<p>After deciding to attend Fullerton in the Fall, I realized that I do not have much information about their engineering program. A lot of the kids at my high school who are also going there are going into other popular majors there (Business , Psychology, Speech Therapy. etc...) Yet I never hear about the mechanical engineering department. Usually people go to Cal Poly SLO, Pomona, or CSU Long Beach for engineering, but I didn't apply to those schools because of all the money I spent on the UC application. I have already knocked out quite a few credits with my AP courses and scores, as posted in another thread I had put up:</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1600355-chances-of-getting-accepted-to-uc-berkeley.html">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1600355-chances-of-getting-accepted-to-uc-berkeley.html</a></p>
<p>Can anyone give me an idea as to how impressive their mechanical engineering department is? I've only been to the campus once, but I didn't get a chance to go into the engineering department. How large are the classroom sizes? Are there machine shops or electronics labs like many top notch engineering schools (UC Berkeley, MIT, Stanford) have?</p>
<p>People have said that it is an ok program. The two Cal Poly schools have better engineering programs, but Fullerton has a smaller one. I don’t know if they have machine shops or electronics labs like Cal Berkeley has. My friend went to CSU Fullerton for COmputer science and now goes to Cal Tech for grad school. I don’t know a lot about the program however.</p>
<p>Yeah, most people I ask about the engineering program are clueless. They all tell me that no one really goes to CSU Fullerton for engineering. Most of my friends go to Cal, UCLA, and Stanford for engineering. My friends, like I said earlier, are going to CSU Fullerton for other degrees, so I am unsure about the program.</p>
<p>I heard that’s its decent.</p>
<p>For many decades (going back to at least the 70s), CSUFul has had a very good reputation for engg. no need to worry.</p>
<p>the above posts of “decent,” and “ok,” are underestimating the program…completely.</p>
<p>Not to pile on but this is one of those cases of not applying widely enough (application money in the UC and CSU system is money well spent) and getting set on your reach without realizing that you might have to go to your safety, then not knowing anything about it.</p>
<p>I also know someone who went from CSUF to Caltech, but it has been a long time ago. That was in Chemistry, though. They got involved in working in the dept and had good mentorship. They were helping faculty so much that they were giving the faculty seminars on some new area and faculty wanted them to go to Caltech and come back and join them.</p>
<p>The ME program at CSUF is ABET accredited so it fulfills the same curriculum requirements as the other programs. That is all that many employers care about. If the dept is small then you will have a good chance to standout there, impress the faculty and get opportunities, which your strong background.you have every chance to do. As you learn more about the program and develop a resume as an outstanding student, you can evaluate if it is a good idea to transfer or not. Since you can skip some prereqs because of APs, you will be ahead of the pack already.</p>
<p>One thing I notice is that enrollment in ME tripled over the last 5 years, that may be going on everywhere, it goes on in CS, I don’t know. But graduation rates have not increased so much and are very low compared to enrollment. This may just be a general CSU problem with students not continuing because of money problems or family problems or generally unprepared to do the work of Engineering and washing out of the program (the last is common everywhere.) Just something to be aware of, but it also tells you that you will have much smaller classes and good professor access in your upper div coursework. Always keep your eye out for jobs and research you can do in the dept–what kind of things the grad students are doing, and what kind of summer jobs you can get there or business internships.</p>
<p>@BrownParent I applied to seven UCs, as I’ve talked about in other threads. Five of them had run out of room in their programs. UC Berkeley and UCLA rejected me because my stats weren’t as high as those in my class that got accepted. It was devastating, but I’m fully determined to try and transfer. </p>
<p>relax. …csuf is fine for mechE…totally fine. </p>
<p>I just made the comment because you said you picked CSUF and didn’t know much about it, when other ppl were going to the 3 other CSUs mentioned.</p>
<p>
Probably not a great approach. You haven’t spent a day as a student at CSUF and yet already you’re counting the days until you can go somewhere “better”? </p>
<p>For one, you don’t understand what employers look at when hiring college grads. Going to Cal or UCLA doesn’t hurt, for sure, but I can promise you there are kids from CSUF that will beat out a kid from those schools competing for a job. </p>
<p>How? Employers don’t care so much about pedigree as about what you have learned and your potential. The difference in your potential outcomes if you transfer to one of those schools is insignificant compared to the portion under your control. Work to get good grades, take part in some internships (or, better, coops), you will be just fine. And with over 1/2 of all entering engineering students leaving the major your biggest worry isn’t whether you can transfer, its whether you’ll still be in the major a year or two hence.</p>
<p>I just really fell in love with UCLA and UC Berkeley. My aunt, being an alumni from UCLA, would always take me to the campus for many things: Alumni Day, sports events, and other activities. The summer before my senior year I also attended the summer engineering program on campus and was highly impressed by the machinery and equipment, as well as the campus. UCLA was like my second home. Plus my super close friends got accepted this year and I was hoping to have been going to school with them. I also did a summer program at Cal and loved the department. When I started high school, I knew that I wanted to go to either schools and worked super hard to try and be competitive. I know already that engineering is an extremely difficult major, as the classes demand a lot of studying and effort. Yet I know that I can apply myself to try and continue my work ethics that helped me to succeed in high school and apply that ethic in college. I’m not bashing CSU Fullerton. I’m going to summer school and taking a class to get ahead, and I’ve met students who feel the exact same way of the school as I feel towards UCLA and Berkeley. Especially since lots of UC undergrads have the intention of going to graduate school, as CSU undergraduate students want to get a job right after graduation. And to answer those who wanted to know why I didnt apply to the 8 Ivy Leagues or Stanford, my stats would not have been enough to get me into those schools. </p>
<p>Since you mentioned applying to seven UCs including UCR, it is odd that you did not get into UCR, since your stats were so much higher than those needed to sign up for UCR’s GAP program (if you had signed up for it last June/July, you would have been guaranteed admission if you put UCR in your UC application, with no uncertainty about holistic criteria like essays).</p>
<p>Anyway, CSU Fullerton ME should be fine, since it has ABET accreditation. Although, if you are really determined to transfer, consider starting at a community college, if it has coverage of the lower division ME courses for your target schools (see <a href=“http://www.assist.org”>http://www.assist.org</a> ). But that means some uncertainty about transfer admissions. Do well at the community college, and you will have more choices than you had in frosh admissions. Do poorly, and you will have fewer choices.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I already paid the admission fee for CSU Fullerton back May 1. Plus my parents paid A LOT of money for me to go to a top notch high school that they would never let me go to community college. I’m already starting on taking second year ME courses so there’s a slight possibility I might be able to transfer early in order to avoid going over the class credit limit that UCs place on transfer applicants. My friend went to CSU Northridge for business and transferred to Cal Berkeley Haas School of Business after one year due to large amount of AP credits. Like I said UC Riverside, Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara, and San Diego sent me an email twerking me all available spaces in their ME programs were filled. I just wasn’t good enough for Berkeley and UCLA, and the more I reviewed my stats the more I realized I should have done more.</p>
<p>@silas6070</p>
<p>What more do you think you should have done with the following stats?
These were outstanding stats.</p>
<p>•SAT I: 2370 (Reading: 800, Math: 770, Writing: 800)
•ACT: 35
•SAT II: Physics: 800, Math Level 2: 800, and Latin: 780
•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
•UC GPA: 4.64
•Rank (out of number of students in class): 9/162
•AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Physics B (5), AP English Lang. (5), AP Calculus BC (5), AP Biology (4), AP Chemistry (5), AP Physics C (5), AP Literature (5), & AP Government (4)</p>
<p>@StevenToCollege They weren’t outstanding enough to get me accepted into a UC engineering program though. One of my old friends from middle school got into UC Berkeley’s mechanical engineering program (as well as Columbia and Princeton’s), but he had a 4.7 GPA and a PERFECT SAT score, and he only took the test once. I should have been more involved in ECs since Berkeley admitted students were apart of research, started charities or clubs, or other impressive qualifications that made them stand out. My EC’s were just basic and not as impressive. UC’s don’t want braniacs, they want WELL-ROUNDED students. The valedictorian friend I had who got rejected to Cal, UCLA, and San Diego, she had the BEST GPA, almost 4.9 and yet it didn’t do her any good. She wasn’t very involved in school and that’s what ruined her chances.</p>
<p>@silas6070</p>
<p>What EC did your old friend from middle school do?</p>
<p>How many years of experience did you have for the following EC?</p>
<p>Extracurriculars: International Student mentor and tutor, Leader of Mechanical Engineering design team for NASA ISS E. Coli Program, Lead American Representative of Asian/American Alliance</p>
<p>@silas6070</p>
<p>Sorry, few more questions.
As for the valedictorian friend who got rejected by Cal, UCLA, and San Diego, what major did she declare?
What EC did she have?</p>
<p>My friend from middle school can play 5 different instruments (Piano, Flute, Guitar, Violin, and Saxophone), which helped him in music competitions. He was in the Academic Decathlon all four years and won medals for it in math and science (he’s a math genius), he was a member of his schools Young Republicans group for 4 years, he was heavily involved in worship group, and I think he was in a math club. He and I however volunteered at the same organizations for the hospital, food banks, and school (I forgot to put that I was a TA for an elementary school in a run-down area). The NASA program was one year only (my sophomore year), the Asian/American Alliance started my junior year so that was 2 years, and I was an International Student mentor/tutor for all 4 years.</p>
<p>@StevenToCollege My valedictorian friend (she went to a different high school than me, but I’ve known her since elementary school), her major was neuroscience. She did sports, volleyball, for only two years I think. And she was involved in her schools Key Club, but no leadership. My salutatorian friend (he goes to my high school) got into Cal, UCLA, UC Irvine, and San Diego, all for Regents.</p>
<p>@silas6070</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick response.
As for your salutatorian friend who got into Cal, UCLA, Irvine, and San Diego, what EC did he have?</p>