<p>How are different Cal State campuses rated? I know that CSULB is supposed to be a good school, but what about the others? (I did look at the USNews rankings, looking for more)</p>
<p>Thanks for replies.</p>
<p>I personally don't care about school rankings. Don't look into the future when it comes to choosing a career; rather, look back from the point in the future that you want to be. When you're finished with college, most jobs don't even care what prestigious colleges you have attended. Some jobs prefer work experience over a college degree. My point is you should start from the job/career that you choose and work backwards. What do you need to do to get to there? Is going to a good college enough or do you need work experience? If work experience is also important, work part-time in a job related to that career while you're in school. Don't devote all your time in school because once you're finished you might have a hard time getting hired since you only have a college degree though from a prestigious college. </p>
<p>I went to a number of community colleges then to a Cal State and got a degree there. I would rank these schools at the bottom of the school system. However, I still got accepted to a graduate program that many people would give anything for. When I hear people talk about college rankings it's like blah blah blah I saved so much money going to community colleges and Cal State yet I get into the program that I wanted.</p>
<p>Thanks for the non-responsive post. Cal State campuses differ in quality of education and of student body. CalPoly is probably considered the best, followed by CSULB. But what about the other ones?</p>
<p>Generally speaking, I think SLO and SDSU are considered the two best. Any rankings depend upon specific programs for each person though. For example, engineering at SLO and business at SDSU are top notch, even if rankings fail to recognize this for SD. Personally, I'm a business major so SDSU is a clear #1 with SLO, LB and Fullerton ranked in no specific order behind it.</p>
<p>Cal Poly is the best in some respects, not in others. Humboldt State is the best in some respects, not in others. (You want marine biology and environmental science? HSU would be your place.)</p>
<p>The CSUs that could traditionally be considered residential are Cal Poly, Chico, Humboldt, San Diego and maybe Sonoma. Most others (particularly the other SoCal schools) will be primarily commuter students.</p>
<p>It depends on the major.</p>
<p>Engineering: Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona, SJS
Business: CSUF, CSLB, SDS</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO, as you are aware, is the clear outlier... for many majors, it's as good (and as difficult to get into) as the mid-tier UCs (Davis, Santa Barbara, Irvine). As for the other CSU's, the others are right... it really depends on the department. And it really doesn't map directly with whether the campus is residential or commuter... Fullerton, for example, is very strong in some areas, but is primarily commuter.</p>
<p>"Thanks for the non-responsive post. Cal State campuses differ in quality of education and of student body. CalPoly is probably considered the best, followed by CSULB. But what about the other ones?"</p>
<p>Nice disrespectful response to someone who gave you perhaps the best advice. sunkizzed makes a good point - it doesnt matter how prestigious of a school you go to, it's going to one that gives you the best job opportunities. For CSU's, generally speaking, you should go to one in a location you want to work at. So for example, if you wanted to work in SF, go to SFSU. If you want to work in SD, go to SDSU. The only difference it makes is if you want to go to a graduate school. Even then, prestige doesn't matter that much.</p>
<p>I have a brother who goes to one of the top-notch business schools on the west coast after graduating from a top-tier UC. In his classes, he noticed that there were people from all-over (Sonoma State, Long Beach State, Fresno State, SJSU, UC Davis, UCLA, etc) who all had one thing in common - they took advantage of the school they were at. </p>
<p>Who cares if you go to a prestigious school; it's what you do that matters.</p>
<p>But to answer your question, if you had to rank them, the top 5 would be</p>
<p>Cal Poly, SDSU, SJSU, Long Beach, SFSU</p>
<p>Thank you, those people, who gave constructive responses. It has been very helpful.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Nice disrespectful response to someone who gave you perhaps the best advice. sunkizzed makes a good point - it doesnt matter how prestigious of a school you go to, it's going to one that gives you the best job opportunities.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You are absolutely right. I'll have the same job opportunities coming out of Harvard as I would have coming out of CSUN. Just the same.</p>
<p>If you insist...</p>
<p>1) You aren't understanding the argument. I'm simply stating that you ought to go to the school that gives you the best job opportunities. No doubt Harvard would give you the best compared to a CSU. But in terms of CSU (which if im not mistaken, is the basis of your original question), it's the location that matters. If i want to be an engineer, why would I go to Long Beach (which you believe is the 2nd best csu) over SJSU (which gives me the best opportunities for a job since it's in Silicon Valley)? </p>
<p>2) In terms of going to graduate school, again - prestige isn't all that much, it's what you do. If i graduate from Harvard with a 2.8 and no honors/activities/involvements, or w/e... who do you think has a better chance of getting into a strong graduate school? A student who graduates from the top of their class at CSUN, Student Body President, etc etc or me? </p>
<p>3) For some professions, it's the location not the prestige. Let's put it in terms of law school (go ask anyone who goes to law school and they'll be able to answer this for you too). </p>
<p>Who do you think has a better chance of getting a job in California as a lawyer after passing the bar? One who graduates from UC Davis Law or Harvard Law?</p>
<p>The answer = the UC Davis student because he/she passed the California Bar which UC Davis Law prepared him/her to do. Passing the Bar in Massachusetts is not going to help you in California... </p>
<hr>
<p>Want to continue? My point of referring to your response as disrespectful was to show you the importance of sunkizzed's advice. You can hate on my logic all you want but from a mature viewpoint, sunkizzed's advice makes logical sense. You ought to value and show respect for it.</p>
<p>Your problem is that you're trying to tender irrelvant info which you think is going to be useful when you don't even know why the question was asked in the first place. I didn't ask for platitudes like "prestige doesn't matter", so, naturally, I do not appreciate such tripe. If you know the answer, please answer the question stated. And if you don't know the answer, please practise writing of your irrelevancies elsewhere. TYIA.</p>
<p>Sure, I was just practicing writing irrelevancies to this topic that don't answer your question.</p>
<p>And i quote :
"For CSU's, generally speaking, you should go to one in a location you want to work at. So for example, if you wanted to work in SF, go to SFSU. If you want to work in SD, go to SDSU. The only difference it makes is if you want to go to a graduate school. Even then, prestige doesn't matter that much."</p>
<p>Let's do this again:
"But to answer your question, if you had to rank them, the top 5 would be</p>
<p>Cal Poly, SDSU, SJSU, Long Beach, SFSU"</p>
<p>Or hey, i even had a second post to shed some more light:
"But in terms of CSU (which if im not mistaken, is the basis of your original question), it's the location that matters. If i want to be an engineer, why would I go to Long Beach (which you believe is the 2nd best csu) over SJSU (which gives me the best opportunities for a job since it's in Silicon Valley)?"</p>
<hr>
<p>I'll admit, the majority of my posts were on a broad stance (the prestige argument) that didn't answer your question directly. But it still answered it in a broad sense that - "the prestige of the CSU doesnt matter"... which sunkizzed does as well. </p>
<p>And I hope you don't find offense with my arguments. Just trying to help shed some light on the prestige factor to help you out in picking a CSU.</p>
<p>Thank you, we already heard your largely irrelevant opinion.</p>
<p>Sure, if all CSU campuses are created equal and if a CSU graduate is looking to enter workforce right out of UG, then campus location is going to be the primary factor in job placement because searching for employees and for job locally is generally cheaper. That's two big if's though, because not everybody is looking to work right out of UG, and because not all campuses are created equal, if only for the fact that some campuses are less selective and thus are gonna have more students like you.</p>
<p>Hmm...</p>
<p>"Thank you, we already heard your largely irrelevant opinion."
- Let's debunk this statement of yours</p>
<p>First, I stated that the location of the CSU matters and play a factor in "rankings". Therefore, there is no way to gauge a ranking if you don't factor location. Hence, there is no straight-forward ranking on a board stance. There is, however, for each major (which I believe everyone else also noted) which factors in location due to job opportunities. Irrelevant? I guess, everyone else is too then. </p>
<p>Second, I gave you a ranking if you DID have to rank them on a board scale. Irrelevant? Hmmm...then what are you looking for as an answer? Is there even a point to ask a question to people if you want a specific answer to make you feel good about yourself? </p>
<p>Let's move on. </p>
<p>"That's two big if's though, because not everybody is looking to work right out of UG..."
- Nice assumption. Just for your information, there are alot of people who don't go to graduate school after undergraduate. Many go straight to the workforce especially engineer majors. But even if you want to factor in the possibility of someone going to graduate school... they'll still need a job to put on their resume. Many employers would even go so far and pay for the graduate school fee. Maybe if you actually read sunkizzed's advice, instead of being an immature brat, you would have understood that. </p>
<p>"and because not all campuses are created equal, if only for the fact that some campuses are less selective"
- Granted, not all of them are created equal. But again, the argument is that major/location defines the prestige of each school. Also, many CSU's are highly selective only because many people apply there. If I'm not mistaken, more people apply to San Diego State than SJSU and even Cal Poly. Does that mean SDSU is better than Cal Poly and SJSU? </p>
<p>"and thus are gonna have more students like you."
- Really? Sure, even though I'm looking at UCLA/Berkeley/Georgetown/NYU/Cornell/Columbia/Boston College after doing 2 years of college in one. Oh and let's assume my 3.9 GPA doesn't get me in those. Okay, it feels great having UC Davis, UCSD, UCI, and UCSB are backups that I've already gotten into. But hey, I'm sure I'm going to enjoy being at "less-equal, less selective schools". </p>
<p>Want to continue or call it draw? Your choice.</p>
<p>l84ad8's point is that he/she only wants the answer to his question, which is stated at the title of the forum. Chibi_loopi, great for you that you've gotten what you want through the way you got it and are on your way to what sounds like a great future, but believe it or not, not everyone is looking for a life lesson from some wise stranger, some just want an answer to their question and are finding their own ways to their goal.</p>
<p>l84ad8, what's your intended major? For better answers, be a little more descriptive with what your goals are.</p>
<p>I appreciate that you are trying to compromise for both sides but I think you have the intentions wrong. I wasnt intending to give a "life lesson". I entered this discussion in defense of a poster who the OP gave a disrespectful response to an answer given. By sarcastically thanking a person (who gave a quality answer) as being non-responsive to the question, is what trigger my response. </p>
<p>But putting that aside, for the OP to then attack the logic with more sarcasm was a trigger for an argumentation. I, of course, noted to the OP that I wasn't trying to be offensive or mean to him/her...only for the OP to respond with a disrespectful comment about me. Now, the only reason why I listed my current state/objectives was to show him/her the absurdity of his/her perception of who I am... not to show off or anything. </p>
<p>Also, he/she continues to make more sarcastic/negative responses to me by arguing that I was irrelevant. But as I pointed out to him/her, I answered the question to the fullest extent with the information given. And as my last post indicates, the responses were quite similar to those of the ones given by other posters. If the OP continues to claim those as "non-responsive", then what is he/she looking for as an answer? What is the point of even asking for people's input if you are going to knock it down? </p>
<p>I'm not trying to tell the OP - "hey look, this is the route you should take." Rather, I'm arguing that it doesn't matter which route you take as long as you take the one that best fits your intentions by looking at the location/prestige of the major for the CSU. Also, that there is no "broad"-way of ranking the CSU's because they each differ per major. </p>
<p>Essentially, this entire time, i was trying to make my arguments seem more "relevant" so that the OP understood it instead of proclaiming it as "irrelevant."</p>
<p>I guess I should've not only directed that to you, but just for the sake of reemphasizing my initial point, the person you're defending made comments that can be misconstrued to be condescending and possibly arrogant. Like I said, people may not be looking for a lesson regardless or not if you think you're giving one. You did give some good answers but the lecture-like discussion over the reasons of choosing a school, kind of negates from the positivity than can come out from your advice.</p>
<p>
[quote]
. . . prestige doesn't matter that much.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>
[quote]
. . . major/location defines the prestige of each school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Lol, chibi. You're one sad poster. First, you tell me that prestige of CSU campuses or even of schools in general doesn't matter. Then you contradict yourself by giving rankings of different campuses. Then you state that school location defines its prestige. Then you imply that school selectivity is defined only by admission rates. Then you try to prove that you're competent by saying that you have a "3.9" and that you go to "UCLA/Berkeley/Georgetown/NYU/Cornell/Columbia/Boston College". You know, the fact that you have high GPA and that you go to a certain school may or may not mean that you're competent, but your lack of coherence and reasoning skills as displayed on this thread is pretty much conclusive.</p>
<p>Oh, and this gem is just timeless:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Who do you think has a better chance of getting a job in California as a lawyer after passing the bar? One who graduates from UC Davis Law or Harvard Law?</p>
<p>The answer = the UC Davis student because he/she passed the California Bar which UC Davis Law prepared him/her to do. Passing the Bar in Massachusetts is not going to help you in California...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>But you probably won't have wits (despite having a 3.9) to understand why it's so funny.</p>
<p>"First, you tell me that prestige of CSU campuses or even of schools in general doesn't matter. Then you contradict yourself by giving rankings of different campuses."
- I stated = "If you HAD to" then later expanded to say that is on a broad scale. Remember, my argument is that you have to factor in major/location and etc. But it's cool, you can claim i'm a sad-poster all you want. Maybe if you just read the arguments you would have understood that. </p>
<p>"Then you state that school location defines its prestige."
- I stated the school location factors into the prestige for its major... i.e. SJSU = good for engineer majors because it's in silicon valley. </p>
<p>"Then you imply that school selectivity is defined only by admission rates"
- No, i argued the opposite. i said that some CSU's are highly selective because they are most-applied to. </p>
<p>"Then you try to prove that you're competent by saying that you have a "3.9" and that you go to "UCLA/Berkeley/Georgetown/NYU/Cornell/Columbia/Boston College". You know, the fact that you have high GPA and that you go to a certain school may or may not mean that you're competent, but your lack of coherence and reasoning skills as displayed on this thread is pretty much conclusive."
- If it makes you feel any better to make negative implications about me, go for it. Like I stated, I wasn't trying to show off or anything but rather to disprove your argument that I'm going to be a "lower-tier" CSU student. But again, if you want to make personal attacks and look immature at the same time, go for it. </p>
<p>"Oh, and this gem is just timeless: [...] But you probably won't have wits (despite having a 3.9) to understand why it's so funny."
- Have you asked anyone who goes to Law school this question? Until you do, your immaturity overshadows the "humor" in that comment.</p>
<h2>But come on, "enlighten" me. Tell me why it's so funny. Better yet, why dont you answer iansown's question : "l84ad8, what's your intended major? For better answers, be a little more descriptive with what your goals are." I assume the original purpose of this thread was for you to find out a ranking of the CSU system, correct? </h2>
<p>iansown, sorry for calling you out like that. you're right, i shouldnt have tried to defend someone who tried to "lecture" this kid about a path. however, as much as i respect your comments, i feel like ive dug a hole too deep to get out of. Even putting the "lecture" argument aside, I did what every other poster attempted to do = "answer the question posed by the OP." In fact, a few of my arguments correspond with other answers given. What else does the OP want?</p>
<p>the OP is gettin no free snowcone from me i can tell ya that</p>