congrats. He will know whether he fits into Berkeley or SLO. But SLO will be cheaper i guess.
SLO and Berkeley are so different in just about every way possible.
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Lol. One is slo and the other is fastā¦very fast.
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Congratulations! Iāve been following your updates since the fall. Iām excited to see where your son finally decides to attend.
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My son wants to attend Cal Poly SLO. I asked him if he gets in at Berkely or LA, will he change his decision and the answer is NO. He is worried about housing at UCB and costs at UCs in general.
He says SLO is best for what he wants in CS(Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning track) with minor in Political science(dont know if its allowed).
We will attending admitted students days on April 13 & 14.
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Itās a different experience. Itās important that he knows what he wants.
Our son wouldnāt even apply to UCB or UCLA. Theyāre both great schools, but the large lectures and reliance on TAs turned him off. Others rave about those programs.
At the end of the day, his success will be in his hands.
Congrats to him, and enjoy the visit!
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Yes he will be able to minor in Poli Sci. That is one of the biggest advantageous of CSUās, the minors.
Especially at Cal Poly a lot of kids come in with credits from DE and APās and leave Cal Poly with double and triple majors and minors all in 4 years and some do it under 4 years.
I have quite few friends kids who graduated from Cal Poly with double majors in 3 years and completely employed before they finished school.
I personally went to a UC and while at the time no one could have told me different about a UC degree/education, I have converted and see the light, specifically of Cal Poly SLO.
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Sounds like he knows what he wants. However, I would encourage him to keep an open mind though. Kids can be very weird when it comes to definitive statements like this. Last year, son swore up and down that UCSB was his #1 but the closer he got to the commit date the farther he started drifting away. When I asked him why, he said he didnāt expect to get into most of the other schools and had UCSB as his #1 target because he simply didnāt envision other possibilities.
Who knows he might get into UCLA and fall in love with the campus, or he might get into Cal and come back jazzed from Cal day. Good luck - he has some amazing options.
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CPSLO minor in political science requires 28 units of courses, described at Political Science Minor | Cal Poly Academic Catalog .
CPSLO major in CS has 0 free elective units and 8 general education units that political science courses can be used for (Area D1 and D2), described at BS Computer Science | Cal Poly Academic Catalog .
A student doing that combination of major and minor would need 200 instead of the usual 180 units of courses. This can be done by overloading somewhat to an average of 17 instead of 15 units per quarter. It can also be helpful if the student has AP or IB scores or college courses completed while in high school that are accepted for lower level requirements.
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Most universities offer electives in AI and ML. I would say the āfitā and to a lesser extent āfinancesā would be more important criteria to narrow it down ā¦
He will have 7 APs by the time he goes to college.
AP English Language and Composition - 5
AP Psychology - 4
AP United States History - 5
AP World History: Modern -5
Yet to write final test:
AP Calclus AB
AP English Lit & Composition
AP Stats
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Very true - UCB is not everyoneās cup of tea. Also true is that it has great AI/ML classes, and lab opportunities.
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| AP score | GE area | course |
|---|---|---|
| 5 English language | A2 | ENGL 134 |
| 4 psychology | E | PSY 201 or 202 |
| 5 US history | part of D1 | elective units only |
| 5 world history | D2 | HIST 223 |
| 3-5 calculus AB | B4 | MATH 141 |
| 3 English literature | A2 | ENGL 134 (duplicates English language) |
| 4-5 English literature | A2 & C2 | ENGL 134 |
| 3 statistics | B4 | STAT 130 (not useful for CS) |
| 4-5 statistics | B4 | STAT 217, 218, or 251 (not useful for CS) |
Based on the above, the upcoming ones that are most important to clear requirements are:
- 3-5 on calculus AB: fulfills MATH 141, so can start in MATH 142
Note that the CS major already covers B1, B2, B3, B4 and C2 general education, while the political science minor already covers the D1 and D2 general education.
So he has 8 units of A2 and E general education cleared from previous AP scores, and a high enough calculus AB score will clear another 4 units of requirements for the CS major.
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As @ucbalumnus said, it can be done. Itās not even a huge overload. The ME BS is 200 hours. Our son walked with a ME BS and thesis based MS in 5 relatively calm years.
The question is why? Most minors, particularly those that donāt expand oneās tech background, arenāt worth the trouble they cause.
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I would advice him not to take Poli Sci but heās passionate about it.
I want him to do combined BS-MS so he may graduate in 4-4.5 years but it will be his decision.
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I remember your journey. Didnāt you have a reservation for a hotel halfway between SLO and SB for admitted student weekend?
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You can be very passionate about something, learning a bunch, and not get a minor, or even take any college classes in the subject.
Our son was a conservatory level musician, still playing to this day, and he didnāt take a single music class in college.
His engineering specialty is something that he has no formal training in. It was the totality of the rest of his training, project and job experiences that laid the platform for him to be able to do what he does now.
Your son has to envision his job application in a pool of others at Apple, Google, Facebook, etc. He has 25ish hours of poly sci while many of the others have 25 hours of deeper and broader CS experience. Who will they choose?
This is the romance stage, but those classes come at a cost.
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No, I have a reservation in SLO itself. Son wants to attend Thursday activity, so we start around 11 am(~4 hours from our home).
I wanted to see if he wants to take a Cal Poly Pomona tour on Thursday(13th) but he asked me to cancel it.
Lol, ya. I had 2 and canceled one since we chose to go to UCSB and hadnāt received a CalPoly decision by that time.
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Are you in San Mateo? SLO gets a lot of people from the peninsula.