<p>Our tour guide pointed out the obvious constuction of a major new on campus housing development that will be open by fall. The new development will aleviate the housing crunch.</p>
<p>As collegemom16 pointed out there are several major construction projects for additional on campus housing. However, these projects won't be completed until 2008. As for your concern about graduating in four years. On average most students in engineering at cal poly typically graduate within 4-5 years. however it is possible to graduate in four years if you take at least 16 units a quarter, which is a quite a bit of work but it is possible. In truth most students at UCLA graduate sooner because of the lighter courseload for engineering. However, if your concerned about money I think Cal Poly would stil be more affordable than UCLA because of the lower tuition and the rent prices in SLO are lower than in LA. General engineering at cal poly also offers a program called the 4+1 program. If you are interested in receiving a master's degree this program allows you to get your bachelor's degree and then get your master's degree the following year. Not to mention cal poly takes a more practical approach to engineering than ucla.</p>
<p>our tour guide said it was graduate student family housing.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your input; the decision won't be an easy one.</p>
<p>"Futureholds" is right; I heard the same information when I toured the campus yesterday. The new housing is for graduate families only.</p>
<p>I do like the Blended 4+1 Master's program idea, but it seems limited in scope. The only options for a Master's concentration for a general engineering student like me are biomedical, bioengineering, and do-whatever-you-want-and-get-a-generic-master's-degree. (Plus, Cal Poly counts some of the classes for both the BS and MS, essentially achieving the same result as UCLA of lower graduation requirements and, in turn, less classes.) While I intend on minimizing the impact of all of this on my bank account, I still feel that getting a full two-year Master's degree, with all of the classes, in the specialization of my choice is a better way to go. Call me an academic if you want, but I like more than just the basic aspects of engineering. If it were up to me (and I had unlimited resources), I'd study every engineering discipline, business, biology, chemistry, neuroscience...</p>
<p>My final thoughts, after seeing and talking with people from both campuses, were quite different at the two colleges. While Cal Poly does have the apparent advantage of being more hands-on and involved, UCLA seemed to focus on the information and the knowledge a bit more than Cal Poly did. I don't know, it was just the taste left in my mouth. Feel free to refute my unexperienced claims, please.</p>
<p>The new housing is not just for graduate students. We were informed that it would not only allow CP to house all freshman but would allow for many 2nd year students to live on campus as well. They are adding something like 2000 new beds.</p>
<p>Apparently on-campus housing got filled out in 6 hours on the first day! and so parents had to wait in a long line at off-campus hosuing at Stenner Glen. the good news is Stenner Glen offers similar dorm-like facilities such as meal plans, gym, RA's etc. The shortage of on-campus took a lot of parents by complete surprise - probably old news to people who had done their research</p>
<p>I just spoke with my friend about this issue this morning. Her d will be a freshman at CP in the fall. She was able to get housing. The new dorms will be ready in the fall 2008 and will add 3000 beds. The new housing will be for 2nd year students (CP wants to guarantee 2 years of on campus housing). There are enough extra beds to also take care of the remaining freshman for next year. So for the class of 2008 things will be looking up and for the class of 2007 you will get to live in the brand new dorms next year!</p>
<p>It's harder to graduate from Cal Poly as an engineer because Cal Poly prepares you more thoroughly than UCLA in engineering.</p>
<p>Cal Poly definetly has the better engineering program.</p>