My D was happily admitted to SLO for Mech Eng. She really liked the tours (now awaiting UCLA, Berkeley decisions).
Regarding SLO internships:
What process do SLO students go through to find internships?
Is it through a SLO resource like Job Fairs or do they find them on their own?
Do students do meaningful work related to major?
Is it realistic to find internships after freshman year?
Are internships paid?
Is there a SLO resource to ‘find’ students to talk with - I think it would be really helpful to talk to senior MEs or even grads to get their perspective but not sure how to find them outside of this forum.
My D is desperately hunting for internships now for summer before college as she wants to do something “meaningful” but barring paying some company $$$ to send her overseas, she hasn’t found anyone willing to take her on here (yet). So I know she’ll be chasing an internship after freshman year.
I should contact SLO on this, but like to get input from students, parents. Any insight is appreciated.
Is there a resource at her high school? Our high school has a part-time resource (one day a week I think) who works with students on internships in the county. Our older son (who will be in ME at CPSLO this fall as well!) started his unpaid summer internship with our city’s engineering department, which became an extended paid internship. Although it’s not ME, more civil, he’s enjoying the work and opportunity.
If this internship hadn’t worked out, DS was going to contact smaller engineering firms and see if they’d be willing to have a high school intern, so your daughter might try that route as well.
What process do SLO students go through to find internships?
Tough before Junior year, really easy after landing that first internship
Is it through a SLO resource like Job Fairs or do they find them on their own?
I went to an Apple networking event on campus for my Apple internship, but the other offers I got were either at job fairs or through the mustangJobs website for Cal Poly students.
Do students do meaningful work related to major?
Lmao yes. Very meaningful, like getting flown out overseas and getting my name on a patent when I interned at Apple.
Is it realistic to find internships after freshman year?
No, unless they’re in an underserved population in Engineering (women, black, Hispanic, etc). Companies like Facebook and Amazon have specific “internships” for those populations, but the work is often less meaningful and are designed as training programs to get them work ready by their Junior year.
Are internships paid?
As an engineering student, never do an unpaid internship. They’re usually scams and your child would be better off spending the summer at a community college knocking out class GE requirements. Most internships pay around 20$/hour but tech companies like Apple was coughing up 40$/hour + overtime pay.
Is there a SLO resource to 'find' students to talk with - I think it would be really helpful to talk to senior MEs or even grads to get their perspective but not sure how to find them outside of this forum.
Not that I remember. They exist but I didn’t really use them
Trying to find an internship this late will definitely be difficult. Some good suggestion s have been posted above. Your DD should not feel bad if she can’t get one this summer. Have her get any job this summer. Because when it comes time to apply for summer internships, companies want to see if you’re a responsible adult and won’t flake out on them. Just be aware that the vast majority of incoming engineering freshman will have had no internship experience at all.
I also would advise strongly in knocking out some GEs at a local CC and maybe brushing up on calculus/physics prior to fall. Rather be safe than sorry in the transition from HS to college and the fast moving quarter system.
The best way to implement @rxcat85’s advice is to look online for the syllabus and old tests for the classes she’ll be testing out of. Take the tests, timed. If they’re a breeze, no problem. Rusty though, go to Kahn and brush up. My son started in Honors Calc III. It took a 5 on the BC exam to be invited. He did a little refresher and got an A. I remember distinctly though when he told us there were students who scored in the 30s on the first test. No curve. The moral of the story…don’t assume the AP credit guarantees preparedness.
Thanks for all advice.
Helps to understand more about SLO resources.
Some of our other experience:
My older daughter (BioEng at Berkeley) did an unpaid internship after her freshman year through a “Berkeley Global Internship” program. If accepted into the program, they work with contacts in select cities (Singapore, Paris, Mumbai, Toronto…) to find you a suitable placement. We had to pay for her housing/meals, and she was not paid. I believe some internships might offer a small stipend, but I think there is a work Visa issue. It was an investment for sure. But - she got excellent experience, worked directly on a Biomed project which culminated in her making a project presentation on her own, and received publication credit. She said one of her most valuable lessons was learning that she needn’t be a BioEng to do this line of work - her boss was a EE, the other project lead was a CS, and she ended up switching to ElecEng (EECS) after this. The unpaid internship experience definitely helped her land a great paid internship after her sophomore year.
During our campus tours, parents often asked what kids should do the summer before freshman year. All the admissions people said they “should just relax, it’s the last summer they’ll be able to.”
Also, I heard that Engineering students should not test out of first year Physics regardless of how well they did on AP. What was your son’s experience with that?
@rxcat85
How do we verify if a GE at a CC is transferable to SLO?
@NLsanity
What is your major? I’m seeing a lot of intern opps for CS which is not surprising. Wondering how the other disciplines fare.
@byebyebaby, he went straight into Physics II and did well. He had to get old tests from the department though. They weren’t online. After he explained why he wanted them, they happily emailed them.
@byebyebaby As mentioned, use assist.org to see which classes from your local CC articulate with CP, playing attention to the year the the articulation was made. Also remember that GE area on assist is different from CP’s GE. You can find it here
I keep a copy of this hanging around and have helped my 2 cal poly engineering students navigate CC classes that have all transferred with no problems.
As mentioned before, I wouldn’t stress of your D doesn’t get an internship. My son didn’t get one until after junior year nor did he worked the summers before that. My agreement with him was if he wasn’t working, he needed to take classes at the CC and get rid of GEs and save me money. Good thing the local CC he attended also had lower division engineering classes offered during the summer. So he was able to take statics, dynamic, calc 4, and strength of materials (=mate 210) during the summer. It really helped lighten the workload for him during junior and senior year. In fact the last few quarters prior to graduation he had to scramble and find classes to get 12 units to qualify as a full time student. It also helped when he failed an engineering major course and had to retake it, but didn’t fall behind and still graduated on time because of all those engineering summer courses he took.
@byebyebaby I also forgot to mention whether you tried asking family, friends, acquaintances if they know anyone who’s an engineer. If so, maybe the can give your D a heads up on whether they themselves or their company is planning to hiring any interns in the summer. I’m sure most incoming freshman who have done an internship prior to college get them this way. That’s how my D got hers and will be doing her third internship at her Dad’s aerospace company. And she’s only a freshman! Unfortunately son was an BRAE major and hubs (master in EE) couldn’t help him in finding one.
@byebyebaby I missed the fact that you stated your older D is an EE. Maybe she has colleges who can hook up little sis with an internship. Does not have be in ME, but any engineering field would be fine. If she lands an internship in EE, she might find out she maybe interested in the electro-mechanical aspect and follow the mechanotronic concentration offered at CP, or change her major to another engineering flavor entirely.
Thanks for all advice. Yes we’ve been asking around. Our circle so far does not have many Eng’g leads.
For engineers out there…how would you recommend a student contact your firm about a possible summer position? Through HR? Contacting an Engineer directly? Lots of digging to do, but she’s willing to try.
For context, I am a Cal Poly junior studying ME.
Here are my thoughts:
What process do SLO students go through to find internships?
Is it through a SLO resource like Job Fairs or do they find them on their own?
We have 3 job fairs every year, plus a site called “mustang jobs” where companies can post job openings. It’s also important to be looking at online job boards and applying to other openings that are less publicized. I have had 2 different internships. One I found through a family friend that had an opening at his company. The other I applied to online and got an on-campus interview (the company likes hiring from Cal Poly so they sent a recruiter to interview candidates).
Do students do meaningful work related to major?
Yes! Cal Poly’s motto is “learn by doing” and they follow through. As a ME, you are supposed to take an average of three labs per quarter, which gives you a lot of hands on experience.
Is it realistic to find internships after freshman year?
It’s possible but not super likely. I had an internship after freshman year, but I had a connection that helped me get the interview. Most companies won’t even look at resumes from freshmen. However, some companies (usually bigger ones) like to hire freshmen so they can train them early and hopefully keep them on after graduation.
Are internships paid?
Not all internships, but in engineering absolutely. Any ME internship paying <$15/hr is probably not a good internship.
Is there a SLO resource to 'find' students to talk with - I think it would be really helpful to talk to senior MEs or even grads to get their perspective but not sure how to find them outside of this forum.
I know there are a lot of Facebook groups for students who get accepted or their parents/supporters. However, very rarely do current and past undergrad students participate in these things. I only decided to answer some of these posts because I remembered how much I relied on this site when I was applying a few years ago! If you have any specific questions though i’m happy to answer them for you.
@CalPolyAnon Thanks so much for answering - especially during exams! I see so much amazing input from parents, but it’s invaluable to hear from students who are 'living it". Especially to find someone in same major.
What has your SLO ME experience been like? Has it lived up to what you expected, going in?
Is it true that class sizes are reasonable/small from freshman year?
Do you actually know your profs early on?
Did you have challenges getting in classes?
How would you characterize the student culture in ME - collaborative, competitive, cut-throat, neutral?
Is there anything that you don’t care for at SLO or in Engineering?
I’m glad I could help! Okay, this is going to be long…
What has your SLO ME experience been like? Has it lived up to what you expected, going in?
There have been some ups and downs of course, but overall my experience has been great! To be honest, I had very few expectations going into it, other than that my education would be more hands on than it would at a different college. In that respect, Cal Poly definitely lived up to my expectations (so many labs). I can also tell you that many companies like to hire engineers from Poly because we have more practical experience than most.
Is it true that class sizes are reasonable/small from freshman year?
My major and support class lectures usually have 30-40 students in them, which for me is a good size (enough students that you aren't on the spot all the time but few enough that my professors almost always know my name). I've only had one "large" lecture of about 180 students but it was a special class with all the freshman MEs together, which was actually great for getting to know people in our major.
Labs will be smaller because there is limited lab equipment. My labs usually have 16-24 students and you work in groups of 3-4.
General Education classes (psychology, history, etc.) will probably be larger lectures, but for those classes it really isn't necessary to have a relationship with your professor.
Do you actually know your profs early on?
At a large school like Cal Poly, you usually have new professors every quarter for the first couple of years, and then you start having professors multiple times during your later years. That being said, our professors are very friendly and encourage you to come in to office hours to ask questions or talk if you need to.
Did you have challenges getting in classes?
In general, getting classes can certainly be challenging. Registration happens in order of "degree progress," meaning that the more classes you've taken (including AP classes) the earlier you register, with freshmen registering last. Students often have to "crash" classes, meaning attend on the first day even if you aren't enrolled and try to get an open spot. However, Cal Poly will "block" freshmen into classes for their first couple quarters, so you don't have to worry about registration for awhile.
Personally, I haven't had trouble getting classes because I have had priority registration since sophomore year (I register very early no matter my degree progress). Priority is given for a few reasons, including disability or if you have one of a few specific on-campus jobs.
How would you characterize the student culture in ME - collaborative, competitive, cut-throat, neutral?
Definitely collaborative! I was worried about that myself because most schools try to make they students compete. And while yes sometimes our classes have literal competitions, we all root for each other! If I meet someone new and find out we're both MEs, there's an immediate bond/understanding that makes it easy to get along. My closest friends are all MEs because you spend a lot of time together in class/studying/etc. and we all have similar personalities.
Is there anything that you don't care for at SLO or in Engineering?
The registration system can be difficult/annoying as described above. We also over-admitted last year so classes have been especially impacted (but I've heard they lowered acceptance rates this year to deal with it). While our profs are amazing, admin has a less amazing reputation. There have been issues with admin giving a lot more money to admin than to profs/equipment/facilities/etc that would actually help students. Parking also sucks on campus and in SLO (its very limited so you have to get used to walking a lot).
Biggest challenge so far?
Classes! Cal Poly is a good school, and that means our engineering classes are hard (and mechanical is one of the hardest engineering disciplines). It was definitely an adjustment for me my first quarter. In high school I was the kid that never studied and got perfect grades, but you can't do that in college. Cal Poly recommends 25-35 hours of studying/week. I probably only did 15 hrs/wk my freshman year, but now i do more like 30 on a regular week and 40-50 before exams. Add in 20-25 hours of class/week (those lab hours add up!) and it can be hard to balance school/work/social life/sleep.
However, Cal Poly does a pretty good job of starting you out slow with introductory classes and easing you into the difficult ones. I've always felt prepared for the classes I'm in. We also have a ton of resources for tutoring, time management help, study sessions, workshops, etc. to help. Basically, if you're willing to put in the effort there's no reason you can't succeed.
Are you glad you chose SLO?
Absolutely, it was the best decision of my life. A big part of this is my friends and SO that I met here, but I also love the campus and community. For me, Cal Poly is home. However, I also believe that I would've been just as happy if I had gone somewhere else. At the end of the day, college is college and your daughter is going to have a great time wherever she ends up!
