My daughter got accepted in to CS programs at both schools. We are in state for UIUC, live 30 min from airport. She visited both schools - UIUC 3 times (going there again this week), CalPolySLO once in the summer. She absolutly loved CalPoly - the location, weather, how it feels like more like smaller school… UIUC is bigger, big on Greek life (which my daughter not a big fan of), not much to do outside campus. She is torn what to do and where to go… By just looking at ratings UIUC is very well known for CS, but she is worried that it’s not going to be good fit for her in social life. She feels like if you are not with the sorority then it will be harder to meet non-CS people, which is not the case with CalPoly where there is beach, hiking, active clubs… It’s just so far and hard to get to. Would it be really not wise to go to CalPoly instead of UIUC for CS? Especially she can use a lot of her high school credits towards UIUC degree. We did not get any money from either school … so CalPoly will be $5,000 more expensive per year. I personally think that with CS degree from UIUC it would be easier to find internships and good job than CalPoly, but what do I know. Any advise and thoughts would be greatly appriciated
Both schools are excellent. First off, it is not only $5K difference yearly, you need to add in travel costs and time spent travelling back and forth home. She also needs to think of where she wants to live and work after college. My son is currently at SLO and LOVES it. I have friends here in San Diego whose students attend UIUC for Engineering and LOVE IT! “Where you go is not who you will be” - a great book by Frank Bruni. Good luck!
@eyemgh will be able to give you more info about SLO and I’ll bet other CS/Engineering schools.
My son graduated with a BS/MS in ME from Cal Poly. We are out of state. His experience was very positive. He had an internship every summer and a substantial offer from the last company he interned for.* Before he graduated, he had three very good offers. He currently works at a startup founded by some industry heavy hitters. He was the first new grad they hired and one of only two currently there (both CP grads). None of the founders or other employees are CP grads, so it isn’t as though CP was a pet school for them (many companies have a specific list of schools that they target). It was based on his experience from his Senior Project and his Masters Thesis. He quickly became a very integral part of the team.
One of his best friends graduated with a BS in SE. He had no problem getting internships. He interned both for Salesforce and Apple and now works at Apple.
Cal Poly CS/SE students have no problems landing internships and jobs. They also have an active, vibrant SWE chapter.
SLO is certainly a fun place to visit.
Given the little difference in in price, I’d have her go with her gut.
The biggest thing is to know that most students will end up working close to where they go to school. The vast majority of CP grads work in CA (although one of my son’s offers was on the east coast and they recruited at CP). The vast majority of UIUC grads work in a state that touches IL. That doesn’t mean they can’t get a job anywhere. They’ll just have to do more legwork.
Feel free to PM me if you have any more specific questions or want information that I might not feel comfortable sharing publicly, like his portfolio or salary for example.
Congrats and good luck to your daughter!
*This is an atypical experience for students at ANY school, especially males. It’s difficult to land internships prior to junior year for several reasons. First, students don’t have much skill to offer before that. Second, internships are often extended interviews. Landing his first two internships had a lot to do with serendipity.
This is a ranked list of the most commonly recruited alma maters by tech companies like Apple. UIUC is 7, CP SLO is 14. Given the number of colleges in the US, this is a negligible difference. The job opportunities following college will be roughly equivalent, and may even be higher at SLO given its proximity to Silicon Valley.
The top 8 employers for Cal Poly and UIUC, in order, respectively (according to LinkedIn) are: Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft,Workday,Salesforce,Cisco, IBM and Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, IBM, Amazon Web Services, Apple, Intel.
There are more from UIUC at each respective place, but there’s a simple reason for that. There are more CS grads from UIUC than CP. The engineering students total is only about 30% higher at UIUC than CP, but UIUC’s CS program enrolls roughly 3 times the number of CS students as Cal Poly. Each Cal Poly class has about 150 CS students whereas UIUC has around 450.
Note, you can’t judge a class size by the number of seniors in ASEE profiles as they lump all “super-seniors” (those taking 5 or even 6 years to graduate) as Seniors.
Students can find good jobs out of either school; the determining factor will not be the school name, it will be her. If she does well in school and takes part in student clubs (a good lead-in to finding internships) she will be fine.
Reading a bit between the lines, if after 3 visits she feels UIUC isn’t a good fit then I’d go with that and choose Cal Poly. However if she is on the fence then one tipping factor could be the HS credits you mentioned. If she can have a lighter courseload at UIUC then it will both reduce stress and may allow her to do better in the challenging CS classes she will be taking.
Consider that $5,000 per year that you have is very different from $5,000 per year borrowed. Also, for what it’s worth, my friend who has a daughter there complains that they are nickled and dimed all the time. That may be fees you’ve already included in total cost of attendance, though.
@eyemgh , how do you find that employer information on LinkedIn?
How much does she love winter? 
@“jesse’sgirl” find the school on LinkedIn. Select Alumni on the tab at the left. Scroll right until you find what they do or what they studied and click the job or major you’re interested in. Then hit the more button to lengthen it and you can see the companies. Pay attention to rank and not number of people working there from one school or another. The volume represents the size of the school’s program more than it represents how well they do at placing grads in those companies. Also know that the data is a little skewed because it shows a company any time it’s listed on a profile. Those may include internships. I don’t trust it on a super granular level, but all in all its information is helpful.
As for the nickle and diming, that happens at LOTS of schools. We only hear about the ones students and parents complain about.
My older kid at UMich is “nickeled and dimed.”
Cal Poly is pretty liberal taking AP/IB/DE credits. In fact, my son’s Cal Poly counselor combed over all of his credit options and utilized them for maximum effect. He was always a year ahead and walked in 5 years with a BS and thesis based MS as a result. Call the school and find out what will transfer. They are VERY helpful.