<p>My son has applied to 7 schools and Cal Poly SLO and UCSD are his top choices. He wants to be a mechanical engineer. His GPA is decent ~ 4.4, SAT - 1960, ACT-33. I've heard that getting into these schools are difficult, but assuming he does, what would be peoples choice.</p>
<p>My advice would be to look at the size of each school – I believe UCSD is larger than Cal Poly – and the department, to get an idea which school he’d actually graduate from in 4 years. I know CalPoly was the choice for engineers in my day… but that was when the dinosaurs roamed.</p>
<p>They are very different schools. All the UC’s are research oriented and as a CSU, Cal Poly is not. Cal Poly offers very few graduate degrees. Cal Poly is very hands on, “learn by doing” and oriented to the practical. The Cal Poly Engineering Program is very good, and highly respected by employers. My husband went to Cal Poly for his undergraduate electrical engineering degree and Stanford for a masters degree. It also depends on where he plans to work later. My husband worked at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory for many years, which required having a degree from a research institution.</p>
<p>My S1 is at Cal Poly (CPE '13) and my S2’s best friend is at UCSD (ME '14). Both are excellent schools and both young men are having incredible experiences, but the schools are very different. Is your son more interested in hands on learning or classroom theory? Does he want to work immediately after undergraduate school or does he want to get his PhD? </p>
<p>Cal Poly takes its mission of learning by doing very seriously. There are excellent opportunities for design/build in all areas of engineering, both in the labs associated with the coursework and outside the classroom in clubs and competitions. The senior project is rigorous and the Capstone project is relevant to the “real world” as it’s typically defined by industry to meet a specific need. There has been talk of eliminating the senior project and extending the Capstone to a full year in CPE. Majors like ME and CE have a group senior project similar to how CPE capstone works with an option of doing an individual one, according to my son.</p>
<p>Tech companies in Silicon Valley love Cal Poly students and recruit heavily on campus for interns. My son will graduate this June and has a job offer in hand from the company he worked at as an intern last summer.</p>
<p>At UCSD my son’s friend has had the opportunity to join a multi-disciplinary team to support the funded research of an earth sciences professor working in the desert. He’s being paid and this will be his job for more than a year while he continues his studies. He’ll graduate a quarter or two late, but his parents feel the experience is well worth it. He’s likely to go on to graduate school.</p>
<p>Bottom line: both are excellent schools, but are geared towards different types of students. Your son’s interests and personality should inform his choice.</p>
<p>Cal Poly’s are good schools and nothing to sneeze at but the UC schools are exceptonal. I’d rank all the below UC’s above Poly SLO. GL </p>
<p>1)UCB
2)UCLA
3)UCSD
4)UCDavis
5)UCSB</p>
<p>As an engineer for most of my working life, I will not rate CalPoly SLO lower than any UCs at the undergraduate level. CalPoly SLO is more hands on and practical. CalPoly SLO also has a good Co-op program. The graduates from CalPoly are well respected and known by employers and in the engineering profession. The UCs and CalPoly are all good schools and at the end, it is how a student make of it that counts.</p>
<p>I agree with Christian2 and strongly disagree with sosomenza. My son was accepted to Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, and UCI (he did not apply to any UC’s further North than UCSB). Engineering Major. </p>
<p>His final ranking for himself was:</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO
UCSD
Cal Poly Pomona
UCSB
UCLA
UCI</p>
<p>We attended every admitted students day and researched each program deeply. At the end of the day Cal Poly SLO was the top program for him. All good schools, but SLO was tops and the best fit.</p>
<p>OP: why do you say your child’s GPA is ‘decent’? It’s clearly stellar.</p>
<p>In CA, SLO is really considered most prestigious for engineering. Everything else ranks below that on the prestige scale, at least for public schools</p>
<p>I graduated from Cal Poly in the 1990s. I have worked at many high-tech companies and have been told repeatedly over the years from many of my upper management friends that Cal Poly offers a superior education because of their hands-on academics. I am an educator now, and have seen the same success with my many students who have also attended SLO. I love everything about San Luis --the school, community, weather, opportunities. I am very pleased that my daughter will be attending the school next fall.</p>
<p>They’re both awesome! He should choose the environment he would rather live in. If he is thinking grad school… Choose UCSD… If he is thinking work straight out of college, I’d personally go for CPSLO.</p>
<p>Does he want to be in CA after graduation? That may have an impact on his choice, as I don’t know if SLO is as widely known as a UC outside of CA. Within CA, it is considered equal to or better than a UC. I was recently at a party with a bunch of UCB educated engineers, and they all agreed that for hiring recent graduates, they would look to SLO before UCB due to the hands on training, vs. the more theoretical training at UCB (and by extrapolation, UC’s in general). I say this as a UCB grad whose kid hopes to go to SLO, for what that’s worth.</p>
<p>And yes, the false modesty is not becoming. A 4.4 GPA clearly puts your kid in the running for any school he is interested in.</p>
<p>How sure he is about being a mechanical engineer?</p>
<p>You really can’t go wrong, but overall, I’d pick the UCSD experience.</p>
<p>This post is from February, so I’m sure your S must have made a decision by now. I’m sure he’s doing great at wherever he is now! If you don’t mind telling us, which college did he choose, and how’s he doing?</p>
<p>My H is director of engineering for a company here in CA. He has a couple of engineers that are recent grads of SLO and said they are excellent. I believe he told me one is a mechanical engineer and the other is an ee. </p>
<p>We live in San Diego and UCSD is a very highly regarded school for engineering too. The campuses themselves are very different, but I think at either place your S would get a great education.</p>
<p>this thread is from the spring. I’m guessing that the OP already chose one.</p>
<p>Or got into neither.</p>