Hi, I’m a parent of a senior who’s also trying to decide between those two as well as a few others. We finally got to see them both “in person” when we went to Cal Poly’s Open House April 14 and SCU’s Preview Day April 15.
I have to say that I was unexpectedly blown away by Orfalea at Cal Poly. I felt a huge energy there, and it felt very student-, rather than admin/faculty- led. For example, the breakout session on Finance we attended was run by students, not faculty, as was the one at SCU. The Student Ambassadors who lead the Orfalea tour were extremely dynamic and impressive, and there were a bunch of business clubs whose booths were staffed and who, we see afterwords, have very professional looking websites that list some interesting sounding events. I was disappointed that there weren’t more clubs represented at SCU; there were staffed tables for the two business fraternities and the consulting club, but not for the Finance or other business related clubs, and though we can see other clubs listed on SCU’s website, there isn’t much info about them on the web. I was surprised and pleased to hear that the class sizes are apparently considerably smaller than at UCs, and the focus is on undergrad teaching rather than research, with no TAs (although the classes are probably smaller yet at SCU, as a private college). I liked the fact that Orfalea seems to have a separate and distinct identity, and yet you’d still get the energy of being part of a much larger campus and community. I’m not sure how much it really carries through or matters, but I really like Cal Poly’s “learn by doing” approach, and I think it would help when trying to get jobs and to transition to the “real world.” Also, my daughter has taken several community college courses while in high school, and though we haven’t verified, I think Cal Poly would be more likely to give her credit for them than a private college would; in addition our tour guide said he was able to do some of his GE requirements online through a community college. He also told us that most Orfalea students don’t have any classes on Fridays, so get a 3-day weekend, a nice benefit.
The main disadvantage I see for Cal Poly is the location. The surrounding countryside is beautiful - I had never been up there before - but my daughter is not a big nature/hiking buff, and there is nothing that can be walked to. On the other hand SCU’s campus, which, granted, is very impressively gardened and manicured, doesn’t have much to walk to in the immediately surrounding area. You can walk to the train which will get you into San Francisco in about an hour, so that is an advantage of SCU.
Despite the distance of Cal Poly to San Franciso and LA, Cal Poly seems to have good recruiting and there is considerable overlap in the list of companies that hire both school’s grads, according to LinkedIn’s “Career Insights” feature.
We didn’t get a chance to see much of the town of San Luis Obispo, but we arrived to catch the last half hour of the Thursday night Farmer’s Market, which was fun and lively. It also occurred to me that, with no classes Friday, a student could really enjoy it.
