<p>anyone else committed to SLO?? so excited!</p>
<p>MEEEEEEEEE, so excited.</p>
<p>My younger daughter officially accepted Cal Poly’s offer of admission a few days ago (General Engineering major). My older daughter is a second year ARCE major, so now we have 2 Mustangs in our family! Hope to see everyone at Open House next week!</p>
<p>Committed Mechanical Engineer (Also doing AROTC) so these should be fun yet challenging! Gonna be a great college experience!</p>
<p>Hey COparent, I was accepted for Architectural Engineering, and comitted to Cal Poly weeks ago. What has your daughter’s experience as an ARCE been like? Has she enjoyed it? Is it a lot of work relative to other majors at Cal Poly?</p>
<p>@jakotatio: I would say that after almost 2 years at Cal Poly, my daughter still enjoys being an ARCE major. She actually first thought she wanted to be an Architect and attended the 4-wk Summer Architecture Workshop at Cal Poly a few years ago. That convinced her that although she enjoyed the design/creativity aspect of architecture, she preferred the practicality of math and physics (she wants to know the ‘right’ answer), and Architectural Engineering seemed to be the perfect blend of the two. At Cal Poly, ARCE is the only engineering major that is not in the College of Engineering, it’s in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. She was in for a shock with the 3 quarters of Design & Visual Communication (ARCH 131, 132, 133) that she had to take with the Architecture majors her freshman year - many many hours in studio, including some all-nighters getting her projects done. Cal Poly has you jumping right in to studio work - I know other schools wait until junior year. My daughter finished the math and physics series early, so she started her ARCE major courses at the end of her freshman year. We’re hoping she’ll graduate in 4 years but it depends on class availability and other factors. The ARCE curriculum is pretty tough (as are all the engineering majors at Cal Poly) and requires 204 units to graduate ( <a href=“http://www.arce.calpoly.edu/prospective/11-13_ARCE_Flowchart-final-1adobedreamweaver.pdf[/url]”>http://www.arce.calpoly.edu/prospective/11-13_ARCE_Flowchart-final-1adobedreamweaver.pdf</a>). The ARCE department at Cal Poly is great, starting with the Department Head Allen Estes. We attended the ARCE BBQ during Parent Weekend and got to meet many of the ARCE faculty members - they are a warm and friendly group. Congratulations and good luck at Cal Poly!</p>
<p>accepted admission a few days ago into psychology apartment, cant wait!!</p>
<p>Gonna major in Architectural Engineering!! Hear a lot of great things about it…</p>
<p>Hope Calpoly SLO won’t let me down! :D</p>
<p>Can’t wait to rage into slo !!!</p>
<p>I’m officially committed!!! So excited! Going into Industrial Engineering.</p>
<p>COparent,
So happy to see your review of cal poly and the ARCE program. My son applied to the program and will be sorely disappointed if he doesn’t get in. Would you mind telling me what your daughter’s admission stats were? He has been accepted at some out of state schools, but first choice is cal poly. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>kschall: It has been a few years, but if I can remember correctly, my older daughter’s high school stats were:</p>
<p>GPA: 4.56 (weighted), 3.99 (unweighted)
SAT: 2100 (math+reading+writing)
ACT: 31</p>
<p>She took 8 AP courses and entered Cal Poly with 50 credits. She was a member of several clubs and participated in varsity and club sports. She also attended Cal Poly’s summer architecture workshop during her junior year (received college credit), and was involved with the ACE (Architecture/Construction/Engineering) Mentor program in Denver for 2 years. She was accepted into the Cal Poly Honors Program her freshman year. </p>
<p>She is now a 3rd year ARCE, and continues to enjoy the program. It’s very hands-on and challenging, and she has developed a real camaraderie with her fellow ARCEs.</p>
<p>Good luck to your son - I hope he becomes a Cal Poly Mustang!!</p>
<p>COparent,
My son was admitted to the ARCE program for the 2013 school year–he can’t wait! So I have a new question, what dorm did your daughter live in her freshman year and why? Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks so much!</p>
<p>kschall: Congratulations to your son for being admitted to one of the top Architecture programs in the nation! My daughter was accepted into the Honors Program ([Cal</a> Poly University Honors Program - University Honors Programs - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo](<a href=“http://honors.calpoly.edu/]Cal”>http://honors.calpoly.edu/)) which is housed in one of the buildings in Cerro Vista (I think it was Cabrillo). These apartments allow more independent living while offering some social and academic support. There are 4 students per apartment, each having their own private bedroom, 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen and living room. This arrangement appealed to my daughter (she is pretty independent and likes her privacy), but I know other students find Cerro Vista too closed and less accessible. My younger daughter is a freshman BMED student at Cal Poly, and she enjoys Cerro Vista as well. She has become very good friends with her roommates as well as many of her neighbors. Your son will be spending much of his freshman year in studio, so it’ll probably be nice for him to have a quiet place to sleep. Many architecture students live in Sequoia, but my older daughter didn’t deal with the community bathrooms and noise level very well. It is really a personal preference. Your son should take a housing tour and see which one fits his personality best. Good luck and congratulations!!</p>
<p>COparent,
Thank you so much! I think my son is leaning towards living in Sequoia because he thinks he’ll get a mix of academics w/ traditional dorm experience he’d like to have. He also may apply to the Honors’ Program–just doesn’t want to make his schedule too difficult. Would you mind telling me what your daughter thinks of honors’? And one more question (thank you!), has your daughter found that she has been able to get her major and supporting classes okay? So much talk about it taking 5 years to graduate because of getting classes. Luckily, my son has taken a bunch of AP classes, so that will help with GEs, but curious about the major/support classes.
Thanks again for your help! :)</p>
<p>kschall: Sequoia should work well for your son - since he’ll be surrounded by Architecture students, it will be easy to form study groups and get lots of support. My daughters have mixed feelings about the Honors Program. They went into it with high expectations, liked the fact that it was housed in Cerro Vista (their 1st choice), thought the extra Honors courses/requirements were reasonable, and wanted to be around other high-performing students from different backgrounds. However, as engineering majors, it does add more pressure to an already difficult curriculum. After a couple of years, my older daughter chose to drop out of the program, but my younger daughter is trying to stick it out as long as possible. Regarding classes, both of my daughters have been able to get into their major and supporting classes for the most part. The key is to work out several options since you may not always get your first choice, or even your second. Registration is tricky - you have to work around your assigned rotation # (differs each quarter), and availability of classes. For upperclassmen, a limited number of priorities can also be used. My older daughter is now a junior, has had very little trouble getting into the classes she needs, and is on track to graduate in four years. She did take a couple of online GE classes during the summer of her sophomore year. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Hi COparent,
Do you have any input on whether my son should take the AP stats or AP physics exams? We need to pay for them by next Friday. $89 each. We looked at the ARCE curriculum and the physics and stats required classes are not met by he AP exams. So although these AP classes will be beneficial, why do you think we should spend $180 for the tests when we have 4 more AP tests to pay for between his other AP classes and my daughter’s classes. So much money if they don’t satisfy a requirement. Your input would be appreciated. Thanks for all of your help!</p>
<p>kschall: My older daughter did not take AP Stats, but did take AP Physics C, including both exams, Electricity and Magnetism, and Mechanics. Based on her scores, I believe she satisfied the requirements for Physics 141 and 123, and ended up taking Physics 132 and 133 her freshman year. She also took the AP Calculus BC exam which satisfied the Math 141 and 142 requirements, allowing her to take Math 143, 241 and 244 her freshman year. I agree that those AP exams are very expensive, but they did help both of my daughters with their math and physics placements. My older daughter will be taking Stats sometime during her senior year.</p>
<p>kschall: You may have already seen this, but this is the AP credit matrix for 2012:</p>
<p><a href=“http://registrar.calpoly.edu/sites/registrar/files/Degree_Progress/articdoc/apcred2012.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.calpoly.edu/sites/registrar/files/Degree_Progress/articdoc/apcred2012.pdf</a></p>
<p>I would suggest that your son ONLY take AP courses that will transfer over as credit and give him classes based on the ARCE curriculum because if he takes extra AP exams, it will be a waste of time and money. Taking extra AP exams will only give you elective credits (engineers do not need) and possibly bump you up to sophomore or junior standing (not that important) I didn’t take some of the AP exams (like environmental science) because I knew I would not get credit for it.</p>