Cal Poly Pomona vs.San Jose State

Hello,

I am currently an undergraduate who applied to CPP for biotechnology and SJSU for molecular biology as a transfer student from De Anza College, and I have been accepted to both programs. My future goal is to get a masters degree in biotech, hopefully from UC Davis or Irvine (but I haven’t given masters much thought yet). However, I’m not sure which school would be better to attend for my major and career.

Cal Poly Pomona is not as well known as San Jose State, which concerns me because I would like to go to grad school. It would also be more expensive to go there because I would have to live in the dorms. I have heard that there are many internship opportunities at CPP, but is this true for biotech? There is not much info available, so I’d appreciate if someone would give me their input. I was thinking that the specification in biotech would be helpful, but it might also be limiting when searching for jobs.

San Jose State is more well known, and I’ve heard that there are many research opportunities available. However, my main concern is that it’s overcrowded and very difficult to get required classes,delaying graduation. Is this true for the biology department? Otherwise, being close to home would save me money and would be pretty convenient as well. There is not much info regarding the sciences at SJSU either.

tl;dr: undergrad transfer trying to decide between CPP biotech and SJSU molecular bio

I’d say go to San Jose. CPP is known for engineering. I’m not discrediting other departments, I am simply saying that since San Jose is closer to home and San Jose has a good program. Why bother going through the hassle of going to SoCal for a school better known for engineering? Also, opportunities seem to be pretty strong in the Bay area. Plus staying closer to home makes it a lot easier on you to be successful.

Actually, both are well known and cpp has become a strong value in stem fields, including biotech.
Are both roughly the same cost ?

Really now? I’m not 100% sure, but CPP is a good engineering school. I got accepted to CPP for compsci, and I’m still waiting on SJSU cause transcripts, so I’m in the same boat as you!