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<p>Huh? That doesn’t match my experience of UCSD. Maybe out in the parking lots along N. Torrey Pines it might be a little quiet, but in the middle of campus, near the library or student center, it’s as busy and crowded as any college when school is in session.</p>
<p>I have a million different reason for why one choose choose a national or regional university. Perhaps you can share why your husband insists upon a national university vs. a regional one? </p>
<p>Is it for prestige? post-graduation earning power?? Graduate school ? research?</p>
<p>No center hang place like cal, usc or ucla. No sense of community. Similar to stanford but without the beautiful campus</p>
<p>And ucsd is relatively deserted because of its size compared to urban campuses like ucla, usc, and cal (urban esq)</p>
<p>I’d choose a research univesity over cal poly. Because universities teach research skills and state schools such as a tech school like cal poly teach trades, which is their mandate</p>
<p>@pacheight</p>
<p>I go to a national research university (ending my second year in engineering and physics), I am not sure what you mean by “teaching research skills” ? And what is mean when you say Cal Poly teaches “trade”??</p>
<p>For the entire time I have been here so far, I have not been taught a thing of what most would deem “research skills”. Rather, I studied a LOT about various disciplines of scientific and math theories. </p>
<p>I have 3 cousins whom all went to UCLA engineering, not one of them did any research during undergraduate. </p>
<p>My sister goes to Cal Poly for Architecture now, and if you think architecture school is a trade school, then I would say medical school (body repair) is a trade sort of like TV repair is also a trade.</p>
<p>Cal Poly is a top engineering school in CA and students routinely turn down UCs to attend. Having said that, it’s not a top bioengineering school. UCSD is, but the price difference is significant for out of state. Cal Poly would be approximately $35K compared to UCSD’s $51K.</p>
<p>[Cal</a> Poly Financial Aid - Cost of Attendance](<a href=“http://www.ess.calpoly.edu/_finaid/coa1112.html]Cal”>http://www.ess.calpoly.edu/_finaid/coa1112.html)</p>
<p>If she wants to go to grad school, she should also consider the depth of theory she’d get at a UC (or CU or even CSU-Fort Collins) compared to the more hands-on, practical education she’d get at Cal Poly. There’s a difference, and she might have to play catch-up in grad school if she went to Cal Poly compared to students with undergrad degrees that were more theoretical in nature. (maybe this is what pacheight meant by “research skills”?)</p>
<p>The california state colledge system is designed to teach trades, such as art or architecture, both valuable and worthy subjects. But at universities such as stanford and usc undergraduates do work on original research…which trains them in the practices of discovery, aka research</p>
<p>Cal poly teaches building and manufacturing engineering…trades. cal, ucla, usc, and stanford teach kids how to discover new ideas in engineering.</p>
<p>There’s a big difference</p>
<p>Dude, USC/Harvard/Cornell/Yale/Cal Poly all have big time architecture schools. No one will consider these as trade school. </p>
<p>And also, I am a double major in EE and Physics, specifically in the high energy related research, and my professors sort of think we undergraduates are waste of research grant because we still don’t know squat. All the research are done by Phd/MS candidates or post-doc fellows. And Phd/MS candidates or post-doc fellows are typically not “kids”.</p>
<p>So I think the whole notion that undergraduates are being immediately prep for research roles in the lab is just urban legend.</p>
<p>“Cal poly teaches building and manufacturing engineering…trades” </p>
<p>From reading this, I presume you never visited there. And no, they are not stuck in the post WWII era where they were a trade school in all its operations. I.e., I think you don’t really know what the school does.</p>
<p>From visiting my sister at CP numerous times, I saw they have a very good EE, CS, ME, CE, Biomedical engineering programs with very decent research labs. Also, all of the students are required to do a research project prior to graduation. </p>
<p>Even undergraduates at HYPMS aren’t typically being train to make “original” discoveries during the 4 years. I should know, I am at Princeton. The “original” discovery training starts as a Phd candidate.</p>
<p>Deekuu: trades is not a dirty word. Acting is a trade, architecture is a trade, and physicians have a “practice”. There is a difference between doing and being the person who thinks up what others do.</p>
<p>Thinking it up often takes research which is what real universities do</p>
<p>At usc and stanford all undergrads are given the opportunity to participate in research. At cal as well but it’s harder because there are so many students.</p>
<p>Designing is a trade; architecture, engineering, graphic art, acting, but again really cool stuff but not the theoritical sciences</p>
<p>What you deemed as “Trade” school is actually now more commonly called “Professional” schools. Architecture, accounting, Law, MD, MBA, etc. are all professional schools, not trade schools. </p>
<p>What you refer as theoretical science is what we call pure research. In essence, R&D, with pure science being BIG R and very little d. Disciplines such as cosmology, plasma physics, pure math, etc. are all theoretical sciences. </p>
<p>Most universities generally have a very small population of these undergraduates pure science students. The majority remainder of the undergraduates are typically in what you call “trade” school subjects or liberal arts. </p>
<p>I don’t know about USC, but my professors at Princeton work on joint papers with Stanford professors. And most of the published papers don’t have single undergraduate listed as one of the principal researchers. Most of the time, the only way we get into the research action is we get to sweep up after the post-doc researchers’ parade. </p>
<p>The only exception is if you are one of the 14 years old with a 200 IQ and was courted by HYPMS with a full ride. </p>
<p>Unless you are a research fellow at Stanford or USC right now, I would check the facts.</p>
<p>And I have no idea what you mean by “real university”. If you don’t think Amherst or Harvey Mudd are real universities, but USC is, then I suggest you look up those two schools.</p>
<p>
pacheight:
Again, I disagree with you but that’s fine. I’ve been on the campus many times and didn’t find it deserted at all - no necessarily more than UCLA the many times I’ve been on that campus or Cal the couple of times I’ve been on that campus. I don’t know what you mean by ‘center hang place’ but if you mean on campus I don’t see a difference between it and UCLA. I also don’t see that all students would even have a place they’d consider a ‘center hang place’ since where they hang depends on their interests. Some hang out at the workout facilities and my kid did plenty of this at UCSD which has one of the largest recreation facilities of most campuses (the Rimac center), some hang out out on the grass, and some hang out in their rooms or elsewhere. It also has a centralized area with the bookstore and eateries much like many campuses. It doesn’t have the major sports teams so students looking for that should consider other colleges but a lot of students don’t really care about that aspect and some purposely will choose a college that doesn’t devote a lot of resources to sports teams.</p>
<p>Just as a data point my UCSD kid turned down Cal for it so not everyone is looking for the same attributes in a college. </p>
<p>And the perspectives you indicated are subjective and personal and not everyone feels the way you do. But again, if that’s your impression it’s fine but it doesn’t apply to everyone and isn’t an objective conclusion as your statements imply but rather, your personal opinion.</p>
<p>Deekku, it appears to me pacheight does not realize how highly ranked Cal Poly architecture is.
[Cal</a> Poly Named Best Public Undergraduate Architecture School](<a href=“Press Releases | University Communications and Marketing”>Press Releases | University Communications and Marketing)</p>
<p>“The program is rigorous, lab oriented, and sequential in nature and reflects a balance and integration of design and technology - the theoretical and the pragmatic.”
[Undergraduate</a> Programs - Architecture Department - Cal Poly](<a href=“http://www.arch.calpoly.edu/programs/undergraduate.html]Undergraduate”>http://www.arch.calpoly.edu/programs/undergraduate.html)</p>
<p>Here’s a flowchart for architecture majors at Cal Poly.
<a href=“http://www.arch.calpoly.edu/programs/documents/flowchart-0911rev3.pdf[/url]”>http://www.arch.calpoly.edu/programs/documents/flowchart-0911rev3.pdf</a></p>
<p>Deek: I agree, trades are professions.</p>
<p>Ucsd; ask anybody in CA about the physical plant experience at ucsd, it’s not just my opinion.</p>
<p>OP, why not have your D start by looking for great bioengineering programs, then pick out those that have warm weather and the possibility of merit aid? Save CA for grad school.</p>
<p>A close friend went to Cal Poly SLO for a master’s degree in molecular bio. Had a fantastic time, did great cutting-edge research, got some nice awards and then eventually went on to vet school. Bonus: learned to surf at the beaches south of San Luis Obispo. Would wake up every morning, surf, then drive to the lab. There are far worse ways to go through life. :)</p>
<p>I think cal poly is a good architecture school. They haven’t produced any black capes yet but I’ve got high hopes for joey in LA, he did a beautiful job on tom cruises secret mi4 studio in santa monica.</p>
<p>But if you look at the principals in charge at the top A and E firms in the US they are dominated by graduates from the harvard school of design, yale, usc, mit, and deekuu…princenton!!!</p>
<p>If you’ve got to bring up schools like Harvard and Yale to beat out Cal Poly arch, Cal Poly must be doing something right. ;-)</p>
<p>I think Santa Clara is a great choice, but it isn’t in the National U ranking list…it’s in the regional.</p>
<p>deborah, and usc, mit, and princeton. And Cal. and a few more…cal poly is 2nd by a distance to those but being 2nd best is good enough for a lot of people</p>