<p>Cal Poly ranks highly for Electrical Engineering. Yet the ratings for the Electrical Engineering professors are less than stellar. Why?</p>
<p>See polyratings.com</p>
<p>Because professors’ ratings are usually based off of how easy it is to get an A in the course…</p>
<p>Wait a minute!! I thought that EVERYTHING on the internet was TRUE!!! You mean to say that polyratings.com might have some biased information on it???</p>
<p>Apologies for my cynicism – NBrink is absolutely correct. Ratings are now, and have been ever since I was in college more than 30 years ago, primarily based on how easy it was to get an A in the course. Some of the best professors I ever had were slammed in handwritten notebooks that we circulated among students to rate teachers. They got hit hard in the ratings because they expected more from us and were stingy with A grades. Good call NBrink.</p>
<p>Thanks Nbrink and Osakadad.</p>
<p>So, Nbrink, is it your experience that the profs in electrical engineering are stellar? Do you think the instruction at Cal Poly SLO is superior to that of UC Davis and San Diego? Do they solicit feedback and constantly try to improve?</p>
<p>Lastly, do the profs have the latest technology to present their material and make it interesting - projectors for powerpoint, whiteboards, any clickers for feedback and things of that nature?</p>
<p>They must be doing SOMETHING right because students come out of Cal Poly with the hands-on knowledge which is so valued by employers.</p>
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<p>closetobroke asked:</p>
<p>So, Nbrink, is it your experience that the profs in electrical engineering are stellar? Do you think the instruction at Cal Poly SLO is superior to that of UC Davis and San Diego? Do they solicit feedback and constantly try to improve?</p>
<p>Lastly, do the profs have the latest technology to present their material and make it interesting - projectors for powerpoint, whiteboards, any clickers for feedback and things of that nature?</p>
<p>I’m a materials engineer, so I don’t really have too much experience with the EE profs.</p>
<p>The one I did have was good though.</p>
<p>closetobroke – My son is a mechanical engineering major. His roommate is in EE. Here are some answers to your questions.</p>
<p>Q: So, Nbrink, is it your experience that the profs in electrical engineering are stellar?<br>
A: EE is a flagship program at Cal Poly. Some of the school’s best and brightest profs will be in this department. This does not guarantee that your kid will connect with any given teacher’s personal style. However, I’ve met several of these profs and was impressed.</p>
<p>Q: Do you think the instruction at Cal Poly SLO is superior to that of UC Davis and San Diego?
A: This I know a lot about as my kid was accepted to UCLA, UCSD and pretty much every other UC from Santa Barbara to San Diego. My kid wanted to stay within a half day’s drive from home. Teaching methodology is the biggest departure between the two systems. It is often the deciding factor between choosing a UC or Cal Poly. At Cal Poly you will start in your major immediately out of the gate. Engineering classes begin in your first week of your freshman year. Club activities the same. Cal Poly is a “learn by doing, hands on” institution. This is part of the school’s DNA and it shows up in every class including English and humanities. The UC’s are research institutions and you will be required to develop yourself into a student scholar in many different areas and it is quite possible that your son will not get his first engineering class for an extended period of time (possibly as long as 2 years) while he gets your requirements out of the way. My son is a second quarter freshman and has already logged in hours and hours of lab time and at this very moment is in Houston participating in the Shell Eco-Marathon with his club that built a supermileage prototype vehicle. This is practically unheard of for a freshman at a UC. Check it out as it was picked up by the BBC World News service: [BBC</a> News - Students’ vehicle aims for 3,000 miles to the gallon in US challenge](<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17511399]BBC”>Students' vehicle aims for 3,000 miles to the gallon in US challenge - BBC News)</p>
<p>A: Do they solicit feedback and constantly try to improve?
Q: Yes, student-professor interaction is an expected part of the program. The school is always improving despite budget cuts. At the UC’s your son may not meet a real professor for quite a while in a classroom situation. The UC’s were very clear to us that TA’s would be responsible for most of my son’s education. They did tell us that their TA’s were very good. UCLA spent over 30 minutes in their presentation to us describing how accomplished their TA’s were and how we could trust our kid’s education to their brilliant and international team of TA’s. I was astounded that this was an integral part of their pitch to us. The UC’s are research institutions and this is the priority of the professors. At a UC, the professor’s reputation among their peers, funding, and compensation is dependent upon their research and publications. Your son’s education is Cal Poly’s priority. No TA’s period – real professors in every class.</p>
<p>Q: Lastly, do the profs have the latest technology to present their material and make it interesting - projectors for powerpoint, whiteboards, any clickers for feedback and things of that nature?
A: I have personally toured the labs and classrooms for EE at Cal Poly. We ditched other programs at the Open House (which you must attend! 4/12, 13 & 14) and snuck in on their tours. The labs are state of the art and have everything you asked for. Here is a what they say about themselves: [About</a> Us - Electrical Engineering Department - Cal Poly](<a href=“http://www.ee.calpoly.edu/about/]About”>http://www.ee.calpoly.edu/about/)</p>
<p>My son is an EE major at Cal Poly. He says the EE classes are HARD!!! He said his best professors so far have been the calculus teachers. The EE professors he has had have been fine. He has passed everything (has never had a D or an F), but has yet to get an A in his major. But he is only a sophomore. There are some kids that are failing some of the EE, Chem and CS classes, and may be getting out of engineering. It is certainly not for everyone. So far he has had an easier time with the CS classes than the EE classes. I can’t say if it is the professors or just the subject matter. He finds it very interesting, but very challenging. I am hoping it will get a bit easier for him, but I have heard that the material gets even more challenging, but the grading gets a bit more lenient at the upper levels. I sure hope so! No matter what the grading policy, he is very happy with Cal Poly and he believes he picked the right major.</p>
<p>When I was in Cal Poly, I found EE major to be very challenging. Being probably the most mathematically oriented of all engineering majors, at times I felt I was majoring in applied math.</p>
<p>Given the level of challenge, many of the Cal Poly EE students don’t complete their major. And those that did finish were guaranteed to have a quite solid command of all things EE. One thing about Cal Poly engineering that I think has never changed is that the practice a sort of academic Darwinism to ensure graduate quality.</p>
<p>FYI for Universityfreak, EE/engr./math classes will get substantially harder (for e they were impossibly hard) as your son enter junior year, and will stay very hard until early senior year when he takes 400 level (senior level) classes, and will get progressively until graduation.</p>
<p>Universityfreak - Thanks for the info. Would you mind sharing your son’s SAT scores? You can PM me if you want. My son got 780 on the math and 690 on the critical reading. He is currently in AP Calculus AB and says that 4/5 of the calculus AB material is very easy for him (he just “gets” it instantly) but for 1/5 he has to do the problems. I’m concerned about what you said about how hard the EE classes are…</p>
<p>My son made it through Materials Engineering, but Math was hard. Almost all the Engineers at Cal Poly have to take Engineering Calc 1,2,3 and 4 and Linear Analysis. He had a 710 on SAT math and a 4 on the AP Calc AB exam in high school, so he skipped over Calc1 and started with Calc2 at Cal Poly. I think he got a B- in Calc 2, but went downhill from there. I think he got an F in Calc 3 and re-took it and got maybe a C-. Then I think he got a D in Calc 4 (did not retake) and either a C- or D+ in Linear Analysis. He was very happy to be done with Math!! I think the Engineering math series causes many would-be Engineers to change their major to something outside of Engineering. Chem is another that my son found difficult. After scoring a 5 on the AP Chem exam (and skipping the first Chem class) he made a D in the second Engineering Chem class at Cal Poly (and had to re-take).</p>
<p>So, all those students who are used to making A’s in High School will have a rude awakening in Cal Poly Engineering. Although admittedly, my son was not a hard worker in high school. He had to LEARN to work hard at Cal Poly, and it took a while. He got on academic probation twice in his first 2 years, but was able to pull up his grades enough to get off probation. He ended up graduating in 4 years + 1 summer with an overall CP GPA of 2.6-something, and got hired as an entry-level Materials Engineer the next month. His employer had such a high opinion of Cal Poly Engineering, that they never even asked for his college transcript (grades). The fact that he earned the diploma was enough!</p>
<p>Wow - hearing this is making me feel better about my daughter who is a 2nd year ARCE major. She entered Cal Poly as a freshman with 50 AP credits, and ended up skipping a few math and physics classes. Not sure if that was such a good idea since she struggled a bit, but she has managed to maintain above a 3.0 so far. She even made the Dean’s List a couple of times early on, but her course load is getting increasingly difficult and it’s getting harder to stay above a 3.0. Last quarter she got B’s and C’s, and A’s are becoming pretty rare. This is concerning since it seems that many engineering internships require a 3.0+, and I was assuming that she needed a 3.0+ to get any job offers upon graduation. So it is encouraging to hear that Cal Poly’s reputation may offset a slightly lower GPA in engineering. There’s still hope!</p>
<p>I’ll echo COparent. My daughter is 2nd year in Pre-Vet. The science and math classes have been killers. The GEs have kept her GPA afloat. She made a good decision to retake some of the classes she had passed AP exams for. That is one thing any incoming Freshman should be aware of. If you passed an AP exam for a subject that is a major requirement, think long and hard about whether you want to skip that class. My daughter’s experience is that the Calc and Bio classes she took went way beyond the AP high school versions. Missing that content can make success in later series courses problematic. On the other hand, take full advantage of APs for GE requirements unrelated to your major.</p>
<p>My sons situation is similar to those mentioned. The math, chem, physics and CSC classes were hard or lots of work. By the 4th year, he had taken all the GEs (easier classes) and dropped down to 3 CSC classes per quarter, which was equivalent to taking 4 or more classes and why it took him longer to finish. Some of the hardest professors produced the lowest grades (and lowest poly ratings) but my son came out of those classes learning a lot. He had to take classes with those same professors again, knew what to expect, and completed the classes. </p>
<p>This could scare off new or prospective students. Even though you read on CC that the Cal Poly engineering classes might be hard and your grades not as good as what you had in high school, know that by the time you graduate, you will be very good at whatever you do. And if you dont think you want to come to CP because of the hard work, engineering classes at other universities most likely will be a ton of work, too.</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO will easily turn most “A” Hi School students into “B” (…or less…) students if you are in the Engineering program. Be prepared. You will need to work much harder at Cal Poly than you did in Hi school. However, for that work you will receive an excellent education. Just wanted to second what some of the folks above said.</p>