<p>Two part question for current SLO engineering students:</p>
<p>I have been reading some of the other college CC threads about quality of professors, coursework and grading. Furthermore, there has been some dialogue about how fellow students interact with other students.</p>
<p>1) On the UCLA thread, there are a high number of student comments on how poor many of the professors are at UCLA including subpar lecturers, low grading distribution, etc. There are many good professors however there seems to be more postings on bad than good. </p>
<p>2) In addition, there are CC postings that many UCLA students keep to themselves and do not interact or share information with fellow students due to the high level of competitiveness.</p>
<p>Are either (or both) 1 & 2 common to SLO?</p>
<p>Those are two of the major reasons why my son selected SLO over the UCs and the Univ. Of Colorado. Everyone we talked to, from graduates to current students, spoke enthusiastically about the faculty and their “learn by doing” emphasis in team environments. My guess is that Cal Poly faculty are rewarded for their students’ success rather than the publish or perish model prevalent in the UC system.</p>
<p>Not that I’ve hear to be honest… The engineering profs from what I hear are extremely good, and very willing to give students individual attention.</p>
<p>What you should do is this…
-Log on to your mycalpoly
-Go to student services, and search some of the classes for next fall, including the profs of these classes. Look at your department faculty
-Search your profs on polyratings.com and there is an extensive evaluation done by fellow students on the professor, and see how students feel about them.</p>
<p>Right now I know about 5 people that are going to pass up UCLA/UCBerkeley engineering to go to Cal Poly.</p>
<p>Yea I passed Berkeley for Cal Poly and after open house and talking to tons of engineering students I am super excited and happy with it.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the input. SLO seems to be the best choice for a quality engineering education as well as a true balanced college experience. We spent many hours doing research and have heard, read and seen so much positive information about this University. The college and area have so much to offer. We are excited about the next four (five?) years… Go Mustangs!!!</p>
<p>I chose Cal Poly over Berkeley and am now a third-year biomedical engineering major. When deciding on which college to attend, I visited a few lower-division Berkeley lectures. In one specific Berkeley lecture, there were 700 students packed into a massive lecture hall. The professor told the class, “all lectures will be webcast, so I don’t care if you don’t come to lecture–this lecture hall is crowded with too many students.”</p>
<p>The level of attention I’ve received from my Cal Poly professors is incomparable to the level of attention I think I would have received from Berkeley professors. Almost all my Cal Poly classes have consisted of 35 students or less (I’ve had two 200-student engineering classes at Cal Poly). Cal Poly professors call students by name, welcome questions in class, and are ready and waiting to talk with students during daily office hours. When I can have a professor guide me through challenging homework problems or personally motivate me to continue studying hard, I don’t have trouble doing well. When I do well, my success motivates me to power through harder challenges ahead, and when I routinely succeed, my motivation grows to the point where I know I can do anything. This is the effect that Cal Poly professors’ attention has on students. After four years of this Cal Poly brand of education, I’ll be well equipped for succeeding in a brutal job hunt or winning against the tough competition for admission to graduate schools.</p>
<p>I have a close relationship with my faculty advisor (a biomedical engineering faculty member). She told me that Cal Poly announces to professor applicants that they must balance their time between teaching and research. Cal Poly is primarily an undergraduate institution, so it’s no surprise to me that Cal Poly requires its professors to devote just as much attention to teaching as they do to their research.</p>
<p>If I had to choose between Cal Poly and Berkeley again, hands down I’d choose Cal Poly.</p>
<p>Beautiful words, man. I was admitted to Cal Poly and Berkeley for Fall '09, and I chose Cal Poly for very much the same reasons as you did… for the very same major. </p>
<p>All I have been hearing so far are great things about Cal Poly - are there any cons?</p>