<p>Anybody else trying to decide between these two?</p>
<p>calpolyyyy</p>
<p>how about cal poly versus ucla vs usc vs ucsd?</p>
<p>i believe our engineering program is better than all UCs except for cal, which would mean that we're about USC as well.</p>
<p>There's a thread in the UCLA forum as well. Of course, over there UCLA is better..I want the answer to that as well, though...both are good, but I don't think that they've been officially compared side by side since Cal Poly doesn't offer Doctorates...</p>
<p>well then, on a comparative basis, you'd have to look at the graduates top companies want to hire. as far as i know, we're higher on the wanted list.</p>
<p>UCLA is better if you're looking to go on in higher education, or if you want to change your career (most people do this), which would require a prestigious school. If you're dead set on earning just a bachelor's and doing engineering, Cal Poly is certainly the better decision though.</p>
<p>ucla is also better if you want to have absolutely no lab experience and look like an idiot in the work field(grad degree or not)</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but that comes off as a bitter statement... If you have the option of going to UCLA, it would certainly help your career choices. I'm personally going to take engineering then med school if I can, and I doubt that I'd be able to do that at all if I had a CP SLO undergraduate degree. Still, undergraduate engineering is really strong at SLO, although as the work force progresses, an undergraduate degree might not be enough in the future.</p>
<p>Peppers: Lots of CPSLO grads go on to med school.</p>
<p>I don't doubt that, its just I don't consider myself a strong enough candidate, so I might HAVE to use the prestige of some school as a safety net, or at least forgiveness for a .2 GPA difference between myself and a CP SLO med school applicant.</p>
<p>going to UCLA will definitely help your career choices, but thats not the issue, the issue is whether or not its better to attend poly for engineering and I believe overall it definitely is. and the statement wasn't bitter.. I was accepted to both Cal and UCLA. I decided to go to poly instead.. nothing can beat that teacher to student ratio with hands on experience</p>
<p>I'm going to Cal Poly this fall because its only 3 hours away compared to UCLA which is a whooping 6-7 hours away. Also it's cheaper to go to Cal Poly, but money doesn't seem like a huge factor for the majority of the people here at CC.</p>
<p>Cal poly hands down has a better engineering program.</p>
<p>But as some guys here on the board know me personally, if you like asian girls, haha I'd rather go to UCLA.</p>
<p>yeah justsomeboi.. we know of your proclivities toward women of the asian race. college is a time to widen your horizons..</p>
<p>I just returned from visiting Cal Poly and all of the tour guides on the engineering tour were preparing to go on to graduate schools/and or in the 4 and 1 program earning their masters degrees. I asked this question specifically since it had come up on here so much. The students replied unanamously that Cal Poly students were in great demand by recruiters due to their hands on experience and that grad school love them for the very same reason.</p>
<p>Cal Poly's a good school, especially for engineering. It's relatively "inexpensive," located in a nice area, and has small class sizes.</p>
<p>Here comes the bad... the administrators at Cal Poly treat the students like crap. More students are accepted than there are seats for. This creates a problem for a lot of the students here. Many classes are impacted, so if we're near end of registration priority, then we're basically screwed. One class can set an engineering student back a whole year. The school realizes this, but still accepts too many students (this way, Cal Poly gets more tuition money). A lot of engineering students here take 5-6 years to graduate because of this. It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that 2 extra years at Cal Poly will cost you an extra $110k (assuming a starting engineer's salary =$55k). In the end you're paying a lot more than you would at UCLA, where it would take considerably less time to graduate. Don't let me get started on Campus Dining and housing, it gets worse.</p>
<p>True, recruiters do come to Cal Poly for the engineering students, but the same recruiters go to UCLA.</p>
<p>Think about it before making your choice. If I knew back in high school what I know now about Cal Poly, I wouldn't be here.</p>
<p>eh...do only some of the engineering majors have class shortages or is it for all of them?</p>
<p>I graduated last year, and never had much of a problem getting classes. Just my personal experience i guess.</p>
<p>After reading through this forum, it seems like Cal Poly has some logistical problems (it takes more than 4-4.5 years to graduate (on average)?). I recently toured Cal Poly, at which point they actually admitted that most people spend more than 4 years on campus, trying to get their undergrad. In addition, if I choose Cal Poly over UCLA, I have to deal with finding off-campus housing (since Cal Poly is in search for more money and therefore enrolls an excess of students with very little on-campus housing available), class sizes, and, as "cpstudent10" notes, food.</p>
<p>My situation is this: I was accepted into UCLA's chemical engineering department <em>(although i'm not sure I will stay in that dept)</em> and Cal Poly SLO's general engineering department. While the hands-on experience and the more open course structure of Cal Poly and their General Engineering program are alluring, UCLA seems to be a better, more well-rounded campus. I intend on getting a master's degree at some point down the line after completing my undergrad, whether it be immediately after or after working for a few years.</p>
<p>I have already toured the campuses and think they are both suitable for me; good weather, open-esque campuses, etc. The only things that worry me about cal poly are, again, lack of campus housing, and the extra time (and money) i may have to put into my undergrad education.</p>
<p>Anyone have any insight into my situation? Which is better from a logistical standpoint, Cal Poly General Engineering or UCLA chemical engineering? Please feel free to let me know your own personal experiences, if you've got any (whether it be for or against one of the campuses).</p>