As a background on myself, I have been accepted to Cal Poly SLO for fall 2016 business administration. It is my backup school but my #1 school is pretty tough to get into, so I need to know for my backup as well. I currently have something like 100+ semester units, but they are ALL lower division community college courses.
I have an opportunity where I can go to school at Stanford for summer quarter under a scholarship. I would just take 2, maybe 3, lower division courses. None are pre-reqs, I would just be taking classes at Stanford as if I was a student.
If I accepted my offer to Cal Poly, is this something they’d have an issue with?
UC Berkeley, for example, would have a few issues, i.e. if they were upper vs lower division. Another would be if I got below whatever grade my conditional admit requires, a B. Lastly, they just don’t recommend any summer programs beyond their own just prior to enrolling, and could possibly cause issues with my standing, i.e. not having final grades before fall semester starts.
But at the same time, I think it’s an extraordinary opportunity. Just to be in that type of environment, especially if I want to try and go there for an MBA, I think it would be a really interesting experience.
So, any insight on this from Cal Poly’s perspective, and any issues that might present themselves?
Hi there, I did the summer program at Stanford as well. What I can tell is you is that classes will transfer over assuming you take classes that are similar to an existing Cal Poly class, then you fill out a course substitution form. It’s not guaranteed you’ll get the credit, but they were pretty lenient on my substitutions. Even if they aren’t transferred over, I’d still go for the Stanford program, and I would highly recommend taking a couple of easy GEs.
I say this because although the summer I spent at Stanford was a life changing and one of the best ones of my life, the summer program is essentially there to just make Stanford money and you aren’t actually seen as a Stanford student. Like nothing I learned in a class was any more substantial than something I could have learned in a general community college.
What made it for me was the people I met and my professors’ office hours. To surround myself with so many ambitious and intelligent people was something I didn’t really find again until I came to Cal Poly and I expect to find again when I work at Apple this summer. My only regret at Stanford was not having had more time to network because of the classes I took.
This sounds like something you should call the admissions office to ask directly!
Thanks for the info, @NLinsanity. While what I might do is still, at its base, the “Stanford Summer Program,” this is a program designed for veterans in community college and tuition is fully paid, as is housing, books, and a meal plan. The program is called Stanford 2 to 4.
The upside is that I’d get to check out Stanford, get a taste for what it’s like, maybe boost my confidence a bit, etc., as well as hopefully build a connection that could serve me well if I try and get into their MBA program as I won’t “just” be attending Stanford during the summer, but as a member of one of their pilot programs aimed at veterans. Not to mention they go and check out places like Facebook and Google.
The downside is that the classes won’t help me, academically speaking, in any way. As a prospective UC Berkeley student (still waiting to hear), I can’t have any upper division units and all my GE’s are complete. As a Cal Poly transfer who has been offered admission, my GE’s are all done. On the other side of the token, if I didn’t do well in a course at Stanford, it could jeopardize my application, For Berkeley, at least, I can’t get below a B-average. Naturally I’d take easier courses though.
What did you take and how did you do? What are your thoughts on the page and rigor of a Stanford summer class?
Thanks for the insight!