<p>Cal Poly Pomona for sure. My kid was accepted into CPE and the Honors Program at UCI and Pomona. He was also accepted to SLO. We prefer the polytechnic approach to teaching as mentioned above and will be choosing between the two Cal Poly’s. Additionally, UCI has some pretty serious ethnic tensions on campus that we found disturbing. Cal Poly Pomona, on the other hand has been lauded for its diversity and harmony on campus.</p>
<p>With regards to budget cuts. Yes, Pomona was hit hard, but they just got a $42,000,000 grant from the Kellogg foundation. This is the largest gift in the CSU system history. They’ll be just fine…</p>
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<p>What might these be? Or do you mean some people apparently trying to fight the Israeli / Palestinian conflict on the campus (the only thing that seems to come up in a search, in a Fox News article)?</p>
<p>Yep, that is part of it. Search youtube under UCI protest. We are a multi-racial multi-ethnic family and we basically have a very low threshold of tolerance for this kind of stuff regardless of who is being targeted. In this case, we personally know of a lovely Jewish girl who is vocal and outwardly observant and she was harassed by Muslim students to the point that she feels compelled to change universities. We also know of some inter-Chinese tension between students of Taiwanese decent and those who align themselves more with the Chinese mainland. Bottom line, College Confidential is not a political forum and no further discussion of these issues need happen here. However, what is relevant is choosing a university to go to. We as a family feel that this type of behavior on campus is a distraction from what is most important and that is getting an education. Engineering is hard enough without political/racial/religious intolerance simmering under the surface at school. Self-expression and open debate? Yes! Absolutely, especially on a college campus. But when it crosses over to this kind of behavior – Well, UCI just ain’t that good of a school to put up with an administration that tolerates the alienation and targeting of specific students because of their backgrounds or beliefs. We’ll vote with our shoes and walk away. Fortunately, we have many options to choose from. So, even though UCI offered our son a spot in their CPE program and automatic admission into their Honors College, we are not interested for this and several other reasons.</p>
<p>From what I have seen, any discussion or debate on campus about the Israeli / Palestinian conflict will last about two minutes before the vocal extremists and racists (on both sides) will jump in and take control of the debate. It is unlikely to matter what campus it is on.</p>
<p>Also, university administrations have generally found that “hate speech” codes do not fare well in courts in First Amendment lawsuits.</p>
<p>Thanks ucbalumnus – I opened a Pandora’s box here and your response was excellent and thoughtful. You are absolutely correct about vocal extremists hijacking the debate. We live in extreme times. I also know that a college campus is one of the places were this kind of debate is supposed to happen. I guess what I am trying to do is protect my kid for at least one more decision in life and that is choosing the right campus.</p>
<p>Which field of engineering?</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO has a considerable amount of [career</a> survey data](<a href=“http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/gradsurvey/]career”>http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/gradsurvey/) available. UC Berkeley also has quite a bit of [career</a> survey data](<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm]career”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm). Both are much better in this respect than most other schools (many of which show nothing major-specific, and often no data specific to the school).</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO had an impressively high job placement rate for 2009 civil engineering graduates, considering the downturn in construction at that time. Speculatively, it may have to do with student motivations and purposes (as discussed in another thread); Cal Poly SLO students tend to favor “practical” or career oriented majors like engineering and business much more than students at UCs and many other schools do. If that is the case, that may also result in less political activity, which may be a negative for those interested in that, but also means less likelihood of extremist partisan nastiness that you mention at UCI.</p>
<p>My kid was accepted for General Engineering at Cal Poly SLO. General Engineering allows you to create your own curricula after the first two years and allows you to explore emerging technologies more freely. Having said that, he may change his major to another engineering discipline after the first year – he wants to get a taste of what is out there before he makes his final decision. The counselors at SLO recommended this course of action if he was somewhat on the fence regarding his major within engineering.</p>
<p>Take care!</p>
<p>In the first year, most engineering students take similar courses (math, physics, English writing, humanities / social studies). Some specific engineering majors take a few additional courses for their major (e.g. more computer science for electrical or computer engineering, more chemistry for chemical engineering).</p>
<p>So going in as general or undeclared engineering as a freshman and then choosing a more specific type of engineering as a sophomore is certainly possible.</p>
<p>Regarding posts #26 and 27, this thread isn’t about Cal Poly SLO. It’s about Cal Poly Pomona. </p>
<p>UC Irvine is in a nicer location, located just up the hill from Newport Beach. Cal Poly Pomona is in a hot smoggy valley hemmed in by 3 adjacent freeways.</p>