation, they absolutely don’t. I have proof that the grading is fair with my own son who just finished his freshman year in great standing.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, some classes will be easier than others and a few classes will challenge you like you never have been challenged before. Take it slow and build up a strong GPA on the front end, because in later quarters you can not realistically count on getting high grades. For example, with engineers, when you are required to take statics and dynamics the time required for these classes is extraordinary. This series combined with a few other classes in the flow chart are the most failed classes at Cal Poly.</p>
<p>If you fail a class or get a C- or below, you have options. Cal Poly allows you to retake these classes and replace your poor grade with the new one. I believe you can do this up to 16 units of courses.</p>
<p>Moreover, do not be in a rush. Enjoy your time at Cal Poly. Join clubs and take a few weekends off. This can be accomplished only by strategically managing your workload. Never take 15 units of hard core subjects. Mix them up a bit. If you go to 15 units or more, make sure that some of them are fun classes like: Intro to Rodeo (real), Intro to Bowling (real) or underwater basket weaving (fictional), etc.</p>
<p>If Cal Poly were easy, it would not be worth your time. Be smart and strategically manage your classes.</p>
<p>Can anyone else out there give some advice regarding managing workload? Any war stories of folks who crashed and burned by taking on too much work or too much partying? The floor is open!</p>
<p>Good advice from OsakaDad. Be prepared to work VERY hard at Cal Poly, especially if you are in Engineering. I have seen Cal Poly turn many “A+” high school students into “B” students and worse. And expect to take 5 years to graduate from the Engineering school. Dont believe that “Flow Chart” they show you. As OsakaDad said, dont overload your Quarterly schedule with Engineering classes. Be careful.</p>
<p>Having said all that, If you do good work and get an Engineering degree from Cal Poly SLO you will be in an elite group. Take your time. Take 5 years. Work hard. A Cal Poly SLO Engineering degree is definitely worth your hard work and your 5 years.</p>
<p>Great advice! I, too will live by this information. I will be entering as a Civil Engineer this fall and I’m a bit intimidated by all of the things I am hearing about the difficulty of Cal Poly. I took AP Physics C and AP Calculus this year and earned A’s and B’s both semesters in both … do these classes pale in comparison to the difficulty of some of the classes in freshman year at SLO? I’m good at math and science but I am not GREAT at them (yet).</p>
<p>Prodiggy11;
I didnt mean to intimidate anyone with my previous comments. You are obviously a good student if you were accepted at Cal Poly for Civil Engineering. Just be prepared to work hard from day one and kick it up a notch from your High School days.<br>
Dont overload your schedule with too many math/engineering classes each quarter. Plan on taking 5 years to graduate. And dont get discouraged if your GPA drops a bit from what it was in High School. It happens to some of the best…cause remember, you will be in one of the best Engineering Schools in the country ! I am sure you will do well. Best wishes to you.</p>
<p>Yes, you will be given a 'block" schedule for your first quarter. If you have not received it yet, then call your academic department and ask what their process is.</p>
<p>Also, don’t be intimidated. Just realize that you are in the big leagues now and take it seriously. Party, make friends, join clubs, take advantage of the new rec center (which is a 5 star resort facility), go on excursions with Poly Escapes, etc. Just do it all after you have finished your homework and put academics first.</p>
<p>Some classes and teachers will seem extremely easy for you and you’ll wonder why other kids are suffering. Other classes will drive you crazy with the workload and what the professor demands of you. It all comes down to individual strengths and weaknesses. Physics might be a breeze for you and a nightmare for your roommate. While creative writing class drives you crazy and just the thought of presenting in front of an audience fills you with terror. </p>
<p>Do not put too much weight in web sites that rate teachers. If you do use them, as many students do, remember that some kids will give a professor a poor rating only because they got a lousy grade in the class. Make sure that you read these opinions with skepticism and look for objective posters that lay out their cases logically rather than emotionally. Choose professors based on how well they teach rather than how hard they grade if you can.</p>
<p>Prodigyy11, my dad is a pretty successful civil engineer in NorCal and he says that Cal Poly Civil grads are the most sought after of any public school in the state. He said Poly grads are basically guaranteed a job. Congrats! </p>
<p>A first year Poly transfer told me to take as small of a workload as possible the first semester. He came from a community college, but that’s probably still a higher workload than most high school schedules. </p>
<p>As a community college student for a few years I can echo the comments made about sites like [Rate</a> My Professors | Find and rate your professor, campus and more - RateMyProfessors.com](<a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com%5DRate”>http://www.ratemyprofessors.com) but with a slight twist. I say RELY HEAVILY, while taking the ratings with a big grain of salt. That site has saved my butt numerous times in community college by avoiding teachers who were boring, without expertise, or bad at teaching. I just read all the reviews and sifted through them to find the truth.</p>
<p>I have a son going into his junior year as an EE major. And it is very HARD!!! He had calculus BC, Physics AP, Chem AP, etc. in HS, and did well on the AP exams but Cal Poly EE is very challenging form him. After his last final a week ago, he was convinced that he he failed one of his EE classes that is a prerequisite for 2 of the three classes he signed up for in the Fall, so we did not know what he was going to do. Much to his surprise, he ended up with a C in it. He understood the material, the homework, etc. but the test was very difficult. Thank God for the curve! So far, he has passed everything with at least a C or better and his GPA is respectable, but not stellar. The problem is that for him to take it easier, he will be off track and he will not have the prerequistes to take the next class in the series. And some classes are only offered once a year, so we cannot figure out how far back it would put him. Hence, he is on the 4 year track. I am not quite sure how you manage to avoid taking too many hard classes at a time with an EE major because the schedule is so rigid.</p>
<p>I agree with the above comment that some classes are easier for my son than others. It really does depend upon strengths. Hs CS classes are not too difficult for him but his EE classes are extremely hard. The tests are brutal. </p>
<p>Having said all of that, he loves Cal Poly and SLO and is very happy with his choice to go there. He has landed an internship this summer which starts on Monday. The head of the engineering department was a Cal Poly EE grad. Gotta love the Cal Poly alumumni network!</p>
<p>Anyone know what the average GPA of CalPoly SLO Engineering graduates is ? I am talking about those who are receiving their degrees NOT the incoming Freshmen. I am curious to know for example what the Cal Poly ME , EE department graduates GPA is on average. I cant seem to find that info anywhere.</p>
<p>This is anecdotal, but my kid told me that average Cal Poly grads’ GPA ranges between 2.5 and 3.0. For your reference, a 3.85 GPA is Summa Cum Laude; 3.7 is Magna Cum Laude; and a 3.5 is Cum Laude in the College of Engineering. I mention this because no one gets a 4.0 at Cal Poly. Perfection, ie. Summa Cum Laude, is a 3.85.</p>
<p>OsakaDad: Your anecdotal data seems about right to me. I have a feeling if you graduate from the college of Engineering with a 3.0 GPA or better, you have done quite well. Does the University publish somewhere the average GPAs of the graduating class in each college? I would suspect that data is on the CalPoly SLO website somewhere.</p>
<p>I wanted to comment on the recent discussion concerned workload and GPA. My son is a Junior, Civil Engineering and would agree that the Engineering program is intense. He would also agree that Statics and Dynamics had the heaviest workload, with Dynamics having the largest failure rate at Cal Poly, which is one of the reasons he took Statics in Summer, 2012, followed by Dynamics in Fall, 2012, a quarter in which he only took 12 units. I am an engineer myself and I took a look at the syllabus for Dynamics and I have never seen a heavier workload for a 3-unit course. Having said all of this, he got a B in Dynamics and is maintaining a GPA just over 3.0. Agree strongly that 15 units a quarter is reasonable, especially if you have a job, as my son does. Regarding the comment on instructors; I highly recommend the use of Poly Ratings (polyratings.com). My son ignored the ratings as a Freshman and found to his sorrow just how accurate they were. He now uses them to check the teachers for courses with multiple sections; obviously, it is not always possible to get the sections taught by the higher rated teachers but he has found that the ratings and comments posted by the students to be generally accurate. At least, he knows what to expect!</p>
<p>I read through the whole thing and found a lot of excellent info for you. GPA’s for incoming freshman and transfer students for every college were clearly listed. However, even though there was a lot of info for enrolled students, there were no GPA’s listed. This may be private info…</p>