I believe my daughter has used the walk in slots before but they were not helpful at all. Very short time with an advisor and she felt like she was being rushed the whole time. Overall her advising at ucla has been subpar. 
My son is visiting UCLA with my husband today. It was a last minute trip (planned last night) and we were able to grab 2 spots in a tour. With the flights, it was just easier for my husband to go. They’re watching a UCLA baseball game too. But, we’ll all go to Bruin Day with him in April. I didn’t realize that they had engineering tours. Thanks for that information! I’m sure it would be a very helpful tour to see the engineering buildings and student maker spaces. It sounds like we might have to make another trip for that.
The whole family is visiting Cal Poly next week. We’ll again take the tours and watch a baseball game. We’ll also hit farmers market and some of our favorite restaurants.
And you’re right, my request for UCLA cons didn’t come across quite right. 
I honestly don’t know much about UCLA and its engineering program. And of course, I loved attending Cal Poly, it’s familiar to me, and I still love the area. I should definitely be asking for the pros about UCLA too.
My son has always had Cal Poly and UCLA as his top choices from the day he submitted his applications. And honestly, I didn’t expect him to get into UCLA (or Georgia Tech) just because getting admitted is so hard for everyone. I kind of felt similarly about GT until we visited last month, and I ended up really loving the school (and their baseball stadium was very cool, too). So, you’re right, I definitely need to give UCLA a fair shot. My husband has been sending me pictures today, and they’re having a great time. New swag is being bought. I know that if I had been on that trip today, I would have fallen in love with UCLA.
After all that, it really will be his decision. And thanks for pointing out that I need to be enthusiastic about all of his great options that we are so grateful to have. 
This is how I’m feeling towards UCI. I want some specific cons of UCI so we can go with a school that has small class size. But it’s really hard to walk away from UCI. But if I’m really considering my D’s well-being and not the pocket book, I may need to put up a new thread. It’s hard to know if a kid will do well in a very unfamiliar impersonal setting (that’s how I view UCs and it could be wrong). I know she will do well in a small college, but would she at UCI? So I love that she wants more cons 
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I’m right there with you regarding the smaller class sizes and smaller school. I do worry that the UCs are huge research schools that will be more competitive compared to the more collaborative approach at Cal poly. (Again, I’m totally biased since I attended Cal Poly)
Of course, I had the same thoughts about Georgia Tech, and when we were there for admitted students day, they stressed that they foster a collaborative environment, so maybe I am wrong assuming the UCs will be super competitive too.
I was teasing her.
UCI cons - It does not have a college town like UCLA, Davis, UCSB or SLO. It is very quiet on the weekends. Many students go home. Some that stay like having their dorm room to themselves, but others, who want more of a weekend social life, feel frustrated. Personally, I feel that there is less communication (to the students) from admin than at other UCs.
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This is why you should tour the engineering department. Although GEs will be with the masses, the engineering department has a different feel to it.
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Thank you! This helps a lot. Quiet campus is fine. I had assumed it was a college town. But the lack of communication would bother us. I think UCI and UCM have visitors day on the same day so we can only go to one. I don’t want the rankings to influence us as that really does not bother D that one is at 30 something and the other not.
I don’t want take over this thread. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions about UCI.
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Hi all! I have a kid in engineering at UCLA who considered SLO and some other schools. UCLA engineering school is very small in comparison to letters and sciences (as are some other schools that admit direct to major). Counseling is mandatory; they are assigned an academic counselor (usually a professor) that they are required to meet at least once a year. Great opportunities to work in research labs. My kid worked in a lab beginning winter quarter of freshman year and her advisor’s recommendation helped land a competitive internship summer of freshman year. She’ll be working in a different lab (trying out different types of research) this coming quarter. Overall very happy and I’m happy to share what I know. Good luck everyone.
Forgot to add: great hands-on engineering clubs. One of the clubs my kid is heavily involved in helped her get an industry internship this coming summer after a round of technical interviews. She gained tons of knowledge through the clubs.
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One of the reasons my older son chose UCD over SLO was UCD offered more flexibility when changing majors although he never ended up changing.
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Adding one more little tidbit: CalPoly Engineering and Samueli (UCLA) Engineering are about the same size give or take in terms of undergraduates. UCLA is about 4000 and CalPoly is closer to 6000 undergraduates the last time we looked.
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Switching majors at Cal Poly is actually pretty straightforward IF you move to a less competitive admit. That way they keep students from taking the back door into a major that they wouldn’t have been admitted to originally.
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I believe OP wants to change from Nutrition into something in COSAM for pre-med. Isn’t that changing into a more competitive major?
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But how do you know the majors less competitive than the one you entered? My kid got into nutrition as it’s what she’s interested in that’s most related to pre med.
But she is 17 and I can see her easily getting interested in something else.
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Look at the target projections for the current major and intended major. You can get a guesstimate of a possible acceptance rate based by taking the # of FTF applicants which are divided by the # of FTF spots x 3 (assuming a 33% Yield). Again, not definitive since you do not know the GPA admit range for either the current or target major.
Current major Nutrition so what is the target major?
Unless she was way over qualified for nutrition, I would not assume she could switch into biology or something else that competitive. With the table above you can estimate acceptance rate, but that doesn’t tell you the cutoff for a particular major.
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You may want to read the following for changing into business and public health.
For other destination majors, there should be pages describing the criteria for changing to those majors.
It would really be helpful if CPSLO published the MCA (or whatever it is called now) formula and the admission cutoffs for each major each year.
Yes, Other Academic Policies | Cal Poly Academic Catalog says that one of the criteria for changing major is “Eligibility for the proposed major at the time of admission.” CPSLO seems to be one of the few schools that looks back at admission results, rather than considering only what the student has done in college, for changing major.
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Unknown. Her plan is to try to do pre-med as a nutrition major which the pre-med advising team said is common. But my concern is that most pre-med students change their mind. So if that happens, according to your charts she could just change into a handful of majors such as construction management and packaging. It seems 90+% of possible majors she would not qualify for.
I wonder if she can write to them to get an estimate of what majors she could change into it.
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So it’s not a question of changing from one pre-med major to another (i.e nutrition to bio), rather that she just gives up on the pre-med path all together. Apparently only 16% of incoming freshmen pre-med students take the MCAT exam so it’s a very likely outcome.
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