<p>I got into my top three schools, and now I have the hard choice of choosing between them. I will be studding Mechanical Engineering, and I have a few questions about Cal Poly?</p>
<p>How is the…
CA budget issues affecting the school?
Collaborative vs. competitive atmosphere?
Access to prof vs. TA’s?
Internship/research opportunities (hands on)?
Ease of changing majors?
level of academic stress?
…at Cal Poly.</p>
<p>thanks a lot,
jon</p>
<p>well you probably want to compare it to something, where else are you considering</p>
<p>I'm also considering USC and Santa Clara university</p>
<p>i may not be the most qualified, person, but this is a combination of opinion and information that i do know</p>
<p>the budget problems will directly affect slo more than scu and usc but private schools should still feel pressure from the recession</p>
<p>id probably describe usc as the most competitive considering their applicants are top tier students and were all top students from their high schools, scu and slo are probably not so much</p>
<p>the advantages to scu and slo are that they are masters universities and the professors priorities are undergraduate work, usc will still have professors teach classes, but grad students may still run discussion work shops and grade papers</p>
<p>idk about ME, but SCU is a great place for interships in silicon valley, i dont know enough about usc to say anything, but i know that most slo students have very little problems with school to career paths - if you compare the numbers, the job titles and salaries between slo and berkeley are basically exactly the same (both avg. starting salaries are $55,000)</p>
<p>i know scu offers introductory enginering courses your freshman year to get you hands in all the majors, usc isnt too difficult either based on courses youve already take (i talked to an engineering rep there and he said that changes between ME, AeroEng, and AstoEng isnt difficult, but ME to ChemEng may add a semester depending on where you are)
good luck at slo, impacted majors are very difficult to change into
i know engineering students at slo and they say its the best choice they ever made in their lives, they like the school, but they still have fun</p>
<p>hope that helps, be sure to take all of that with a grain of salt, but thats with my experiences at the schools (ive been to all 3 and visited their engineering dept., i also have close friends in engineerig at slo and usc)</p>
<p>Skijon -
I don't know this info for ME majors. However, I would say that I know the reputation of the program is top notch. You would be working with other students of high caliber in the ME program at SLO. As far as colaborative vs. competitive - not sure. Some majors are very chummy and work on projects together - but perhaps not the engineering majors so much?</p>
<p>Have you visited all of these campuses? What strikes me of your list is that these are all in very different locations - CP SLO is in a beautiful, small college town located near the beach in central coast. Lots to do outdoors. USC is obviously very urban and in LA - lots of people, noise, traffic. SCU is in a small city in the bay area - still very congested area although a nice neighborhood. Yo u should try to visit before making your decision.</p>