<p>I will be applying to colleges this fall and my top choice is Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo but I have also been thinking about Texas A&M. Which school is more prestigious and viewed more highly by potential employers? I plan on majoring in civil engineering.
Which school has better student life? (dorms, campus, sports, etc)
Also, I would be going out of state to both so Cal Poly would actually be slightly cheaper.
I will also be posting this in the Cal Poly thread.</p>
<p>Definitely Texas A&M hands down in everything. None of the Cal Poly’s can compare. Now if you were talking about the UC schools, that would be different. The only thing Cal Poly would be good for you is that it would be slightly cheaper. But A&M is definitely worth the extra cost if it isn’t too much.</p>
<p>A&M easily. I don’t know how this is a question. Cal-Berkeley, UCLA, and a few other ones are considered better than A&M, but definitely not any Cal poly.</p>
<p>The UC system has definitely the best public schools in the nation. Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCSB, and UCI are all ranked ahead of A&M and even UT.</p>
<p>lol all of them??? wow.</p>
<p>The answer is Yes and No. My 2 sons are Engineering Major in UCLA and TAMU. As a Californian, it is truth, UC even-though is a public system, has one of the best overall exceptional High National Universities Ranking. However, if you look at Engineering School whose highest degree is bachelor or Master, Cal-Poly - SLO rank quite high. If you look at engineering schools whose highest degree is doctorate, TAMU is similar vs UCLA /UCSD.</p>
<p>Check the facts - US News ranks Cal Poly SLO 5th “Nationally” of colleges with non-doctoral engineering programs</p>
<p>[Best</a> Undergraduate Engineering Programs - Best Colleges - Education - US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-engineering]Best”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-engineering)</p>
<p>Texas A&M Ranks 10th “Nationally” as a Civil Enginnering Program
[Undergraduate</a> Engineering Specialties: Civil - Best Colleges - Education - US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-doct-civil]Undergraduate”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-doct-civil)</p>
<p>Figure out what you want and where you fit. My son wouldn’t dream of A&M vice Cal Poly SLO and frankly I’m encouraging him to give Cal Poly SLO a hard look over UCLA and UCB although I expect to be accepted at those schools.</p>
<p>I cannot over emphasize the value of getting practical experience before graduation. I hire people and I’ll take an undergraduate B.S. with experience, over an M.S. and no experience. </p>
<p>If someone is on the graduate school track go to the schools that provide the academics but get some hands-on experience along the way. Cal Poly starts with hands-on as a freshman…few if any schools do that.</p>
<p>BUT…figure out what you want and where you fit. As I tell my son, college WILL be some of the best years of his life…if you don’t fit and don’t enjoy college, your motivation to excel won’t be there and college will be a miserable experience.</p>
<p>“The UC system has definitely the best public schools in the nation. Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCSB, and UCI are all ranked ahead of A&M and even UT.”</p>
<p>If general consensus accepts the above statement as accurate, then Cal Poly will be ranked ahead of A&M because Cal Poly is widely consider, by general consensus, to be comparable to UCI, UCD, and UCSB.</p>
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<p>I was going by overall US News rankings [Best</a> Colleges - Education - US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges]Best”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges). Cal Poly is no where near A&M. Though it isn’t to say it’s not a good school, Cal Poly is a great Engineering specialty school.</p>
<p>I can see your point. But you are also inferring that A&M is ahead of UCI, UCSB, UCD. </p>
<p>I don’t know much about A&M, so I am fine that assertion, if you say it’s true.</p>
<p>But the point is, in California, Cal Poly is viewed on par with UCI, UCSB, and UCD.</p>
<p>Both will give an equally good education. It’s a matter of what place will fit you the best.</p>
<p>don’t discount SLO in favor of A&M so easily like some of these posters have done. SLO students (especially engineering students) are highly recruited by businesses because they are so prized for having gone through SLO’s applied ‘learning by doing’ philosophy. SLO engineering is very challenging to get into (much more so than A&M engineering) and it is probable that you will get multiple job offers from firms in the California area and other places. Trust me, there are a lot of people who have even given up a top UC education for a SLO education not just because of financial realities, but because SLO has a very solid program.</p>
<p>I am narrowing down a list of undergraduate good engineering school to apply for next year. </p>
<p>I am confused by some posts here. I found out that for Cal Poly’s general freshman accepted applicants average GPA is 3.9 and SAT of 1292/1600. And for TAMU, average GPA is 3.8 and SAT 1200. </p>
<p>So it seems Cal Poly is a bit harder to get into than TAMU. So how can there be such a huge gap between TAMU and Cal Poly, as said by previous posts? Am I missing something?</p>
<p>Do the average accepted applicants’ stats show how good the school really is? </p>
<p>Also, should I care about information such as post graduation salary ranking from individual universities? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>There isn’t a big gap between the two. People just get obsessed over rankings and forget to realize that in the end, they are both really great universities. Honestly, the “3.8 vs 3.9 and 1292 vs 1200” comparison should show that they are not that different in admissions criteria. What I feel A&M would have going for them is this: better alumni network. Beyond this, I’m sure one school will be slightly better than the other on many other things, but is it really that important? What I would be concerned with if I were an applicant is which place will be a better fit which is ultimately up to the applicants interests, upbringing, and values. </p>
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<p>in my opinion, no. There’s way more to a school than “admissions stats” which seem to be what all applicants are so obsessed with. The rankings you all look at are based a lot on other criteria that may or may not even apply to an undergraduate applicant. Also, in my experience so far, there isn’t a clear cut correlation between success in high school and success in college so admissions criteria alone cannot possibly be a good reflection upon the quality of a university as a whole.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the informative response! It is good to know that Cal Poly and TAMU are both very solid universities.</p>
<p>I think that if you had a very high GPA, sought out and took advantage of every opportunity, and went to a “lesser” school, you would be just as attractive to potential employers.</p>
<p>One more thing to note is that in the engineering rankings, TAMU and Cal Poly would be ranked separately. School’s that don’t offer a doctorate degree are not ranked with schools that do. So you cannot possibly compare TAMU and Cal Poly based on Engineering rankings alone. Honestly, it just depends not only on the size of the alumni network you want to pull from (which is bigger at TAMU), but also where you want to be. Most TAMU alumni stay in Texas, so if you were to go to TAMU, keep in mind that using your alumni network would mean staying in Texas (which, in my opinion, is a GREAT idea). Whereas Cal Poly’s probably stay in California. Just take all of the colleges’ characteristics into consideration, and decide based on that. Because even if you love one academic program, you’ll kill yourself if you’re miserable over one university’s atmosphere.</p>