<p>No, that would be called a straw man argument, I do believe, or perhaps you're just setting up a false situation based on . . . well, nothing at all. Either way, it's a really poor tactic. I do little of what you say I do. Could you please be more respectful?</p>
<p>I was deciding between these same two schools.</p>
<p>After visiting both, I liked the feel of UCR's campus better. Cal Poly Pomona was a bit too much of a commuter's school for my liking, and really doesn't seem like the kind of school to get that "college experience." But that's just my opinion on the matter, you'd have to visit to see. I'm pretty sure they're both comparable stats-wise.</p>
<p>In mid-October UCR had their "Preview Day" all day Saturday. A week later Cal Poly Pomona had their "Poly Palooza" Saturday. There were speakers from admissions, financial aid, and from the major departments. There were also booths for various clubs and continuously running campus tours. </p>
<p>General impressions: (1) UCR buildings looked newer and more modern than Cal Poly Pomona campus. UCR must have more money for expansion. (2) The Cal Poly speakers and student volunteers were more helpful and appeared genuinely happy to see us. They were gave good tips on their admissions process and what to watch out for. (3) UCR student housing was much nicer than what we saw at Cal Poly Pomona. Maybe it was because UCR showed us their best residence hall and Cal Poly Pomona didn't. (4) Cal Poly's engineering is larger and their labs are amazing, part of their "learn by doing" philosophy. (5) UCR has a program called "The First Year" to help freshman adjust to the University. (6) Cal Poly has a "Graduate in 4 Year" program.</p>
<p>both schools face problems of perception. riverside is often regarded as the bottom of the UC heap in an unattractive area of the state, and pomona is the far inferior kid sister to san luis opisbo that the parents hide in the back room while the number one child plays the piano.</p>
<p>your observation appears sound. remember, riverside still is a UC and is funded at a level better than a cal state like pomona. neither area is great, though pomona has built some pretty nice student suites that are popular. and it is true that the engineering part of the campus is strong even if most of the rest is not, notably the liberal arts and business.</p>
<p>the two major factors always should be the strength of your intended major and the strength of your intended university. if those factors are relatively even then look deeper into things like facilities, sports, dorms, area, etc.</p>
<p>UCR isn't the worst UC!</p>
<p>I say there isn't a worst UC, just the one with the most recognition.</p>
<p>Uhhhhhh
I took a college class in Cal Poly pomona</p>
<p>it was good</p>
<p>I liked it!</p>
<p>On the surface most people will say Riverside just for the fact that it is a UC. Keep in mind that the University of California is the best state university system in the US and world renowned.</p>
<p>When you get down to the stats Riverside beats Pomona in Arts and Humanities...everything else I believe there pretty much even at.</p>
<p>Bottom line I'd chose Riverside over Pomona for name recognition.</p>
<p>UCR the school doesn't suck. Off campus it sucks. University ave is super ghetto. People in grandmarc smoke weed. you can catch them smoking bud between 11pm to 3pm. Trust. Basically UCR is pothead/beer pong school.</p>
<p>Heres a tip living anywhere near campus. Lock your doors or you will for sure get jacked.</p>
<p>Half our school population in frats/sororities. At the end of the day really no gives a fawk about anyone except themselves.</p>
<p>I don't know about pomona. I always see my calstate pomona friends with ****load of free time. With that in mind, i think pomona is the easier school.</p>
<p>UCR's engineering program is as good as Cal Poly Pomona's! People often think Cal poly's engineering is better simply because that's all they good at, but Don't Forget UC is a research institute, but Cal poly don't even have PHD program, which means Cal poly only prepares u for a short term vision = job, but UCR prepares you for a long term goal = career (either industrial or acdemic), you have so much better options by choosing UCR than Cal Poly! </p>
<p>It's true that both school's surrounding areas are not the best choices, but UCR's campus is much bigger and better than Cal Poly! It's one of the fastest growing campus in the nation. You will get so much more attention at UCR than Cal Poly!</p>
<p>When this thread began in 2004 I would have agreed that the two colleges in question were relatively alike. However it is now 2010 and UCR has surpassed CPP by a large margin. Three things come to mind which have placed UCR ahead of CPP: (1) expansion, (2) Monetary resources, and (3) selectivity.
Within the last 5 years UCR has built new dorms, new commons, new entomology building, new humanities building, rec center (in progress), and most notably a new Engineering research/teaching facility (also still in progress).
CPP is building a new college of business administration building.</p>
<p>As many California natives know, both the UC and CSU systems have fallen on hard times. However the CSU system has suffered greater losses. (sorry no citation this one’s hearsay from the news)
With less money all CA schools have become more selective especially UC’s. Also the basic economic principle of scarcity is important in this debate. UCR currently enrolls ~17,000 CPP enrolls ~22,000. I have talked to many CSU friends that are 3rd years and having trouble getting necessary courses because of the amount of students and loss of funding. They are now looking at a minimum of five years (super seniors! I believe is the term). I have not yet had a problem with getting into required courses at UCR and have been able to change majors while still maintaining a 4 year pace.
Other highlights: UCR is embracing health fields and has created a medical program. This also has boosted the application rate and increased selectivity. And lastly, UCR has a music festival called HEAT. This year was F**King Exhilarating! Taking Back Sunday, Crystal Method, Shiny Toy Guns, and STEVE AOKI! Also the new boys were there jerkin’ but I was busy watching TBS rock out. I heard the New Boys sucked live though, sorry for the disappointment…Im a jerk.</p>
<p>well, that was a highly inaccurate post if there ever was one. did you just happen to overlook the gigantic engineering laboratory building built at cal poly? the doubling of the size of the poly student union? the largest library addition in the entire CSU? the retrofitting of all the science labs? the creation of more apartments and suites that place CPP near the top of the system in on campus residents? the doubling of the size of facilities within the nationally ranked HRT college? or the fudging of the student body on the pomona campus that never once reached 22K and now is headed closer to 19,000 with increased selectivity?</p>
<p>how about the admission that both schools have improved over the past five years?</p>
<p>None are better, college is what you make out of it. Remember that.
Sure, UCR is a UC, it has a better recognition worldwide. Cal Poly Pomona, has a really great reputation in the US only (not really in the world). Each universities have its strengths.
Cal Poly Pomona is great for engineering and architecture, and its really hard to get into those majors (personal experience and feed back from various friends who went to college). UCR is better for humanities. I don’t know about business (don’t know anyone majoring in business actually).
I just read someone’s post saying that since UCR is UC and so a “research university”, it makes it better. FALSE. Look at Cal Poly SLO! It’s not a research university (i think only SDSU is the only research university in the Cal State System) and it’s way much better than UCR. But again, only in engineering and other majors. See the differences?
When picking a college, think about what you want, do you put more importance on education or your overall college experience (having fun, or greek life, and so on)?</p>
<p>UCR is great if you want the best college experience, and its great if you’re a humanities major.
Cal Poly Pomona is great if you’re an engineering major, hospitality or arch.</p>
<p>Most people on this board only know one school but not the other. We are not equiped to do a fair comparison. </p>
<p>One thing I suggest people to do: You can talk up on the school u know (in this case, UCR), but don’t talk down on a school u know very little about. </p>
<p>Enough said.</p>
<p>As far as selectivity, UCR has been a more selective campus, but Cal Poly Pomona has been one the most selective CSUs and for the first time, Pomona is tied up with UCR in SAT scores. According to the latest Common Data Sets from each university, both schools middle 50% of freshmen have a score of 920-1170. While UCR’s standards have remained stagnant over the years, Pomona’s have steadily increased and are due to increase due to their large demand majors such as architecture, and civil and mechanical engineering being added to their impacted major list. Architecture alone received 2000 applicants for 100 slots. In the next few years, expect Pomona to blow right past UCR in the quality of incoming freshmen. In the past, Pomona has suffered in standards because it was complying with the CSU mission to provide access to education to all qualified residents, but with the current economic realities, that is becoming decreasingly the case. Surely, admissions standards are not the most important criteria in deciding on a school, but it a significant one.</p>
<p>good post, montus…when you compare data and not just anecdotal stuff you have a true comparison.</p>
<p>while i cannot predict poly will blow by riverside there is one indicator that explains why the pomona and other CSU campuses are becoming more selective, the so called service area. each CSU has a designated number of nearby high schools called tier 1 wherein the entrance requirements are much lower. so then when you have a university in a marginal area like pomona you are forced to take otherwise ineligibles from low performance schools like ganesha high school.</p>
<p>now the tier 1 guidelines are tighter, meaning better students from farther away are getting seats previously occupied by those nearby. add that to the chancellor cutting back overall enrollment in the system with outstanding programs (arch, engr, HRT) and you have the reasons for increased selectivity.</p>
<p>UCR by comparison hardly has been standing still. the quality of its faculty hires continues to improve, and its business school is adding a doctoral program for example. so let’s just say both are getting better in spite of a down economy.</p>
<p>What about UCR Vs. Cal Poly SLO?</p>
<p>Drj,</p>
<p>You’re right about the tier 1 criteria. A couple of years ago, CPP was required to accept all eligible applicants for non-impacted majors from areas as far as the San Fernando Valley to San Bernardino and Orange County. Tier 1 was considerably shrunk for this year’s class to include only schools from within about a 10 mile radius. Also, impacted majors such as Architecture, Mech and Civil Engineering, and Vet Science, are popular and now account for about a quarter of the applicants. A few years ago, only Arch was considered impacted. On another note, Pomona was the second fastest growing CSU campus this year (while most shrunk), which gives them more reason to restrict admissions for next year.</p>
<p>The reason I believe Pomona might surpass UCR is that UCR and other UC’s have always applied competitive admissions standards while Pomona and other CSU’s, for economic reasons, are now being forced to drop the CSU’s mission to accomodate everyone, and are starting to apply more competitive criteria to seek the best students just as the UCs have. For a while, UCR was considered the better University in the Inland Empire just because it was a UC, but I expect this to change.</p>
<p>Contrary to what egmontus stated, UCR, according to 2009 CDS, has higher SAT score than Pomona. Pomona’s middle 50% is 920-1170, while UCR’s is 930-1190. Not huge difference, but facts are facts. </p>
<p>egmontus, have you take into consideration of the new admission requirement for UC? Top 10% instead of 12.5% beginning 2012. Besides, UCR no longer offers admission to every UC-eligible students, UCM is the only school does that now. </p>
<p>Just want to provide a balance for this board. I wish people don’t take numbers at face value, most of the stats I’ve seen on this board are misleadingly wrong.</p>
<p>UCRUCR,</p>
<p>As I mentioned, I was going by the latest CDSs at my disposal, which I could find on Petersons and US news. The UCR website has absolutely no statistical information on their incoming freshmen. If a new CDS came out, I’d be happy to see it.</p>
<p>As far as UCR not going by minimum UC standards, you’re proving my point. All I was saying is that up until recently Cal Poly Pomona was handicapped by the CSU mission to accept all eligible students such as someone living in Northridge with a 3.0 and a 200 on the SAT. It wasn’t until the last few years that CPP has been able to apply more competitive standards to most applicants as UCR has been doing for a while. The fact that CPP has kept up to par with UCR while being handicapped leads me to believe that CPP has more upward potential now that they are able to apply these higher standards. By the way, CPP isn’t applying higher standards just because of the budget reasons, but also because it’s the second fastest growing campus in a CSU system that is shrinking. </p>
<p>I stand by my statistics and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to consider Cal Poly Pomona on par or possibly surpass UCR as the top public university in the Inland Empire.</p>
<p>cal poly fo sho!</p>
<p>egmontus, two things I like to point out: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>UCR has tons of stats info on their website, you just need to know where to look for. Guess where I get UCR’s 2009 CDS from?</p></li>
<li><p>UCR has been offering admission to every UC-eligible students up until this year. The fact that Pomona has been applying stricter standard for the past few years is actually to Pomona’s advantage. So your point about how Pomona being able to keep up with UCR is nullified by your own arguement really. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Both UC and CSU have been severely impacted by the 20% budget cut, I would be happy if both universities remain just as good as they were five years from now.</p>