<p>Hello! Sorry, I realize I’m posting on this forum more than I’d like to, but I just have another question…
So, I was accepted to CS, but I’m kinda worried…I attended the reception at my state (I’m OOS), and everyone who was accepted were WHITE. I was literally the only Asian there - not kidding. I mean, I’m used to being around White people. I have had friends who are White…but for the past few years, I’ve been going to diverse schools, so I’ve been hanging around Asians more than Whites. I’m just scared that I won’t be able to make many friends or have an easy time fitting in…</p>
<p>I know I may be overreacting about this, but I’m just wondering how the students at Cal Poly are. Are the accepting? Are they nice? Is it easy to make friends there?
Thanks if you can help!</p>
<p>Cal Poly has more than 10%+ Asian population. You will be fine on campus. It is just your OOS forum. People are very relaxed and friendly on campus. Race relation between students are fine. You will have a good time. </p>
<p>It seems that I answer this question every year. Since you are OSS from what appears to be a majority White state I can see your concern. It is true that Cal Poly is more White than other California campuses but it is still California which is a state where the White population is now smaller than the majority “Minority” population. My kid is mixed Asian and our household is bilingual English/Japanese. Our kid totally fits in at Cal Poly. His roommates at Cal Poly have all been Asian or mixed race and that happened via a mixture of chance and choice. Freshman year it was my kid, a Filipino and a Vietnamese. Sophomore year it was my kid and another mixed race kid (White/Chinese), the same Vietnamese guy and a Taiwanese. This year it is my kid two Chinese and the same Taiwanese guy as last year. He is captain of his engineering club this year and he manages a multidisciplinary team that includes members that have been White, Asian, Latino and African American. The only diversity issue that the team has is that there is only one girl out of a team of 11 and she is Asian by the way. There other diversity issue is that the team is mostly Mechanical Engineers with a minority of Aerospace and EE majors. At Cal Poly, when you talk diversity, it usually is broken down by major ;)! Anyway, at Cal Poly no one really cares what your background is as long as you make a positive contribution. My kid has never felt any discrimination or ever mentioned anything about feeling like an outsider. He has thrived in the environment. If you are still unconvinced, here is the Cal Poly fact book (2010 - a bit old) that will give you the actual stats based on every demographic tracked including race in print. <a href=“http://www.calpoly.edu/~ipa/publications_reports/factbook/fbfall10.pdf”>http://www.calpoly.edu/~ipa/publications_reports/factbook/fbfall10.pdf</a> </p>
<p>Bottom line, in 2014 the school is about 60/40 White/Minority give or take a couple of points. Also, and most importantly is the attitude about race at the school. The answer is no one really cares. Again, as long as you pull your weight and contribute, you’ll do fine. </p>
<p>We went to Admitted Students’ Day at Cal Poly. At the Computer Science Department’s presentation, I wasn’t focused on the ethnicity of the students there, but I believe there were many ‘non-white’ students present. As I said, that was not what I was paying attention to. They were students admitted to CP CSC (undecided and decided), not necessarily students who will accept and enroll this fall.</p>
<p>Most speakers encouraged all students to join one of the computer science, engineering, or other clubs on campus to meet other people, in other words, be involved. Based on the presentations, there seemed to be a priority to get women to enter the field of computer science and for them to network with other female students in various women-oriented computer science/engineering clubs. At WOW week, you’ll immediately meet new students, all of you being similar in that you’re all freshmen coming to fall orientation knowing no one but, by the end of the week, you’ll meet many people. If you live in the engineering dorm, you’ll have more chances of developing new friendships in your major. You will find Cal Poly to be a warm, friendly place to collaborate with other like-minds. In the end, you may not have time to think about your current worry because you’ll be so busy studying and getting through each quarter.</p>
<p>Hi BubblePanda, I was concerned about this too way back when my daughter was applying for early decision (she’s Chinese)–her high school is 30% Asian. But there seemed to be plenty of diversity at the open house (maybe not 30%, but it wasn’t all white either), but most importantly, she felt comfortable. My daughter will be a kinesiology major and initially applied to stay in one of the tower residence halls, but after taking a tour changed her mind and applied to the red bricks. Best wishes!</p>