Not sure if this is the right placement for this question, but would love input on UCSB mechanical engineering vs. Cal Poly SLO mechanical engineering. Son accepted to both programs. We will be visiting both campuses and live in San Diego. Thank you so much.
Started a new discussion thread for your questions.
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I would start off by comparing both schools curriculum. Has he visited both? Does he prefer one school over the other?
I will also tag @eyemgh since his son was an ME graduate from SLO and also did his Masters there. He should have some helpful input.
thank you
I can’t speak for UCSB, but I will sing the praises of Cal Poly.
Classes are small, and nearly all taught by instructors with terminal degrees, including labs and discussions. Until students get to the most theoretical graduate classes, Continuum Mechanics as and example, courses all have labs. That’s not the case at many schools. As a result, lab projects are often as robust as capstone projects at other schools. The club scene is very active with plenty of instructor and facility support. Students walk out ready to work on day one.
My son was hired as the first new grad at a startup of industry vets because his cumulative experience gave them the assurance that he would be ready to jump in. He was subsequently recruited for multiple coveted positions, and moved on.
One of his professors who served on his masters committee did his undergrad at Cal Poly, MS at Carnegie Mellon and PhD at UCSB. He’d taught at all three. We were chatting during a break in our son’s thesis defense. He said that Cal Poly students only knew the experience they’d lived, but that it was truly a unique and special undergraduate program.
Feel free to PM me with questions.
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Very insightful info and confirms what I’ve heard from several people who hire engineers. Thanks again and I might be messaging you.
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If by any chance your son wants to get into academia, I would say UCSB is the way to go.
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Both are good schools and more than up to the task of teaching ME. Grads from both schools find good jobs. His eventual outcome, regardless of which he chooses, is more likely to come down to how hard he works in demanding classes and whether he goes out and gets internships.
I don’t think there’s any justification to that statement. Students can go into academia from anywhere. My son for example passed on Stanford for grad school with a Cal Poly undergrad. For academia, it’s the graduate degree that matters, and even more so, what you did and who you did it for.
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In addition to that great post, it’s really a matter of style, the better of the two based on individual preference. What’s better, apples or oranges? It’s a matter of personal perspective.
A post was split to a new thread: UCI, UCD or Cal Poly SLO fir Bioengineering
Of course, you are right to say “Students can go into academia from anywhere” because anything is possible in life.
I base my statement on my own experience, just like you on yours. In my years in academia, I had met more than a handful who went through UCSB, versus none through CalPoly. I admit my experience might not be representative, just like yours might not be either.
Unless there were longitudinal studies done on graduate career paths for UCSB and CalPoly, I guess we can only speak from personal experiences, or worse, anecdotes.
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Granted, we all have limited experience. I’m basing my opinion on that of one of my son’s thesis advisors. He did his MS at CMU and his PhD at UCSB.
I’m in no way saying Cal Poly would be a superior path into academia, just that students wouldn’t be at any significant disadvantage. The theoretical education is very strong. This gets lost in the fact that they are so well known for application. For example, engineers take full math, proofs and all, right along with math majors. That’s the way they do it at Caltech. Many engineering programs, Purdue as one example, have engineers take a less rigorous path, deeming it “good enough.”
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