Hi everyone! My name is Hasan, I am 22 and this is my current concern/situation:
In fall of 2014 I was attending a community college in San Diego, where I was in the process of transferring. As a consequence, I applied to Cal poly SLO (my top choice school), Cal poly Pomona, and SJSU (my last option), for the major of industrial engineering. During spring of 2015, I got rejected right away from SLO, but got accepted at SJSU. At first, I didn’t care much about attending to SJSU, since I thought I was going to get accepted at Pomona for sure. Around May, Pomona assigned me to the waitlist and finally denied my application around June. My only choice left was SJSU, but the problem was that it was already late to register for classes and obtain housing near the school. I had many tough decisions to make during that summer of 2015, in terms of planning to go to SJSU, or remain at CC to finish more classes and re-apply for the next year. After some days of thinking about this situation, I decided to go to SJSU in order to not waste more time. In fact, I did an extensive research about SJSU, and I found out that it is a perfect place for the engineering field, since it is in the heart of Silicon Valley. So what I ended up doing, was that I basically took 2 online GE classes from SJSU in fall of 2015, in order to receive financial aid and remain enrolled at the school. The good thing was that I was still able to take 3 core courses from my CC that were equivalent to the SJSU classes. Now everything was going well for attending SJSU for the spring of 2016. However, I decided to apply again for fall 2016 to SLO and Pomona for curiosity, and just in case if things weren’t working well at SJSU, like obtaining housing, the environment, etc. Now I am attending SJSU and I really like everything around, I have been able to make really good friends so far, and the school has been great academically (awesome instructors and a lot of hands-on projects). Despite that things are going really well so far at SJSU, I got an email from SLO saying that I got accepted for the fall quarter of 2016, which was really random and tentative at the same time. I feel confused at this time of my life, I don’t really know if attending to SLO will provide me better opportunities or not. The pros staying at SJSU is that I just have 3 more semesters left, so basically by fall 17 I will be graduating, whereas if I go to SLO it will for sure take me some more time, since they are still asking me to take dynamics, circuits, and physics 3. In addition, I am not sure if they will validate my current industrial engineering classes, and if they don’t, it will be a waste of time. I also invested money at SJSU, as well as time, and because of that, I believe that I should just stay at SJSU and finish. I would like to get advices and preferences from all of you, since I am confused and I feel somehow excited about getting accepted to SLO. It really sucks that it happened at this moment where I threw all of my cards to SJSU. Will it be worth it to go to SLO if it only takes me a semester longer? (which I don’t think it will happen). Does the prestige of a school contribute at the time of looking for internships or job in the engineering field? Hope to get wise answers and advices, because this is another critical decision I have to make. Thanks in advance everyone!
Stay where you are.
For your major, SJSU is also widely considered one of the better CSU schools. Even though it
wasn’t your first choice, you lucked out!
Reputation does not always equal success. You are currently successful, so why rock the boat?
You’ve already listed the pro’s of remaining at SJSU and they are huge.
Only three remaining semesters? Made friends? Appreciate the benefits of the program?
All indications that you should remain put.
The other issue to consider is if SLO (a more rural campus – would you be happy there…?) has a two-year residency requirement. In other words, are you required to have two full years as a SLO student before you are eligible to graduate?
Good luck with your decision, but as a total stranger, my vote is stick with your fortuitous status quo.
Agree with @hop. ^^^^
SLO is a great school but I think you should stay at SJSU as well. Very well connected here in Silicon Valley for jobs - you would graduate earlier than if you went to SLO - and thus you could go for your masters if you wanted. Job opportunities and internships are here, not in SLO.
I agree. You are in a good program. you are doing well, you will graduate in 3 semesters, and you are happy on a personal level. What else could you want?
Thank you guys for your responses! The answer is more than obvious right now! I wish you guys the best! thanks 