I went with my daughter to the Showcase of Excellence yesterday. I don’t know what percentage of invited students attended, but there were about 300 applicants in attendance (based on the seating capacity of the main presentation room). Of that, approximately 1/4 (75-ish?) were engineering students.
There was a resource fair in the first hour for all students, and also separate areas for the different disciplines where applicants could talk with current students and faculty. In the engineering section, they had students and faculty for each of the different engineering disciplines. After that was a big presentation for all attending applicants and parents on the Kellogg Honors program and the advantages it offers. After this, the students were taken to mini-lectures given by faculty in their related departments, while all of the parents attended another group information session addressing things like campus safety, dorm life, etc. After this, everyone was separated for another information session (parents and applicants together) for the related disciplines. Engineering was by far the biggest discipline, with Business following.
I can only speak to engineering, but we were fed a box lunch (from Subway) while the dean of engineering and a number of current engineering students spoke about the program. Afterward, the students were broken up by engineering department for a mini-presentation by faculty. We were in the mechanical engineering section. This group was further broken down and we attended 3 mini-labs, where the students went into the labs and faculty ran small experiments/heard mini-lectures about various topics.
At the end of all of this, they arranged for a campus tour (the same kind you get if you visit campus normally).
It was a full day, but my daughter felt that it was really valuable. She especially liked the min-lectures and labs, and feels like she has a true sense of what it would be like to be a student at CPP now. Given that she is very likely to end up at CPP this Fall, she is feeling much happier and more comfortable with that idea. As a parent, I appreciated the presentations where they pointed out the advantages of CPP over other schools, including some things I had never really considered.
If anyone gets invited to the Showcase of Excellence in future years, I strongly recommend attending.
I am glad that was interesting to you, @CopperlineX2 !
FWIW, while they were trying to push the honors program, once they said that 4 essays were required, I could see a lot of the students tuning out. That really dissuaded a number of them. The CPP people said that the GPA and test scores were not really considered, because if you were invited to apply to the honors college, they were enough. They want really good essays. There is also no ‘limit’ to the number they will accept. They made it sound like they’ll accept as many students as they want, essentially, everyone whose essays impress them.
So your son still has a good chance to get into the Honors College if he applies.
My daughter was also accepted into the Honors College, but she got her CPP acceptance a couple of weeks ago. I do know that the 2 acceptances are unrelated, and it is theoretically possible (although very rare) to be accepted into Honors and NOT into the university.
Did you guys see the part of the email that mentions housing? My daughter really wanted to be in the engineering housing, but it says that she is required to be on the Honors housing floor. Is that co-ed? Ugh…
@Mom2Engineers My goofy kid said the Honors floor sounded depressing & didn’t want to deal with challenging CS curriculum plus honors requirements. Most of the housing is guys one wing of floor & girls on the other. He requested the co -ed floors where they live next to each other. He thinks it will be fun to have girls as his neighbors like an episode of Friends! I told him they’ll just come eat all his food, but he said he doesn’t care!
LOL, @CopperlineX2 ! I just checked, and yes, the Honors floor is female on one half and male on the other half. That’s the same as it is for the engineering floors, so that works. And there are lots of doubles, which is her preferred arrangement as well. She doesn’t want to have male neighbors because she perceives them as being loud and dirty.
I don’t get why all of these college students have food in their rooms. Don’t they get enough with ‘all you can eat’ at the cafeteria/Los Olivos?
Actually, what they explained at the Showcase of Excellence is that the Honors ‘curriculum’ is essentially for the GE courses. Instead of taking regular GE courses, the students take the Honors courses, which are smaller, seminar-style classes. They do have a number of activities outside the classroom, but it will be good for my somewhat introverted daughter to get involved in those things. In her case, the Honors program will be good for her.
It’s looking very likely that my daughter will attend CPP. She’s waiting on hearing from one more school (which was a stretch) and then she’ll make her final decision.
@Mom2Engineers Congrats on UCR Engineering acceptance. It’s not an easy admit any longer. As for food in room, lines are very long, so kids will often eat something from dorm stash before morning class. Plus boys are ALWAYS hungry, even when dining hall is closed. I agree with your daughter. Boy laundry stinks. I can’t imagine boys in triples. We signed up for housing early to avoid dreaded triple.
Thanks! She actually got into a great program at Riverside: the BS+MS for mechanical engineering. It would be a good alternative, but she’s set on Cal Poly. She has yet to hear from other UCs, but doesn’t care. For her, it’s Cal Poly or bust.
Yes, she managed to get into the housing application over a week ago, so she will hopefully get a double as well. One nice thing is that there are far more doubles than triples, so it seems like a pretty good chance to avoid the triples if you apply early.
I didn’t realize that the meal lines were so long. I’m sure my daughter will figure out what are the best times to go. Sounds like we shouldn’t pay for a breakfast meal plan, though.
@Mom2Engineers My son is also waiting on the UC decisions, but otherwise would be an engineer on the honors floor at CPP as well. I am hopeful that the honors kids would not feel separated from their other fellow engineers due to living in a different dorm. Do you know anything about the Honors Fellowship and when students might find out if they are eligible for that? And does it need a separate application?
@screenname3 I am hopeful for that as well. Presumably my daughter would be taking a number of engineering courses with the other students in ehr field and would get to know them that way. I think they want the Honors kids together because they are all different disciplines, and might not otherwise get to know each other.
…To be considered for the Honors Fellowship, you must first be accepted to the Kellogg Honors College. Students who are admitted to the Kellogg Honors College automatically will be considered for the Honors Fellowship based on information provided on the Kellogg Honors College application.
Which is interesting, because the Honors College application didn’t have anything academic on it. It was just the essays and the teacher recommendation. So are they going to base the scholarship offers on the essays?
I checked, and there were 50 students in the freshman Honors College last year. So if they give away 1 to 5 of these scholarship[s, that’s a pretty good chance based on a holistic evaluation of essays.
Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone knows what would happen if a student commits to the honors college but doesn’t end up going to Cal Poly Pomona. It just seems very weird to me how separate the two are, and how far apart the April deadline for honors college and the May 1st SIR deadline are.
Ten days after getting into the honors college, my daughter finally got admitted to CPP. She thinks she has to make her decision by April 17th because of housing. Is that correct? And does anyone know if CPP has an admitted students day? She went to a day program at a private university that she fell in love with, and I’d really like her to take a closer look at CPP besides the standard tour we went on last year.
Congrats to your daughter @TwoSue ! Maybe your daughter will see mine in the Honors college in the fall!
Even if she’s not sure about CPP, your daughter should apply for housing. It actually says that in the Housing FAQ. They base the priority order on when you applied, so it’s better to do it now.
Does accepting the honors college offer mean that your enrolling in the Cal Poly Pomona itself? I was hoping to accept the honors college offer to see if I can get extra scholarships before making a decision on whether to attend Cal Poly Pomona.
Can you accept the honors college offer without actually enrolling in the university yet?
My daughter got an email telling her that she got a scholarship from the Honors College… but there were no details. They said that the details would be in the financial aid packet that she would receive. But she already got her financial aid information on BroncoDirect.
