Hello there. I’m an international student but a resident of CA(green card holder and CA ID). I’m interested in Aerospace Engineering and have so far gotten into Cal Poly SLO, UCD,UCI instate and CU Boulder, WPI(with a good scholarship), RPI, Colorado School of mines, etc. I’m still waiting on UCB, CMU and Umich. As far as in-state is concerned Cal Poly is the best option I have because of placements, quality of education is concerned. Also I qualify for in-state tuition. Thing is, although my parents are willing to pay OOS for Boulder, CMU or Michigan(if I get into these places), I don’t really want to put that burden on them(we are not that well off). I know I can take student loans but I also don’t want to end up paying it off for the next ten years neither do I want my parents to take that up. I’m really happy with Cal Poly but I have a few concerns:
Although I'm interested in AE, I'm not that mature/knowledgeable enough to jump into that straight, so I may want to do ME/EE in my undergraduation. I heard that switching from AE to EE will be easier at Cal Poly as compared to UCs because EE is a lesser competitive major than AE. Is this true?
I do want to pursue post graduation after my undergrad, but on an assitantship (working for some time).While Cal Poly is a great school which prepares you for a job is it important to go to a prestigious college for masters? Would a degree from Cal Poly be good enough to get me to a good grad school (apart from work experience)?
Assuming I go on to grad school, is it really important where you do your undergrad as long as the program is ABET accredited?
Sorry for the long post, I’m just scared about college.
First, don’t assume you’ll go to graduate school. Things happen. You might get burned out, find an awesome job, meet a girl, who knows. Plan as though your BS will be your final degree, but keep your grades high in the event you do decide to go to grad school.
Cal Poly does have a good enough reputation to get you into a good grad school. ME students frequently attend Stanford for grad school.
I don’t believe Michigan, Boulder or CMU will improve your career outlook over Cal Poly. There’s no way you’ll come close to even breaking even with the extra money you’ll spend, if you factor in the opportunity cost over a career.
If it makes you feel any better, my son chose to go to Cal Poly from out of state for ME and pay the premium, because he felt it offered the type of program he was looking for. He’s now a Masters Candidate at Cal Poly. He had the stats to get into UCB, but didn’t even apply. He didn’t want to go to a school with big lectures and heavy reliance on TAs. Thus, he skipped over LOTS of schools with good reputations for engineering, because he felt the reputations weren’t necessarily reflective of how they educated undergrads. He was a Rensselaer Medalist, so he applied to RPI, because he was guaranteed money. It didn’t resonate with him though. Interestingly, the school he waited until the very last moment to pass over, WPI.
Wow, the coincidences. Yes, the greatest reason for my leaning towards Cal Poly is that I hate the big ‘theoretical lectures’ and that I learn a lot better with ‘learn by doing’. Frankly I’m new to the country(international student but CA instate-tuition wise) and do not really care about prestige. It’s just that everybody around me are freaking me out saying that CP is a CSU and will not land me into grad school. Anyways, I will have to visit the campus and talk to the students and counselors there before making a final decision.
It’s just because they only have a superficial grasp. They are basing their opinions on reputation, and most engineering program reputations are based on the graduate programs, not the undergraduate experience.
As for the theoretical lecture, you’ll get those at Cal Poly, in a big way (and trust me, you want the theoretical background). They won’t be big lectures though. What makes Cal Poly special, is that almost every class has a lab with it. Instead of a class simply being the math of vibrations, or thermodynamics, statics, whatever, you’ll have a lab to get a hands on application of what’s taught.