<p>I am currently a first year living on campus at Cal Poly Slo. If anyone has any questions about the campus, classes, majors, housing, food, social scene, location, or anything else feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to answer them all as best and fast as I can!</p>
<p>I suppose this depends on your major, but how big are your classes? Do you feel like your professors are accessible?</p>
<p>I think most of your classes will be between 30-40 students. A few classes (like GE’s) will have a ton of students in a lecture hall (400-500 students).</p>
<p>Most of my professors have been easy to talk to and get help. You can easily visit them and ask for help during their office hours.</p>
<p>thanks! do AP classes help get you a lot of credit? would they be a significant boost for someone trying to graduate in engineering in 4 years?</p>
<p>Yeah, the classes are usually around 30-40. They may even be smaller, which is something I like. Most large lectures are pretty rare. </p>
<p>AP classes can definitely get you a lot of credit. my roommate, who is a business major and also a first year, already has sophomore standing because she took a lot of AP’s and she is only in her second quarter at Cal Poly! I would strongly recommend taking AP’s if your goal is to graduate in four years, especially with a major like engineering. It would probably make your time in college a whole lot easier since you can get some GE’s out of the way and focus more on your major.</p>
<p>I took lang, chem, spanish lang, physics B, calc, and gov. Think it will help much?</p>
<p>I think so. That should get some of your requirements out of the way. if lang is the same thing as english I know that counts. I think gov and calc count too towards your GE’s. I don’t know much about the science classes since my major’s not science related, but I’m pretty sure they count too. Languages, such as spanish, are not part of the GE requirement at Cal Poly, but the credit should count toward your elective units.</p>
<p>most of those will count as elective or some specific GE’s. the physics wont really get you anywhere as far as your engineering path, but it may count as some GE units, i know that because i took it and passed it and it didnt count for anything for me</p>
<p>how many electives does an engineering major need?</p>
<p>Do you like the housing? Are you in dorms or an apartment? As far as social scene goes, do you find time to relax and enjoy SLO or are you constantly studying?</p>
<p>I’m not sure exactly how many electives an engineering major needs since I am not one, but I think the most you would need is twenty some.</p>
<p>I really like the housing on campus. I live in the apartments which are beautiful! We get a full size kitchen, our own bedrooms, and two bathrooms. While the apartments may have gotten a reputation for being less social, I think that has really changed now that more first years are living there. Cerro Vista is actually almost all first years now. I think that no matter where you live, it’s pretty easy to meet people if you get involved. I know some people who live in the dorms, and they seem to like it there. It’s probably a quite different experience from the apartments, but I’m sure it’s a ton of fun too. </p>
<p>As far as the social scene goes, I think the amount of free time you have really depends on how many classes you are taking and how difficult they are. But I think the most important thing to do is manage your time well, even if it means making a schedule each week. As long as you keep on track and don’t fall behind, you should have a good amount of free time even if you are taking quite rigorous classes. Personally, I found myself pretty overwhelmed the first week of classes, but after that things settled down and I had plenty of time to hang out with friends, go downtown, or just watch TV. Some nights I find myself having up to four hours of work/studying, and some I have barely any or even none.</p>
<p>Really?! That’s good to know, do you think it’s really hard to get into the apartments for freshmen since they’ve become so popular?</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification on the Cerro Vista apartments.
Abbazabba: I think the apartments are relatively competitive to get into, but did you apply ED? If you were ED accepted, you have first priority.(That’s what I’m choosing!)</p>
<p>I’m not sure how hard it is to get into the apartments, but I’m pretty sure this year most people who wanted to get in got in. I think that while the apartments are more popular, a lot of people still want to live in the dorms for the experience, since a lot of people live in Poly Canyon their second year and those are apartments too, so they want to get the dorm experience their first year. I applied ED, so I got priority for housing, but I think you still have a chance at getting into the apartments, or whatever your first choice housing is, even if you did not apply early decision.</p>
<p>I was accepted for early decision so that’s great news! Thanks for all of your help!</p>
<p>@collegebound2729: You can see what courses and electives are required for an engineering major by looking at the flowcharts here: [url=<a href=“http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/forms/]http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/forms/[/url”>http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/forms/]http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/forms/[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Just a note: one factor on getting housing is how early you pay your first installment. They won’t put you into housing until they receive that payment.</p>
<p>I got accepted into civil engineering ED, and now I am wanting to change to mechanical engineering. What would be the best way of doing this, wait until classes start? Orientation? Is it going to be hard to change?</p>
<p>I’m not sure if it’s too early right now, but the best thing to do is get in contact with the departments and your academic advisor as soon as possible. I think most people who are considering changing majors do so over the summer or during SOAR, which takes place in late summer. If I were you, I’d send some e-mails, maybe to admissions, your academic advisor, and the mechanical engineering department chair and ask them what the best thing to do right now is. I definitely would not wait until classes start because in order to switch majors, you need to begin taking classes in the major you want to switch to as soon as you can so that you can switch as soon as possible. In order to complete the switch from one major to another, you need to be taking classes in the major you’re switching to for two quarters, I believe.</p>
<p>I think they make it seem like changing majors is a lot harder than it really is. Since you want to switch from one type of engineering to another, it should be less of a problem than switching from say business to engineering. From what I’ve heard, I don’t think switching majors is extremely difficult, but it does seem like it can be a hassle so you should be positive you want to switch before you begin to go through with it.</p>
<p>Alright solid, thanks for the advice.</p>