<p>Thank you all for replying, it was really helpful. I’m a little more grounded on my decision to Cal Poly. I guess what made it difficult was hearing all of these different opinions about CSUs and UCs. When I was a sophomore, I did care more about prestige (still applied to Berkeley and Stanford for the hell of it, no reply yet though!)… Now I’m just trying to take into consideration which school will prepare me more for the “real world”.</p>
<p>Now all I need to do is visit San Luis Obispo during spring break. (: I already stayed at UCI for a month for a math and science camp and I liked their campus (stress the word on like).</p>
<p>^^I go to UCI, if you have any questions about it, please, feel free to let me know! I’ll be more willing to help.</p>
<p>Hey Osakadad, meant to tell you son got into CP in EE. Went down yesterday to check into housing options. Thanks for your help so far.</p>
<p>CADREAMIN – Huge congrats!!</p>
<p>MegChai – Have fun on you campus tour!</p>
<p>MegChai - good luck on your decision! Are you thinking about graduate school because you plan to get a master of science and Phd to teach in academia? Or are you thinking of a masters in engineering, which is a terminal degree? </p>
<p>You should not have a problem getting into a good graduate program from Cal Poly if you decide to go there. My husband teaches upper division classes at Cal Poly and every year many of the top graduates go to excellent graduate schools. (Most graduates get hired - employers have a high regard for Cal Poly engineers). </p>
<p>Many top research universities have many more graduate students than undergrad. For instance Stanford has 7,000 undergraduates and 11,000 graduates and MIT has 4,500 undergrads and 6,700 grad students. If you have excellent grades, do well on the GRE and get good recommendations you have a much higher percentage chance of getting into a top research university as a graduate, than you do as an undergrad.</p>
<p>If you are thinking of going into academia, I want to caution you that with budget cutbacks and other factors, the outlook is very grim at this time.</p>
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<p>I agree with this; however, California’s budget recently made a surplus so the budget cutbacks should be either slowing down or halted. BUT, I do not know when the affects of the surplus will hit the CSU/UC. It might not ‘help’ out these schools until later.</p>
<p>My DD is in at Cal Poly and also UCSB (invited to the reception at LAX). She is a Business major with an intended concentration in Accounting.</p>
<p>For her, there is no comparison between the two, inasmuch as UCSB doesn’t have a Bschool. The UC’s with Bschool are Berkeley, Irvine and Riverside. Neither Berkeley nor Riverside admit a freshman applicant into the Business school out of High School, but instead after an application process while at the UC. Irvine, however, does accept a freshman admittee directly into the Bschool.</p>
<p>Regardless of the result of her pending admissions decision at Irvine and UCLA, she has already accepted her admission to Cal Poly. It’s a question of the practical application of knowledge. She has no interest in grad school at this time, so her primary focus is in learning the practical skills that will make her highly employable in four years. Of course at least 30% of her Cal Poly experience will be in classes outside of the business major (the required distribution classes), so she will still get a traditional liberal arts education.</p>
<p>I’ll probably get a masters in engineering.
I’m looking into software; I understand that it’s a fast-paced field which is pretty scary… but that’s what I love about it! Plus Cal-Poly has a course in applications and not many uni’s and csu’s have that. </p>
<p>I’m counting down on my trip to the campus, hopefully that finalizes my decision.</p>
<p>If you are going to visit do it for the Open House in April. This event was why we made the decision to send our kid to Cal Poly: [Orientation</a> Programs - Student Life & Leadership - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo](<a href=“http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/orientation/openhouse/]Orientation”>http://studentlife.calpoly.edu/orientation/openhouse/)</p>
<p>Must go even for all prospective students and admitted students.</p>