We are hoping for some guidance to help my son choose which school to attend in the fall of 2016 for ME.
Which school is best for education and post education (job or grad school).
Because of scholarships and grants, UC Davis is by far the least expensive, followed by Cal Poly SLO, and then SDSU (twice as expensive as Davis).
Son is laid back and loves the outdoors, but GF will be attending SDSU.
Taking all of the above into consideration, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
@calimomof2, I don’t usually make outright declarative statements when it comes to situations like these, but of those schools, for ME, hands down Cal Poly. Their approach to education, small classes, all taught by professors with the “Learn by Doing” approach produces outstanding engineers that are in high demand. In the CENG alone Poly has over 80 labs, several of which are solely for student projects and incubators. The ME curriculum is very innovative getting students into engineering right out of the gate instead of two solid years of book work before they get their hands dirty. ME placement is very good with most students landing jobs before they graduate and 99% employed in engineering within 6 months of graduation. Students there always seem happy even though the school work is very difficult in engineering. Plus, the location for a person that’s into the outdoors is great (as long as their only outdoor hobby isn’t skiing :D).
If I seem ebullient, it’s because I am. We felt for what Cal Poly offered it was a good deal even at OOS rates, $249/hour more than your son will pay.
They suffer from the typical things that afflict state schools. The campus food isn’t great. The scheduling system can be a chore. It’s a little homogeneous. No school is perfect though. On balance, Poly is pretty awesome.
Oh, if you’re into rankings, the ME program is a perennial top 5 for schools that don’t offer PhDs, currently at #3 behind Olin and Rose-Hulman, but ahead of all the service academies and Mudd.
With all that said, he needs to visit, ideally while classes are in session and with tours specific to engineering. His gut will clarify things for him.
Good luck!
I agree Cal Poly SLO is a great school and its’ ME dept hard to beat. Plus SLO is just about one of the best places to live!
One additional thing. If your son is absolutely convinced he wants to do ME or engineering in general CalPoly is the better choice academically, professionally, job placement, etc. If he has doubts though and might want to switch to another field in the future, UC Davis will certainly have better options. Both of them seem better deals than SDSU.
@calimomof2, I forgot to add, the girlfriend…
As much as I was certain about a things life at his age too, it doesn’t seem wise to pick UCSD for multiple reasons. First, although it’s ME program is decent, it’s not Davis and certainly not Poly. Second, it’s way more money. Third, and probably the thing he’d have the toughest time dealing with, HS relationships often don’t translate well into college. Then he’d be stuck with an ex, paying too much, for his worst academic option.
Note, engineering is hard, everywhere. As a result the college of engineering is often the largest exporter of major changers at universities. It is at Poly, typically because the student will decide they can’t/don’t want to work that hard. If he wanted to move within the CENG, that’s easy as ME and Aero are the hardest admits in the first place. If he wanted to leave engineering entirely, that’s easy too, but the number of majors might be low compared to UCD.
Again, good luck!
Hi there,
I’m an ME senior at Cal Poly currently and I have several friends both at SDSU and UC Davis so I hope I can give as unbiased an opinion as possible.
UC Davis is by far the better option for if your son wants to go to grad school. Whether it is a master’s or PhD, research experience is one of the most important criteria in grad school applicants. UC Davis in and of itself is a research university and will provide many opportunities during the school year and out of it for your son to build his resume because there are just so many more research positions available. Here at Cal Poly, there’s only like 10 ME faculty members with research projects and about 20 undergrad research positions available split between them (there are 250 ME’s in my year alone I believe). That’s not to say he can’t do research at another university during his summers, but Cal Poly is not very focused on making those opportunities known to its students.
For a good career right out of school, Cal Poly is hands down the best option. Cal Poly is focused on providing internship and career-simulating opportunities. It prepares undergrads immediately for the workforce and I say that not just on my own accord, but by the information I gathered from my peers at other universities and by the sheer number of companies trying to recruit engineers from Cal Poly. Silicon Valley and the defense industry have a heavy hand and is deep in the pockets of the college of Engineering.
I, myself, recently got an offer from Apple at one of the two, week-long “networking sessions” that they hold every year at Cal Poly. Google, Amazon, and Northrop Grumman both hold similar recruitment weeks and other big name companies will hold day long recruitment sessions throughout the year. If it gives you an idea of how much Cal Poly wants to put their graduates in jobs, the mechanical engineering department sends out a weekly newsletter to its students usually with information about what companies are coming to “network” that week along with 2/3 new internship positions that are available around California.
My friends at other universities are usually astounded because their universities usually push them to start studying for GRE’s, or at least have graduate school be in the back of their mind as the end goal. So, I would say that both schools are great, but they have different priorities. I know more than a handful of Cal Poly graduates who have gone on to do PhD’s at MIT and Standford, and I’ve also met Davis people who I’ll be working with at Apple this summer. They’re just less likely to compared to the other school.
Also Cal Poly is also only a 5 hour drive, so weekend visits to SD are possible whereas travel back forth from Davis will take 2 days off of any break. Also, Cal Poly is more mountainous and hike-y nature whereas Davis is more of a flat, plain, cowland, agriculture nature. (One of my ex-gf went to Davis and this was the comparison that we developed)
can similar comments apply to electrical engineering between SLO and UCLA?
Yes. Majority of UC engineers are working to do grad school because that is the UC philosophy, whereas Cal Poly is more post-Bachelor employment focused. I’m not sure of the companies going for recruitment at LA
@newapplicant, I agree that Poly produces engineers that are the most prepared to jump right into a job. The UCs still however place far more people into the workforce than into grad school. The difference is in the percentage who go to grad school and the school’s overall attitude towards placing students into graduate programs. For example, 29% of UCB’s engineering graduates decided to go on for advanced degrees. UCB is widely considered to be the most research oriented of the UCs. As @NLinsanity said, Poly grads have gotten positions in many of the famous graduate programs, it’s just most students aren’t looking for that. Those who are, need to make their own way by setting up GRE, doing UG research, etc. If you choose to go for an advanced degree a Poly education will have you VERY prepared to succeed there too. BTW, you might be hearing more about GRE at Poly as time goes on because it’s now required to be admitted into the 4+1 program. Good luck.