Hi, I’m a senior and I’ve been accepted to both Cal Poly Pomona and UC Irvine as a civil engineering major. Right now I’m leaning towards CPP because I’ve heard that it’s hands-on method and engineering is better than Irvine’s. Can any former or current students tell me how their current experience at CPP is and how is the school’s academics? Also is it true employers come often to near graduating seniors and offer them jobs here? I heard that many employers prefer CSU over UC since CSU focus more on job skills while UC focus on research. I don’t know how true that is though, just read it on several other threads. Also, how is the school in terms of teaching. Are professors really helpful and class size not too large? Is it easy to get classes you need and not wait? One of my teachers went to UCLA and said that most of the times TA’s teach instead and that class size are huge. Any insight and more information on Cal Poly Pomona would be really appreciated! Thanks.
very good questions. i really hope someone will answer. i am leaning more towards CPP too.
I’m currently a student at Cal Poly Pomona. I’ll tell you this - CPP’s greatest strong suit in any academic program is Engineering, and that’s any of them including Civil. That’s what most people come to CPP for because of its reputation and program. I’m not an Engineering major, but I can tell you that the hands-on method is absolutely a thing here, almost in every program. I definitely agree that CSU education is more job-oriented while UC approach is more focused on research/reason. I can say that CPP has a pretty awesome campus life. It can get crap because people say its a commuter school (it is but not that exaggerated) but we’ve got plenty of residence halls on campus to make living here and the social life pretty awesome. The only time the campus really dies is over the weekends because people go home but that’s with a lot of schools in southern California. There’s always events being thrown on campus, some of the annual festivals are open to the public so they’re even bigger. Almost every social scene is here so there’s definitely parties (mostly off campus) for the party-crowd, but also more chill scenes for those that aren’t into it either. The classes I’ve been in aren’t large at all. They’ve all had 30-40 students at most so it’s still pretty easy for you to get to know professors (that is if you participate and are active). I can tell you CPP was NOT my first choice. The reviews made it sound like crap but I ended up coming here and now I wouldn’t trade it for a thing anymore. Cool school!
Thanks for the info! I’m about to go submit my acceptance of admission. My #1 college was originally SLO, but I didn’t get in.
My mother is a civil engineer and attended UCI her first 2 years and transferred to CPP. Civil engineers usually choose a career in either design or construction, in other words working for an engineering firm designing projects, or for a contractor building projects. My mother works for a contractor and they recruit locally out of CPP, SLO, CSLB and USC and not so much out of UCI. I think it depends on what you want to do after you earn your degree. If you want to further your education and pursue a master or doctorate, then I think UCI might be better suited for that. If you plan to get your degree and go to work in a design firm I think both are pretty much equal, but if you’re interested in the construction side of the industry then in my opinion CPP would be a better choice. I think the most beneficial thing that you can do to make yourself more marketable for the job market after graduation is to pursue an internship. My mother’s company makes offers to many of their interns after graduation.