<p>Hi. I’m applying to Cal Poly for mechanical engineering and I live on the east coast, so most people I know haven’t heard of this school. I’ve looked up as much information as I can, but I won’t get to visit until I get in. I’d just like to hear from anyone who went/goes there, what their favorite/least favorite things about the school are, so I can get a better picture of it. Thanks a lot.</p>
<p>Favorite things:
-Strong education (especially in Engineering) at a bargain price
-Small Class Sizes
-Awesome Weather
-15 minutes from the Beach
-College Town
-Sporting Events
-Parties
-Diversity is getting much better</p>
<p>Least Favorite things:
-In the middle of NOWHERE (3.5 hours to SF, 4 to LA WITHOUT traffic)
-Graduate school placement does not seem as strong as the other UC's (important for me since I hope to go to graduate or professional school)
-Administrative problems (Not being able to register for certain required classes)
-Campus food (Both price and quality)</p>
<p>Where from the east coast are you from? If you're from a big city like NYC or Boston, then expect SLO to be different.</p>
<p>slo is not 3.5 hours away from sf and 4 hours away from la. </p>
<p>more like 4 hours to sf and about 2-3 to la depending on traffic. unless you mean like downtown la, but if you are going to like north la then it doesn't take as long as 4 hours.
i think the placement is nice because you get the feel of a small college town near the beach, but you can still have access to like the big metropolitan areas like sf and la....</p>
<p>the central coast is probably one of the most beautiful places in all of california....i doubt you would ever regret going there.</p>
<p>My mistake. I counted how long it takes me to get back home (I live in the suburbs east of LA)</p>
<p>yeah definitely. i used to live in antelope valley, and it would definitely take 4+ hours to get up north in moderate traffic.</p>
<p>Okay, I've lived in northern california, southern california, and now I live about 20 minutes south of Cal Poly SLO. </p>
<p>With good traffic conditions, driving at least 70 mph, you can get to downtown L.A. in a little under 3 hours. </p>
<p>With good traffic in the Bay Area, driving at least 70, you can get to San Francisco in about 4 hours minimum. </p>
<p>But with bad traffic, which is more the rule than the exception in these places, getting to L.A. can take as much as 6 hours, and with equally bad traffic, getting to San Francisco is about the same. Although the Bay Area is farther in terms of actual distance, the traffic factor is much worse in Southern California, so the disparity in distance is somewhat diminished.</p>
<p>Is Cal Poly a party school? I'm more of a quiet, reserved type of person so I'd rather go to a school where you can study in peace with students that are serious about education. Does Cal Poly fit that description?</p>
<p>Hmmm studying in peace is a non-issue, since most people have to study to stay off of Academic Probation because the material is difficult. In my opinion, there's plenty of partying done here, but there are also plenty of people who stay away from the party scene. If you want to find a party you can, if you want to stay away from that kind of thing you can too without a problem.</p>
<p>How's the political leaning at the school? Is the student body more "conservative" than most colleges, with a lot of young Republicans running around, or would you say most kids are still pretty liberal?</p>
<p>i don't think its possible to lean towards one side anymore. it's probably pretty even in the political spectrum just that a lot more liberal people are more vocal than the conservatives, like most schools these days...</p>