We are hoping for some guidance to help my son choose which school to attend in the fall of 2016 for ME.
Which school is best for education and post education (job or grad school).
Because of scholarships and grants, UC Davis is by far the least expensive, followed by Cal Poly SLO, and then SDSU (twice as expensive as Davis).
Son is laid back and loves the outdoors, but GF will be attending SDSU.
Taking all of the above into consideration, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
My 2 cents worth and slight bias since I have a son at SDSU and another at UCD. The GF should not be a factor in his decision (yes easier said then done) since there is no guarantee the relationship will last 4 years. If he chooses SDSU based on the fact she is attending and things do not work out, he may regret being at the school. I think highly of all the three schools, so if money is an issue UCD is the clear winner but for the ME program and his love for the outdoors, SLO would be my choice followed closely by UCD. Has he visited all the campuses? Which campus does he feel will suit him best for the next 4 years??
@Gumbymom thank you for your reply! He has visited UCD and SLO, but not on optimal days (100 degrees at UCD and pouring rain at SLO) so he didn’t get a good feel for the students there because hardly any were out and about on campus. We are going to UCD this Saturday for admitted student day and to SLO for the Thursday-Sat admitted days, and will visit SDSU next week for an admitted student tour. He’s met with the ME dept. at SLO and liked everyone he met with, and he’ll meet with the engineering dept. at UCD this Saturday. He’s also meeting with the head of ME at SDSU when he visits there. The GF is a tough one, but I understand what you’re saying, and I agree. Ultimately it’s completely his decision, and I’m not telling him about the financial differences, so that won’t weigh into his decision. Of course it’s a concern for me, but I don’t want that to factor into his decision, because then I know he would choose UCD. Hopefully, when we visit each campus over the next few weeks, he’ll get a feel for them and a sense of where he wants to go. It’s just such a tough decision, and he really wants a great education with great job prospects after he graduates.
He will love any of those three!
Dd is at Davis, and we are from San Diego; she loves Davis. Her ME friends are graduating with her this June. They are heading to jobs in Silicon Valley.
We also love SDSU as I am an AZTEC. Great sports school and great social and business network. Lots of ME jobs through local companies but not as many as Silicon. Great, great weather.
Tough call!
@calimomof2: UCD’s admitted student’s day sealed the deal for my older son whom was also deciding between UCD and SLO. I think he would have thrived at both campuses but he felt UCD had more to offer him in the way of academics, major flexibility, social life and the small town feel of home. A tough decision all around but some great choices.
Thanks @aunt bea and @Gumbymom!
@aunt bea how is SDSU if you’re not into partying? I don’t mean to stereotype, just trying to get an idea. He doesn’t really intend to go Greek, but not sure if he will to make friends? Are there ties to the aerospace industry there? He’s ME but interested in aero. He thinks he wants to live in the bay area after graduation.
@Gumbymom can you please elaborate on your son feeling that UCD had more to offer than SLO in terms of academics, major flexibility, and social life? We talked to an engineering advisor at UCD, and it does sound like it’s not a problem at all to change engineering majors. I think it might be tougher at SLO?
My son at UCD is in his 3rd year (Environmental Science not ME) so it will be about 4 years ago that he was making his college decision. During one of several visits at SLO, he inquired about the chances of switching majors (Environmental Science to possibly Biology) and he was told it would be very difficult especially switching from School of Agriculture to the School of Science and he should be fairly certain about declaring a major as an in-coming Freshman. He was told that it is much easier to switch out of a competitive major such as Engineering/Biology than into one and many students end up transferring if they could not change majors. I know that changing majors is not as difficult now, but there are far more steps involved than getting a few signatures from Department heads and advisors like at UCD. Also UCD has about 7 different Environmental majors along with specialization tracks which for him, made it far better choice. Since your son has been already accepted into a competitive major, ME, switching majors should not be as much as an issue at SLO.
Regarding social life, he is not the most social person, but the small town atmosphere reminded him of our hometown, so it felt comfortable and familiar. He is pretty low key, along with his friends, so going out to dinner and movie is the usual weekend activities. They occasionally attend a party at a friends or do trivia night at a local bar. For outdoor activities, he and friends hike in and around Lake Berryessa or head up to Auburn State park and fish the American river, time permitting (not much downtime with the quarter system). If you make it a point, there is always something you can do around the Davis/Sacramento area. The Outdoor Adventures center offers camping/backpacking/river rafting/kayaking trips if he is interested. https://cru.ucdavis.edu/outdooradventures
The Craft center on campus has some interesting/fun classes to take during the quarter. He took a Wood working class last year and plans to do the Blacksmithing class this Fall. https://cru.ucdavis.edu/craftcenter
Your son just needs to find his best “fit” school and I am sure everything will fall into place.
My younger son is a 2nd year at SDSU and although SDSU is known as a “party” school, which I really hate since SDSU is not the “party” school of the past, I have seen that Greek life is integral in the social scene at SDSU or least with my son and his friends. My son just rushed a Fraternity this year as a Sophomore (not happy about the Greek system in general), but for him it has been a good experience. There are probably as many non-partiers as partiers at SDSU, so if he is not into the Greek scene it should not be an issue and I am sure he will find many like minded students.
SDSU has a party reputation for many years but things have changed because the students have changed. These are more serious about getting their education.
Lots of aerospace companies in San Diego County. Just look at the Poway Business Park:
Northrop, BAE, General Atomics, some off shoots of: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, etc.
I currently attend Cal Poly and have no reservations in recommending it.
Your son will be in a beautiful area with great outdoors and great people. Social life is like any college where there is a wide spectrum. You can choose how social you want to be. The engineering program is well known and almost all of my peers have had internships.
Cal Poly is really unique in the fact that I have had nearly unlimited access to student-run machine shops,
the opportunity to design and run my own vibration tests in a laboratory, use 1/2 million dollar
state of the art machining equipment, collaborate with two difference professors on building a vehicle to break land speed records, assist with a student run wind-tunnel, and help run an entirely student-funded club.
If you put forth the hard work, the educational and job opportunities are here for you at Cal Poly.
I have visited SDSU multiple times and I absolutely love it there and will be attending in Fall 2016 but if your son is really serious about mechanical engineering I would definitely recommend Cal Poly SLO. It has some of the best engineering programs in California and from my understanding they have quite the pull with getting very well paying jobs right out of college. Definitely do not let your son make his decision based off of his love life. My girlfriend and I have been going to separate colleges for 2 years and it gets easier. On the other hand, SDSU is also a phenomenal school so it’s a win win in whatever he decides.