<p>I am a senior from a public high school and I was admitted as an electrical engineering major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Although I was really excited to get accepted here, my incredibly practical father did not share my same enthusiasm. He believes that I should attend a local community college and then transfer to UCLA but I desperately do not want to do that. What should I do?</p>
<p>As a side note, my guess is that Cal Poly would cost me around 80,000 over 4 years to attend while the local community college and live at home idea would cost around 45000-50000. My father said he could afford around 40000-45000 for my education.</p>
<p>Well if money is a huge issue for you, then community college might be a better option. However, if you transferred to UCLA, wouldn’t two years or so of attending be fairly expensive as well? Plus, you are assuming you would get into UCLA…Not saying you wouldn’t, but you never know…Cal Poly has a really good EE program. It’s also really hard. I think it’s considered the most difficult engineering program here by most students. Of course, it also depends where your strengths lie. It probably comes more naturally to some people than others. Pretty sure that EE generally have nice starting salaries out of school too.</p>
<p>Congratulations on getting into Cal Poly for EE. Quite an accomplishment! This is where you get your introduction to adulthood and start making decisions for yourself. I suggest that you go to Cal Poly and do everything that you need to do to make it happen.</p>
<p>(1) Cal Poly is one of the highest rated EE programs in the US and in California, as long as you graduate with a 3.0 GPA or higher, have decent social skills and can market yourself, you will have a job soon after graduation or before.
Your incredibly practical father is missing one point. There is no guarantee that you will even be able to transfer to UCLA from a CC. Neither you nor your Dad can decide that. Only UCLA can grant you admission. You will have to go through the entire application process again and should you decide go to Cal Poly at that time, the transfer acceptance rates are far, far lower than for new HS grads.
(2) Thank your Dad for his generous offer of $40,000 to $45,000 for you education. Take the offer and then figure out ways to pay the remainder yourself. I am not joking, kids do it all the time and now is as good as any to get started. It is your life and time to take responsibility for it. There are federal and state aid options, local scholarships, school scholarships, private scholarships and loans. Research all of them and get familiar with what is available. Do not be afraid to consider loans. A good EE can garner a substantial salary and you have chosen one of the highest paid majors in the field of engineering. EE graduates from Cal Poly earn a median starting salary of $65,000 with the upper 25% earning from $70,000 (common) to $115,000 (rare, but possible). When you graduate, you can expect results like this: <a href=“https://www.careers.calpoly.edu/search.php[/url]”>https://www.careers.calpoly.edu/search.php</a>
Additionally, my kid has friends doing co-ops that will earn them $20,000 and internships where they will get paid about $10,000. All this can go towards your education and any debt reduction. By the way, Cal Poly grads generally have a higher starting and mid-career salaries than ones from UCLA. Show your Dad this: [url=<a href=“California State University puts price on education – The Mercury News”>California State University puts price on education – The Mercury News]California</a> State University puts price on education - San Jose Mercury News<a href=“3”>/url</a> Teaching methodology. Cal Poly is unique in this market with its hands on learn by doing teaching methodology and your future is worth the investment. Only Cal Poly Pomona is like SLO from this standpoint. But SLO is the better program.</p>
<p>Be decisive; be clear in what you want. Pencil out the pros and cons and make a choice. Find the money, take a risk and study extremely hard. Focus on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and get there as cheaply as you can. Use OPM (other people’s money) as much as possible, but do not be afraid to put some skin in the game. After all it is your life. Sorry, to be so strong in my opinions here. But, it is your decision where you go to school not your father’s. Your Dad has done something very generous. He has given you a budget of $40,000 to $45,000. My folks basically gave me nothing except a little spending money for groceries in college. You can make this happen. Go to your dream school and do not be penny wise pound foolish. Go to Cal Poly and work you tail off. Take time off for co-ops and internship and do a great job while you are working at them. Then graduate with a job – often with offers from the same companies that you worked for in college.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that you start in your major courses right away at Cal Poly. My son was considering going to the local CC to save money and use their transfer agreements to UCSB. (I should be happy as his mom that he wanted to save money, I know) However,the agreement only guarantees you into the UC, not necessarily into a particular major especially if its a competitive major like engineering. Also, what I noticed was that many of the classes you would need to take by your third or fourth year have prerequisites that were not offered at the local CC; therefore, you would need to spend an additional year or two getting those out of the way in order to get further in your major. At least this is what happened to many of my friends that went the CC route first. It took them an additional 2 years or more to graduate anyways. I’m sure it’s not always the case, but it does happen.</p>
<p>You should also tell your dad, if he is not aware, UCLA is a more expensive school and will be 30-32K a year. Two years at UCLA will be close in cost to three years at Cal Poly.</p>