<p>My son accepted Cal Poly Mathematics, very prestigious school , I know.
But My son's Plan A is to be dentist.
He answer to my question "why you prefer UCSB or UCD to Cal Poly ? that " father! you know how difficult to prepare major study from the freshman ? as you know I want to go to Dental school after graduate univ.
In that case UC gives me much chance than Cal Poly."
Is that right ? He tells me Cal Poly study system is that from application they select major and they study major
from freshman. and other sources are not so good as UC's when somebody think about going to Dental school.
Is there any body who can explain about this ?</p>
<p>@taehunchoi if he chose Mathematics at Cal Poly yes he will be a math major unless he changes. I honestly do not know why a future dentist would choose Math as a major. I am sure Cal Poly will give him as good of a chance at Dentist School as UCD or UCSB however, my guess is you need to look at Dentist programs and find out what the best majors would be. Do not assume you can just go to Cal Poly and change majors, it is possible if your grades and test scores are high enough but since every major is impacted to transfer into one of the toughest majors isn’t always easy.</p>
<p>Yes at Cal Poly you’re accepted to a major and you can’t switch (or only with great difficult and after some time).
A math major may not be a bad choice for dental school but he’d need to look at dental school prerequisites - his problem may be in getting into the science classes as a non major, even if he needs them for Dental School?
Another factor to look into is cost: how much will each school cost?
He needs to choose the cheapest option.
UCSB and UCD are just as excellent and prestigious as Cal Poly - congratulations to your son!</p>
<p>a bigger factor is to compare the 4 yr grad rates on ipeds, and decide if a 5th year of cost is problematic. For example, <30% of Cal Poly SLO students graduate in 4 years. (Yes, some/many CP Eng/Arch students take time off for internships, but you might ask the Counselors what % of liberal arts grads (which includes math) graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>In contrast, ~70% of UCSB students graduate in four years.</p>
<p>Your son is correct in choosing UCD and UCSB over Cal Poly. They will provide your son with a richer college experience.</p>