<p>I would like to be in a more diverse setting, and have an open minded student body. What is the Cal Poly student body like? Would a hippie/liberal fit in or is it mostly for preps and jocks? Thanks guys</p>
<p>It seems pretty conservative compared to UCs (not necessarily close-minded though). I love it</p>
<p>My daughter is a first year student at Cal Poly and is quite liberal. She finds that she is in many ways different from the majority of students, but has met a lot of very nice people and has no regrets about her decision to go there. It’s funny that you say hippie/liberal because she has commented that at home she does not stand out among her peers, but up there even the fact that she is a vegetarian makes people think of her as a “hippie”. </p>
<p>The fact is that Cal Poly is neutral. It is neither ultra conservative nor hippie/liberal. My son commented during the “occupy” fad a couple of years ago that the administration went out of their way to tell students that they had a right to protest. Very few, if any that I recall, took them up with the offer. Bottom line, politics takes a back seat to education at Cal Poly. People are far more interested in who you are in terms of contribution as opposed to who you are in political orientation, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. I personally believe that it has a lot to do with the “Learn by Doing” philosophy. People are more concerned with what you can “do” rather than what you “think”. In my book that is very refreshing. Cal Poly loves diversity and as long as you have something to contribute through work and action, you will fit in beautifully no matter what your orientation is.</p>
<p>Note: With regards to the vegetarian comment above, if you are a PETA activist you might not feel comfortable at Cal Poly. The school has its own slaughterhouse and meat processing facility on campus. Cal Poly is a huge agriculture school and that includes animal husbandry. It also has an annual intercollegiate championship rodeo where they compete with bronco and bull riding, calf roping and every rodeo event you can think of. If these things really bother you, I suggest Berkeley, UCSC or any number of other schools that would be more to your liking. </p>