<p>Ok, I’m going to be honest. I wanted to major in something business related but I was told that a normal degree in business is almost useless and majoring in business with an emphasis on something is much more valuable. So, I applied to cal poly as an agribusiness major and was really excited when I got accepted (2 months ago). The truth is, I never knew what I wanted to do. I always found a major that I thought was cool and imagined myself majoring in that. This has happened soooo many times. I accepted cal poly’s offer of admission and registered for housing because it was the best school for my major but now I’m lost. I know cal poly is notorious for not letting people change majors which scares me more. I was only 17 when I applied so it makes sense that I didn’t what I wanted to do right? I feel like if I have a few quarters to experiment different majors then I will find something I have a passion for but I don’t know if that is possible at slo and I am scared that I will end up dropping out. SLO is where I want to spend my college years. Anyone have any advice?</p>
<p>Chill out and relax stressfulness. You are at the right school and for the time being you are in the right major. Your questions and concerns have come up again and again on this forum. Just search “changing majors” here and read till your heart’s content. For the time being, I will repost an answer that I gave on another thread to someone wanting to change majors before starting school:</p>
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<p>The school understands that you are just 17 and allows you to move around a if needed. Also, a general business degree is NOT useless. It is one of the most marketable that you can get. It is even better with a specialty added. The only thing that will keep you from succeeding is being to stressed stessfulness!</p>
<p>You’re right. I’m just really suffering from stress and depression. High school has been very difficult for me mentally and I don’t want college to the same.</p>
<p>Stressfulness, my daughter is in the same boat. When she was applying to Cal Poly, she had narrowed it down to three different majors (all very different from each other, btw!), and practically had to draw one from a hat to decide. At the time, Cal Poly wasn’t very high on her list. As it turns out, 6 months later it is her number one choice, and she has chosen it over some other good choices such as UCD and UCSB. My one worry (I worry too!) has been over that declared major issue. Posts by OsakaDad have helped put my mind at ease (thank you, OsakaDad). Also, a neighbor who just toured Cal Poly was told that 25% change majors. Clearly, if your grades are good and you are motivated and persistent, it is possible to change. Although I agree with OsakaDad, you can’t go wrong with a business degree. You could always add on a minor in something else that interests you! Good luck next year, take a deep breath and relax! Cal Poly is a great school.</p>
<p>Try to relax! MANY people at Cal Poly change their major. It’s not that hard if you can pass the courses (prescribed in the ICMA) with decent grades. My son changed from Agribusiness (College of Ag) to Computer Science (College of Engineering) then to Philosophy (College of Liberal Arts). And he will still graduate in just 4 years and that is with a minor in Religious Studies as well. (Granted, his final major, Philosophy, has a ton of free electives on its flowchart, so all his Ag business and Comp Science classes still counted toward his degree.) Any way, my advice is to chill out, and get excited about spending the next 4 (or more) years in SLO as a CP Mustang!</p>
<p>One more thing: I think Business Administration may be the hardest major to change into. We were told at an Engineering open house that Engineering is the largest “exporter” of students, while Business is the largest “importer” of students. I think change of major into Business is very competitive and there just aren’t enough spots to take everyone who wants in and can meet the ICMA criteria. Because Engineering “exports” so many, they will likely have room to take those who want to transfer in and can meet the Engineering ICMA requirements, which are pretty difficult classes.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I’m feeling better now.</p>
<p>Ralph4, can you explain why Engineering appears to be the largest “exporter” of majors? I’m concerned since my son is going to try to transfer into engineering from Chemistry.</p>
<p>I would guess that engineering is the largest exporter of students because engineering at CP is hard! My oldest who coasted through high school and entered CP with pretty high stats ( SAT CR = 710, SAT Math= 710, APChem = 5, AP Calc AB = 4) was not prepared for level of challenge he faced following the MatE flowchart. He ended up on academic probation twice in his first two years. Many of his friends that he met freshman year in the engineering dorm ended up changing their major out of CENG. A joke among them was that IT (Industrial Technology in the College of Business) stood for “I Tried” and was the target major for engineers who couldn’t hack it. Please don’t be offended any IT majors who are reading this. It was made a joke by those who changed to IT.</p>
<p>I would guess that engineering is the largest exporter of students because engineering at CP is hard! My oldest who coasted through high school and entered CP with pretty high stats ( SAT CR = 710, SAT Math= 710, APChem = 5, AP Calc AB = 4) was not prepared for level of challenge he faced following the MatE flowchart. He ended up on academic probation twice in his first two years. Many of his friends that he met freshman year in the engineering dorm ended up changing their major out of CENG. A joke among them was that IT (Industrial Technology in the College of Business) stood for “I Tried” and was the target major for engineers who couldn’t hack it. Please don’t be offended any IT majors who are reading this. It was made a joke by those who changed to IT.</p>
<p>Thanks ralph4 for the info. My son’s stats are similar to your sons and so I’m trying to convince him to take on an easier schedule his first quarter, especially if he is trying to switch into engineering. He wants to go into Calc II if he passes AP Calc with a high enough score; however, I want him to retake it at Cal Poly his first semester since Calc I builds onto Calc II, etc. He probably won’t retake the AP physics courses though since according to him they are different areas of physics. Advising in Engineering told him to just go directly into Calc II, but I just don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s hard for these kids to understand that it’s not like high school, that college is harder and almost everyone there is smart.</p>
<p>Anyhope: I too had the same concerns. My son passed the Calc AB test. I called Admissions and they said if my son took Calc 1 and passed the AB test, then he would not get credit for Calc 1. So he started off with Calc 2 and said it was pretty easy because much of it was learned in AB. Wondered if there are any current CP students out there who can confirm the same experience?</p>
<p>That was my son’s experience too. He skipped over Calc 1 after passing the AP exam and started with Calc2 which he did pretty well in (made a B). He said the first half of the class was review from AP Calc AB. But he did much worse in Calc 3 and 4 and in linear analysis, and had to repeat two of these. But he says now that he didn’t put much effort into his calc classes. He didn’t enjoy calc, and put more effort into classes he considered more interesting. His winter quarter of his freshman year was killer…17 units including MatE (1 unit, but it was a 3 hour lab and they did a big project that took tons of time out of class), Calc 3, Physics 133 including a 3 hour lab, Chem 128 including a 3 hour lab, and Coms 102. The load, in hind sight, was too heavy for him as a freshman. He eventually learned how to put in the required effort (which was way more than he ever dreamed). Junior year was the MOST demanding for him. But he loved the MatE department, and never considered switching out. After pulling himself back up from academic probation once his freshman year and again sophomore year, he graduated from MatE in 4 years and one summer. It was a big accomplishment, and by no means easy. I understand why CP Engineers are highly recruited.</p>
<p>@Ralph4 and eduparent, So from your child’s experiences, if my son passes AP Calc AB, do you think he should be fine going into Calc II? (sorry this is going away from the original thread). What about AP physics AB and AP physics C? </p>
<p>Also Ralph4, my son is considering MatE or EE. He applied early as a chemistry major hoping to go into materials and polymers only because SLO does not offer ChemE. He applied as a ChemE major at all other schools. He realized after applying that he is more interested in the engineering aspect rather than the chemistry aspect. We noticed MatE has a lot of chemistry in it. What was your child’s experience in the program and can you tell me what sorts of job opportunities he is seeing in that degree? We didn’t hear a lot about the MatE dept during our engineering tour because none of the student ambassadors were from that department. We also noticed that MatE is doing some work with nanotechnology, an area my son is really interested in. We would love to hear from someone with experience going through that major.</p>
<p>If this helps anyone, my kid chose NOT to use any of his AP test scores at Cal Poly except for history, and other non-STEM related classes. He wanted to take these classes at the college level to solidify his foundation.</p>
<p>I questioned his choice, but he insisted on retaking some of these classes. As a result he is doing very well in ME while a lot of other kids are suffering. His poor roommate will most likely have to drop out engineering because he did not have a strong enough core. Once you get into classes like statics and dynamics, etc. You have to have a powerful foundation otherwise you get lost pretty fast.</p>
<p>Yeah, I argued that graduation might be delayed. But I get it now. Better to graduate a bit later than suffer a poor GPA or wind up on academic probation. It all comes down to graduating with a GPA higher than a 3.0 for getting hired in industry. So far, so good. Way above a 3.0 for now.</p>
<p>This is a case by case thing, every student must make the choice based on his/her own strength in the subject. I have to admit that my own inclination was that my freshman should be wary of taking credit for Calc AB & BC by stepping into the middle of university level calculus. I would have advised him to start from the beginning at SLO. He elected to take the chance and jumped into the third quarter and finished the 4 course series at SLO doing very well. His high school has the good fortune to have an excellent Calc instructor who also teaches the subject at our local Cal State. We made sure to let the HS math teacher know how well he had prepared our student and thank him for all of his efforts on our behalf.</p>
<p>@slolearner, I should have my son ask his current AP calc teacher since he is a graduate of SLO and got his teaching credential there. My preference is that he repeats it. Don’t want to take any chances since he is going to be requesting a major change. Doesn’t he get some other general or support elective credit out of the way with his AP Calc credit if he doesn’t apply it toward math?</p>
<p>@Anyhope, My son loved the MatE dept at Cal Poly. It is one of the smaller engineering departments and had a “family” fell to it. By his last two years, much of his social life a college was with his fellow MatE’s. He graduated almost two years ago, and he just recently went on a Vegas weekend with his old MatE clan. He really liked <em>most</em> of the MatE professors too. If there is any way you can get there, I’d highly recommend going to Admitted Student Day of Open House and spend the afternoon with the MatE department. My son was so impressed that day, with everything about the department, he knew immediately that this was the school and department for him. Here’s the newest published flowchart for Mate’s:</p>
<p><a href=“http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/site_media/uploads/majors/mate/mate11-13flowchart.pdf[/url]”>http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/site_media/uploads/majors/mate/mate11-13flowchart.pdf</a> </p>
<p>I see that they have modified it since 2007 when my son started, to make the freshman year a lighter load. (It used to be 17 units each quarter of freshman year!) Good luck! And don’t worry too much about change of major. Just have your son add the first MatE class to his schedule (if he decides he wants to change into MatE) when he has his enrollment appointment in August (?). And if he’s sure he doesn’t want chemistry, he can drop a class that wouldn’t be applicable to his desired major. They won’t officially let him take any action to change majors until after his first quarter at CP, but it would be helpful to go ahead and take the introductory class for his desired major.</p>
<p>Oh, I think all of his fellow MatE grads got engineering jobs out of college. Mine works as a Materials Engineer for a small company in Santa Barbara and his first year there he spent many weekends driving up to SLO to hang out with his friends that where still there (5th year). It seems that many CP kids hate to leave SLO! Mine wanted to stay there, but the closest job he was offered was in Santa Barbara which is not such a bad place to live either!</p>
<p>Best wishes to your son!</p>
<p>Thanks Ralph4 for all the helpful info. As it turns out, the only real difference between 1st qtr chemistry and 1st qtr MatE is intro to MatE, which is a 1 unit class. He will probably be registered for chem 127 as a chemistry, but Engineering advising said its interchangeable with chem 124 which is what most engineering majors take first quarter. We are planning on “crashing” some of the MatE and EE events for Open House so that he will get a better feel for the two departments. Thanks again for all the helpful info. Don’t know what we’d do without this site.</p>
<p>Anyhope: At Open House, ask various departments (math included), advisors, and students their opinions of which calculus class to take. I dont believe HS physics helped my student much with the 3 Cal Poly physics classes.</p>