<p>I have been accepted to both these as an undergraduate. I am wondering which would be the best option for Electrical Engineering? Suppose I would get a job right after college. Which college degree would the employers prefer? </p>
<p>UCSB has the prestige and is alot harder to get in than Cal Poly Pomona. It has the wow factor. But Cal Poly Pomona is good in engineering. Where do both colleges rank for Electrical Engineering?</p>
<p>So out of those two choices which would be the better pick?</p>
<p>Comparing US News rankings where one school offers a doctorate and another school doesn’t is like comparing apples and oranges. Especially when what you are interested in is undergrad, and not doctorate level work.</p>
<p>What’s important is how well you do in your classes, how affordable the school is for you, and how happy you will be there. You need to make a list of things that are important to you personally, and see how well each school fits the bill. The happier you are at school, the better your grades will be, and that’s what will help you succeed.</p>
<p>If you really want to compare engineering rankings, UCSB is now considered the BEST school in the country for Materials Science Engineering and in the top 6 or 7 in ChE in the country, including all schools that offer and don’t offer PhD’s.</p>
<p>CalPoly Pomona would not have an engineering department that ranks in the top 30 nationally, when all schools are considered.</p>
<p>I would take an entirely different approach than rankings. Cal Poly Pomona is a great school and UCSB is a great school. Cal Poly Pomona, like its sister school Cal Poly SLO, is a hands on learn by doing institution. UCSB is a well regarded research institution with Nobel Prize winners. It comes down to if your learning style is experiential or if you prefer more theory and opportunities to do research. As mentioned above cost is a factor. UCSB will be more like $10,000 or more costly than CPP. My kid got into both of these schools as well as Cal Poly SLO. We chose SLO because of the hands on learn by doing teaching method and the campus Open House last week literally knocked our socks off. However, the USCB campus was awesome one must admit. I suggest you go to both schools and tour them. Pick the school that feels right in your gut. Job prospects? You’ll earn a good living no matter which school you go to. CPP is a nice campus, a commuter school, and has a great approach to teaching. UCSB is right on the beach with clean air, a great town, mountains, more of a “college” feel to it. Heck, you can’t lose at either one.</p>
<p>the $3,000 cost difference between the above two posts ($10,000 and $7,000) is because Room and Board is about $3,000 more at UCSB compared to CPP.</p>
<p>If you qualify for the blue and gold program at ucsb, ucsb becomes much cheaper than cal poly Pomona (as well as any other cal state). I just realized this now that I got my financial aid info.</p>
<p>So according to this, tell me why Cal poly SLO (also a csu school) is considered better than UCM, UCR, UCI, UCD (which are UC schools) for engineering.</p>
<p>Here is an anecdotal response to the UC vs. CSU debate. We fell into the trap that many do getting confused by perceived prestige and public consensus. Bottom line, there is a difference in philosophy and teaching methods between the school systems. Both systems are great. CSU’s are more practical in approach getting kids ready for the job market. Entrance standards are lower than the UC’s for many of the schools. The UC’s are focused on research and getting kids ready for grad school (and jobs, but more for grad school). The two polytechnic universities are part of the CSU system BUT separate. SLO in particular has entrance standards just as high as the UC’s but with a far different agenda. SLO, like CPP, is is focused on a unique hands on and learn by doing teaching method. What many folks do not know is that these institutions are also conducting important research. However, they tend to focus on near term problems 5 to 10 years out as opposed to the UC’s that often look farther into the future. It comes down to what you want. If you are an experiential learner and want to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty from day one then a Cal Poly (either one) is custom built for you. If you are focused on getting a job straight out of (or even during college), then a Cal Poly is custom designed for your needs. If you want a program based on theory and research, general education requirements that will allow you to consider yourself a true scholar, research opportunities in the later years of your education and a path to prepare you for grad school, then a UC is designed for your needs. In our case, our kid was clearly an experiential learner and desires to be a working engineer immediately upon gradation and participate in internships along the way. He does plan to go to grad school, but he will do it simultaneously with his undergrad education with the 4+1 plan at SLO. It is up to the individual and after this process I no longer look at the UC’s and CSU’s as one being better than the other. I see them as serving different needs and having different agendas. The individual student needs to get straight as to which one fits them.</p>
<p>First of all I never said anything about the non-UC schools cpSLO is better than, and second of all you mentioned UCSB which I also didn’t say cpSLO is better than.</p>
<p>If you don’t agree with usnews, feel free to find me a source that states those schools are better than UCSB for engineering. Your opinion doesn’t count as a source.</p>
<p>next, I specifically stated that UCD, RPI and Colorado Boulder were at about the same level as UCSB in engineering.</p>
<p>and since we are looking at undergraduate engineering and since you are using the USNWR graduate school egineering rankings, why don’t we take a look at the USNWR undergraduate engineering rankings:</p>
<p>in the above, I would consider all of them at about the same level, which for purposes of our original discussion would be considered BETTER in engineering than CalPolySLO.</p>