<p>Looking at Biology and/or Animal Sciences major(s). Any suggestions re. what to see or anything else? Also would like the name of an on-campus coffee shop that's comfortable for reading if either kid decides she wants to forgo the official tour.</p>
<p>For an Animal Sciences major, the dairy is interesting to visit--high tech/state of the art. Try to find out when the milking times are.</p>
<p>PS. Downtown SLO is very near campus...lots of places to have coffee or shop. It's definitely more fun than hanging out on campus.</p>
<p>And bring nose plugs if you tour the swine nursery...cute as buttons but phew can those piggies stink!!!</p>
<p>I recommend checking out the dorms if that is where your student will live.</p>
<p>how do you get into the dorm if you don't get shown one on tour? Do you just ask random kids? That seems awkward to say the least</p>
<p>The dorm should be part of a tour. If not, ask your guide to show you one. I recommend this as my S's dorm there was prison-like. They may have improved them since as he lived there ten years ago.</p>
<p>Check out Science North and Fisher Science for bio stuff. Also, you can find info about the new $120M science building on the website. Also, there's a Barnes and Noble downtown that's very nice for reading.</p>
<p>I lived in SLO for 15 years (just moved from there a few months ago) and taught at Cal Poly. Students don't really hang out on campus--they go downtown. Lots and lots of coffee houses there (and not all Starbucks!). But take the tour: the campus is large, and it is a bit difficult to see everything on your own. Definitely ask to see one or two of the dorms, as well. They vary in mood and quality.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information everyone! This is our first college visit road trip of any distance and I want to be sure to make the most of it.</p>
<p>We could only do Cal Poly on a Sunday morning- just the way it worked out- It was spooky quiet at 11am- saw maybe 12 people on the WHOLE campus, including joggers</p>
<p>For a campus of 18000 plus or whatever, it was eerie</p>
<p>Citygirlsmom- I think any college campus at 11 am on a sunday would be empty. I know we don't even try to reach our child before 2 pm on Sunday since he is usually still sleeping.
We found even touring any campus in the morning was not a great time to see the campus in action. We toured Tufts on a weekday AM and saw few students and those we did see were not the least bit interested in any interaction with the touring students. It was a turnoff. In contrast to the schools we toured in the afternoons. At BC we started off early and the school was silent but by the time we finished the info session it was 1 and the campus was active.</p>
<p>Better yet - use your time to visit local realtors and locate one to help you find/explore potential housing for the fall. No kidding - off campus housing for fall is gone by the end of April and you will be wait-listed for every location after April. Being wait-listed is no guarantee that the private dorms will call you if there is an opening. Tour the area via bike (don't send cars with students, there is no need and parking is expensive and never guaranteed. Visit the potential private dorms and figure out how to get your student from their apartment to the grocery store, video store, campus and anything else via bike or public transportation. Tour the private dorms that are available. On-campus housing gets old for the students very quickly. You will most likely receive wailing phone calls from your child about how horrible dorm life is and their 'going to die' if you don't get them out. Add to that the mandatory meal card, and you have a receipe for a very difficult first year. Bite the bullet and get your child into a private room at one of the private dorms - you will not regret it - I promise. Avoid Mustang Village and Stenner Glen if possible, those are just party dorms and very noisy. Visit Garfield Arms, Murray Station, El Dorado, Czech Chalet, de Tolosa. Find out the first date that they open their fall reservations, obtain an application and have it ready to fax on the first date of applications. First in Line means you'll have a fighting chance for a room. I'm not kidding, its harder to find housing that it is to get your kid in.</p>
<p>Interesting first-hand knowledge, cpslomom. If you're signing up for private dorms in April, how do you handle roommates.....or are these single rooms?</p>
<p>historymom---on the college tour of D's most likely school, (on the day where they were wooing the merit scholarship kids), I asked the girl leading the tour if there was any way we could see a dorm room. After the tour was over, we met her at an arranged time an hour later, and she gladly showed us her room, as well as others on her floor where people were there and had their doors open. (I might add that, of course, astroD was mortified that I asked, but she admitted later that it was really good to be able to see the rooms...and made it much easier for her to imagine being a student there).</p>
<p>They select roommates for private dorms the same way they select roommates for the on-campus dorms, via questionnaire. In our son's apartment, there are 3 guys in one townhome. Each has his own room. Each are in the Engineering department, and quite frankly they did an excellent job matching them compared to the dorms. The boy's are nearly identical in their habits, manners and studying habits. Our son is a hermit, as are the other 2. But wonders never cease, the boys hang out together and even go to a local dance club on weekends, play pool in the rec center and cook meals for each other. If someone had told me last year that my son would be mingling with others, and going to a dance hall in his Freshman year at college, I would have laughed my head off, as he usually never left his room but to eat and go to school. But here he is. On the other hand, our daughter is a student at CSUSM. Spent first year in the dorms. She's a social butterfly. By the end of October, she was a miserable wreck as CSUSM didn't even try to match the students into rooms, they just filled them up. We had druggies and alcoholics sharing her 4 bedroom apartment, along with two devoted Christians, and my daughter and her best friend. Absolute horrible mix. To add to the chaos, there were 6 girls in one apartment designed for 4. CSUSM didn't care, they just wanted their rent. By November my daughter and her friend were back home and commuting 45 minutes one way as they couldn't get enough quiet time in their apartment to study or sleep. They woke up with strange men in their apartments, courtesy of their roommates' nightly trip to the local bar habited by Marines. We ended up subletting the room for the rest of the year for her safety and academic sanity. I will not put our 3rd into the dorms. I've learned my lesson. I will look for a private dorm or apartment.</p>