<p>I know Cal Poly is a GREAT Engineering school, but does any of that prestige transfer over to Computer Science? Is Cal Poly still a top-tier west school when you look at its CS department?</p>
<p>im wondering too..</p>
<p>Hey! I got in for Comp Sci too! haha.</p>
<p>cross posting from:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-davis/673985-ucd-vs-cal-poly-slo-computer-science.html#post1062078746%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-davis/673985-ucd-vs-cal-poly-slo-computer-science.html#post1062078746</a></p>
<hr>
<p>Which school would be the better option?</p>
<p>I have never heard UCD as being strong in CS - how is their CS program?</p>
<p>Cal Poly on the other hand, is herald as a great choice for engineering. CS is in Cal Poly's College of Engineering, can I assume that Cal Poly's CS program is strong based on being in the same college as their other engineering majors? How is Cal Poly's CS program?</p>
<p>The main criteria I am considering is prestige and quality of education.</p>
<p>Any help would be appreciated, thank you</p>
<p>I second this! Anyone care to reply?</p>
<p>I am third year CSC major @ Cal Poly... Which means I'm almost halfway done!</p>
<p>In short, CSC (CS stands for Crop Science around here) at Cal Poly is basically Software Engineering lite. Nearly every class involves a lot of reading and writing code. I'd even say that the curriculum is exactly the same right through the first software Engineering class (CPE 308-309 if you are looking through the catalog). CSC oddly enough requires less math (although you have the option of taking more math for your technical electives) than Software Engineering... And um.. That's about it. In reality, we are somewhat distant from the rest of the College of Engineering in terms of the classes we take. No statics, dynamics or thermodynamics (though, again, you can take statics as a tech elective). CPE is a lot closer. In fact, they have to take a bunch of EE classes, and they can take a good chunk of 'our' classes too (oddly enough, a good deal of CSC and SE classes have the CPE prefix... Again, I don't know why) </p>
<p>I've heard someone rated CSC rather highly... No idea who or on what basis. Honestly, I'm not sure what those ratings even mean in terms of educational experience. </p>
<p>Links:
<a href="http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/forms/csc-flowchart-2007-2009.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/forms/csc-flowchart-2007-2009.pdf</a> <--- That's the CSC 'Flowchart' showing roughly what you should be taking. In reality, it's quarter breakdowns are very unrealistic, even if you never fail a class. But, it's still a good guide of what the required stuff is.
<a href="http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/forms/se_flow0709.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/forms/se_flow0709.pdf</a> <--- The SE 'Flowchart'
<a href="http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/forms/cpe-flowchart-2007-2009.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/forms/cpe-flowchart-2007-2009.pdf</a> <-- The CPE 'Flowchart'</p>
<p>Thank you bjornredtail. How is the CSC flowchart unrealistic? Are you simply unable to take so many classes? Also, does this mean that you need 5 years to get the major?</p>
<p>Also, I may be wrong, but when comparing CS in Cal Poly to Davis, I noticed that Cal Poly had a lot more required courses for the major than Davis. Pretty much every quarter is pre-determined for you, with only a few tech electives here and there. Do you feel this is very restrictive? That you do not have openings to take specific CS courses you would like to more specialize in?</p>
<p>How is the SE major? Does its new-ness give it a disadvantage when applying for jobs later on (companies being unfamiliar with the major)?</p>
<p>Also, is it easy to transfer between CSC-CPE-SE? I was accepted under CSC, but I really don’t know what I want to do yet.</p>
<p>I’d say all of the College of Engineering flowcharts are unrealistic. For one, you will have bad registration rotations. So, you might not be able to get a classes you wish. For another, they call for around 16 units at a time. If that’s 2 GE’s, a Support Class, and a programming class, that’s acctually reasonable. I’ve done a quarter like that, plus 3 units of music performance classes which are vastly undercounted tine-to-unit wise. However, GE’s fill up fast, so you might be stuck doing 16 units of programming. That’s hard. Mind you, some are able to do it… I’m just not one of them. </p>
<p>The CSC major has 20 or 24 (depending which software engineering series you take) units of tech electives… That’s what, 5-6 classes. They can be a lot of odd non-programming things too. Calculus, Statics… But, most are ‘programming’ classes of one sort or another. Things like DBMS implementation, Networks, Graphics… And so on. So, that’s acctually quite a few tech electives. </p>
<p>CSC, SE, and CPE are all the same in the first year. If you’d like a taste of CPE, pay attention in CPE 129/169. (Also, avoid Sandige in that class if at all possible). That’s the one of the first circuit design classes… It deals with things like gates and stuff like that. You could even go all the way through your second year without any ‘lost classes’. So, a change wouldn’t be that hard. I really wouldn’t know what, if any effect it would have on your marketability to employers… Particularly between Cal Poly’s SE and CSC. There’s quite a bit more difference between CSC and CPE than between SE and CSC, particularly at Cal Poly.</p>