<p>Cal Poly SLO: my daughter was just accepted as a mechanical engineering.
How big/small are classes?
Are classes taught by professors or TA's?
How are professors evaluated (by students? by other professors? by publishing? by projects?)</p>
<p>They’re taught by professors. I have yet to be taught by a TA. TA’s are generally available, but they’re mostly there during labs or for workshops or study sessions.</p>
<p>Class sizes within the major tend to be about 30 students at the very most. Some GE classes can be 100 students. The largest I know of is the Psychology 202 course, which is taught in the Spanos Theater by five professors at once and has about 300 students. My largest has been History 223, with 120 students.</p>
<p>At the end of each quarter, all students do evaluations for their professors. What they evaluate on varies by department, but generally they rate their teaching ability, their availability, and ask for comments on improvement. All professors here are required to have PhD’s, and though classes are taught by people with Master’s degrees, they’re called “lecturers” and are the bottom of the food chain when it comes to cuts. In those terms, I think actual professors are evaluated however PhD’s are evaluated every year (publishing, research, etc), as well as by their students each quarter.</p>
<p>synhyborex – Excellent answer. As a parent who also has a son that was recently accepted to SLO for engineering, I really appreciate the information. We’ve accepted the offer and my kid plans on attending the school. He will reject offers from the top UC’s in favor of the school. What appeals to my kid is the “hands on approach” of the polytechnic universities and the fact that SLO’s mission is to produce employment-ready graduates. What other advantages does SLO have over the UC’s?</p>
<p>Like many universities, Cal Poly has its schedule online: [Plan</a> A Student Schedule](<a href=“http://pass.calpoly.edu/init.do]Plan”>http://pass.calpoly.edu/init.do)</p>
<p>You can check enrollment limits for various classes, along with current enrollment for the current quarter, if you are concerned about the size of classes.</p>
<p>Hi
saw your post on col. conf. and am wondering if youa at CPSLO? If so are you in engineering? If so do you know if there are Weed out classes in the first two years :
classes where they loose a large % of students through the testing and curves of the exams ? If so which are they?</p>
<p>Is there a significant amount of help available to the student for the first two year via learning resources, peer tutoring, or availability of profs. 1/1?</p>
<p>How is the student advising relationship? Is there any sort of upper class mentoring?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>