<p>@nuitari</p>
<p>Do you think most high school students still aren’t aware how good Cal Poly is (from both a reputational and quality of education standpoints)?</p>
<p>Or do you think it is mostly restricted to the Asian high school student community ?</p>
<p>Just curious.</p>
<p>I am a bit surprised that students still think Cal Poly is just some C grade state school.</p>
<p>@blindmonkey</p>
<p>From what I experience, it’s the people who never really understood anything about college that always are saying SLO isn’t a good school. It’s the ones who were always in the bandwagon that UC’s are ALWAYS better because of the “UC” in front of the school’s name. Ignorant students still say UC Merced is better than SLO, but I just smirk and walk away. There’s not point of talking to these kinds of people. I can’t fully answer your second view of your question because a majority of my friends are Asian. The one’s who aren’t Asian in my school either is just going to Community College or just plain outright dumb. My school isn’t diverse enough, that’s why I was a bit worried about the race issue. </p>
<p>I can tell you that I’d rank SLO with UCSB and UCI, and many of my friends who are aware of colleges think the same.</p>
<p>
Cal Poly has an excellent reputation among those who know someone who goes to college there. There does exist the general lack of knowledge of the school’s strengths, and admissions standards. I think it was Oprah Winfrey who said something like “everyone in SLO is happy”, or something to that effect.</p>
<p>In terms of the usual metrics for college admission… GPA and SAT (25/75 SAT average is something I find useful as a reductive number), Cal Poly is within spitting distance of the three mid UCs – SB, D, I.</p>
<p>In terms of environment, that’s a personal question of fit. Smallish town on the coast, far from any large city, vs. each of the UCs in their varying situations.</p>
<p>In terms of teaching philosophy, that’s where the difference is palpable, intentional, and relevant. The UCs have as their primary mission the production of peer reviewed research, and the acquisition of grants from government and private industry to fund said research. Their true focus is upon their graduate students and the research they help their professors produce. Undergraduate students at most UCs are at best tolerated and at worst ignored, but never prized. This is why many undergraduate classes have 300 or more students listening to a monologue that would truthfully be better delivered via podcast in the comfort of their own bed rather than in cacaphonous lecture halls. It is fair to say that most UC Professors would prefer to have no interaction with undergraduates at all.</p>
<p>In short, UCs exist for the production of original research by Professors and graduate students, and the production of future graduate students, plain and simple. Cal Poly, with most majors, exists to prepare undergraduate students to hit the ground running in some area of employment, OR graduate school. This is a more flexible approach to collegiate education.</p>
<p>As to who would select a less prestigous school for personal, practical or idiosyncratic reasons, our DD selected Baylor (Neuroscience) while turning down UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, Cal Poly (Biology), Wake Forest, U of Miami, George Washington, Tulane, Fordham, Boston U, SMU, and a few others. She had quite a refrigerator door full of acceptance letters.</p>
<p>Daughter #2 has SIR’d to Cal Poly, School of Business, in preference to UCI, UCD, UCSB. Those were the only schools to which she applied. </p>
<p>Neither ultimately found the UC system to offer the most compelling value proposition for them, though I’m sure they would have been reasonably happy at several of the campuses.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, I believe that there are three college systems in CA. (1) the UC’s; (2) the Cal States; and (3) the Cal Polys (SLO & Pomona).</p>
<p>Yes, the Cal Polys are part of the Cal State system, but the teaching methodology is so different that it is distinct.</p>
<p>That was actually the original plan for the CA higher education system at conception. 3 branches, with the Cal Poly “system” being the third. </p>
<p>But the $$ issue put that idea to rest.</p>