Can people please share their views of the pros and cons of each school, in terms of classes, professors, competitiveness, getting internships, getting to do research, ease of getting classes, and job prospects? Just got into Berkeley off the waitlist, so have one week to decide. I hear that some employers prefer Cal Poly grads because of their hands-on and technical education, and that others like Cal. I intend to get a job after graduating, not go straight to grad school.
Thank you for your replies.
First of all, regardless of where you go to school, the majority of engineering grads will not go (at least directly) to graduate school. A higher percentage go from UCB than Poly, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the preparation and doesn’t mean you couldn’t get into a great school from Poly. Engineers do every year. It’s all about the culture. Grad school is emphasized far more as an option at UCB.
Now from here on take this with a grain of salt because it’s one Dad’s opinion, but I think Cal Poly is a better choice and believe it or not, by a fairly long margin. Classes will be a lot smaller. You won’t be taught by TAs (there are over 60 in the ME department at UCB). The ME curriculum gets into fun stuff earlier at Poly.
With that said, UCB has an awesome reputation and their grads land well. We (my son and I) got the feeling though that the reputation was based on the merits of their awesome PhD program and for the reasons mentioned above might not really translate into undergraduate studies in STEM fields.
YMMV. All IMHO.
Have you visited both? Are there cost differences for you?
Thank you @eyemgh for the info.
I visited Cal Poly last month and went to their admitted student day, and I really loved the school. I visited Berkeley today (I’ve been there many times for sporting events and concerts, and I love the town), but today was my first time really walking around the campus, and I loved the feel of the campus. So at this point it comes down to the things I listed above. Berkeley is less expensive because of financial aid, but my parents said that I can choose either school.
For so many reasons, they are very different experiences, each with strengths and weaknesses. In either case, what you put into it will be far more important than the school itself. You could stack up opposing opinions from here to eternity and in the final analysis they are just that, opinions, other people’s opinions. Go with your gut feelings and you won’t be wrong.
@eyemgh Can you clarify your comment “You won’t be taught by TAs (there are over 60 in the ME department at UCB).”?
Do you mean to say the TAs are teaching lectures or just sections? If sections, does Cal Poly not have them or are they taught by the professor/lecturer too? Curious because in my long ago experience at Cal (for CS) we did not have classes taught by TAs (outside of one lab led by a grad student).
@youcee, Cal Poly does not use graduate assistants for teaching, even for labs and discussions/recitations/sections. They are all professors.
I’m fairly certain that UCB, like nearly every other UC, uses graduate students as TAs to run the labs and discussions for lots of undergraduate classes.
I do know for certain that Intro to CS is the biggest lecture in the nation at over 1000 students per section. It’s taught in Wheeler and then simulcast into overflow rooms via video. The biggest lecture hall at Cal Poly is the Silo in the bschool. It holds 200. My son has been in there twice, both for MatE classes. Otherwise, it’s 50 or less and usually 25ish.
@eyemgh Thanks for the info. I really only have exposure to the UC system, so I wasn’t aware that professors did the discussion sections at Cal Poly. As that will be a school our son applies to, that’s good info to know. TAs doing the discussion sections was what I know, so it just seemed normal. I always considered it more as extra help than teaching, but that’s just from a limited perspective.
@youcee, that was my UG experience too. It’s no guarantee that just because a person is a professor that they will be a great teacher, but since Poly doesn’t offer doctoral degrees, nearly everyone there has that job because they like teaching. Some of my TAs were good, but for the most part they were just there because they had to be, many of them with limited command of English.
We hope our son has a similar choice as the OP next year. It would be a good problem to have.
@calinyc I can only speak for cal poly as I am soon to be a senior mechanical engineering student. I’ll try to address the areas you mentioned.
So far the experience has been phenomenal. “Learn by doing” is much more true for mechanical engineering than other majors, I would say at least 2/3rds of my classes have some type of lab associated with them. This quarter I have 5 labs which total 15 hours a week, add that to the club work (~10-20hrs a week), and you get a nice balance of practical work to go along with all the class theoretical knowledge.
Although the school is undergraduate education focused, it is possible to do some research here depending on your major. It mostly comes down to how ambitious you are and the connections you form with your teachers. I’ve heard of many opportunities just by asking teachers such as biofuels, composites, material testing,vibration, particle image velocimetry, wind tunnel etc.
The classes here are well sized (~20-30 students) typically per lecture, and the lab groups are even smaller. The classes range in difficulty, but on average are harder than most other colleges. I would say the environment is not very “cut-throat” because the learn-by-doing approach requires a lot of cooperation on labs and projects, so it is beneficial to work well with others (just like the real world… imagine that!). More importantly, the teachers here are well educated and focused on undergraduate education. They have required office hours so you can easily get one-on-one time with them there if needed.
Classes can be a bit tricky to get sometimes (due to the impacted CSU system), but it’s doable if you plan very well in advance. A lot of students are unwilling to take a class because of reasons such as 7am start time, poor teachers, extremely difficult teachers etc. I found that being flexible is the best way to go because not everyone can get their first choice classes every quarter. Aside from that, sometimes it can be a struggle getting into your classes, so I’ll restate that you may have to be flexible and take classes out of order occasionally because everyone will be competing at the same time.
If you do manage to get out alive, then internships and job opportunities will be available. Although SLO is isolated, most students go home to bigger cities such as LA and SF. Cal Poly is well known on the west coast and employers are aware of that. From an upperclassmen stand point I’ve noticed that ~90% of my classmates have internships.(myself and some others have had 3 so far) This is just my peer group so take it with a grain of salt. Results vary from student to student, but the head honcho tech and engineering companies recruit here such as Apple, Facebook, Google etc… and on the Mechanical side: Tesla, SpaceX, Boeing,Eaton, Haas, Northrup, ATK, lockheed etc… I’ve received a few offers from these companies myself.
I don’t think you can go wrong with either Cal Poly’s or Berkeley’s engineering programs. Coming into Cal Poly I’ve learned it’s more important how much effort you put into your education. The school just provides the tools and resources you need to succeed. So evaluate both programs to find the one with a good balance of resources, environment, motivation, and a bit of fun.
Hope this helps.