<p>I'm posting for my DS who is a raising senior. My question is which school will be better for mechE? We live in socal, so he will be living at home if he attends CP Pomona. Also, Cp pomona has the "learn by doing" creedo. But with the impending calif. budget impact, I wonder which of these two school would suffer less. I see SJSU (Davidson) is getting quite a few large donations from their alumni and companies in the silicon valley. SJSU engineering looks like an up and coming program while CP pomona looks kinda stagnant.
I know, you probably say..."why not go to CP slo, or a UC?" Frankly, his grades aren't that great. Only a 3.15 uw, 3.25w with only one AP class (bio). He attends a top 100 HS which is very competitive, and send several students to HPYS yearly. He just got interested in engineering after joining the robotics club and working with mentors from jpl. Wants mechE because he's always loved to build things (legos, knex, models, etc.) and wants to go into robotics.</p>
<p>Like I said in the topic:
"just for those curious, MechE median salary.."</p>
<p>college decision makes no difference what-so-ever if you are going to be a MechE in terms of salary. in the topic above, cornell MEs got paid less than Cal Poly SLO in 2007 on average. Now, I don't know about mobility within the company, but i'd believe that just depends on the person.</p>
<p>seriously, i think all these threads asking about college decisions for MEs are meaningless now. just goto whichever you think your son can enjoy more college-life.</p>
<p>To be fair, the OP expressed no concerns about salary. The OP seemed to be more concerned about the quality of education at a few California schools with the impending budget cuts.</p>
<p>ken285/ i know. but in the end, one place is not going to give you <em>definite</em> better education over the other (it's not stanford vs sjsu), and even if one of the place provides much better education over the other, much more unlikely there's going to be any difference by graduation. IMO, what you learn out of college kinda depends on the student rather than the institution. </p>
<p>man, i've been too pessimistic these days. i should stop.</p>
<p>My son is a high school junior and sounds similar to yours, rxcat85, but with a slightly higher GPA. Cal Poly SLO is my son's top choice; SJSC and Cal Poly Pomona are on his list as safeties. Both schools are excellent for engineering and in fact are ranked equally in the US News&World Report Engineering rankings (for schools whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's) at #16. I know SJSU a little better than Cal Poly Pomona, but can't really speak to the effects of the budget crunch at either, although it's certainly something to be concerned about. My understanding is that the budget cuts won't affect SLO as much, given its status as the "flagship" Cal State school.</p>
<p>The advantage I see at Cal Poly Pomona is that it has a guaranteed 4-year degree program. The advantage I see at SJSU is that its students seem to be able to easily find internships and graduates are snapped up by Silicon Valley companies. Disadvantage of SJSU is that it's a commuter school with the dorms emptying out on weekends. It's also in the middle of urban San Jose, which may or may not be a negative for your son (it is for mine). I understand the Pomona campus is beautiful.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Thanks vballmom. Yes the campus at CP pomona is nice. We have been there a few times. DS had piano tests there.</p>
<p>To xjis: true both places would give you a good education. And it would depend on the student to get the most out of any college they attend.</p>
<p>My concern is even with CP pomona's 4 year guaranteed graduation, I wonder how theyr'e gonna pull it out with decreases in faculty and classes?
Plus I see that mechatronics is sort of a new direction that engineering education is headed toward. SJSU has addressed mechatronics in their website while there's hardly anything mentioned (except one class) at CP pomona. My DH who has triple degrees in EE from USC, says he would rather hire someone from cal polys over any of the csu's.</p>
<p>I know choosing a college is about "fit". My DS is more of a visual learner, and would probably learn more by actually building or "doing it". So in that regards, CP pomona would be a better "fit" for him at say one of the lower tiered UC schools (riverside,merced).</p>
<p>rxcat85 I recently heard the same thing as what your DH says. My son went to an open house at one of his Robotics Club's sponsors in San Jose. The young man who was demonstrating the company's robot to the high school kids went to Cal Poly SLO, and said his company would give preference to SLO grads when hiring. I asked him where his second choice university grads came from, and he said Cal Poly Pomona without hesitation. This was for EE, ME and CE hires.</p>
<p>Kids who sign up for the 4-year guarantee at CP Pomona get preference for classes during registration. I think it's worth signing just for that reason, even with the expectation that most engineering students will take 5 years regardless.</p>