<p>I would like to know what schools you have turned down for Cal Poly and why?</p>
<p>UCSB - Economics and Accounting. I received financial aid for both schools that amounts to about equal net out of pocket costs, so money was not a deciding factor for me. I chose CP for two main reasons: 1.) proximity to my home (since I will be a commuting student) and, 2.) the smaller class sizes & hands-on approach.</p>
<p>My son has made his decision and he has chosen Cal Poly.He was accepted at UCDavis,U of Washington and Northern Arizona(choose this to apply because a close friend will attend).We discussed and he considered many schools including but not limited to:U of Washington,Washington State,Western Washington,Seattle Pacific,Colorado State Boulder,Colorado School of Mines,U of Arizona,Arizona State,U of Utah,Utah state,New Mexico State,Rice,U of Texas Austin,UC an Diego,Idaho state,Boise State,South Dakota school of mines,Carnigie Mellon(applied but not accepted),Montana State,Oregon State,Portland State,UNLV, U of Washington St.Louis,U of Illinois Urbana,Michigan state,Minnisota State.</p>
<p>The reasons for Cal Poly.He liked the campus,the town,location to the ocean,weather,students,proffesors,learn by doing,small class sizes,proffesors teaching classes instead of TAs,avalibility and proximity to top employers he was interested in.</p>
<p>I am a non-traditional student who does not have the luxury of moving my family, so my options were limited to UCSB & CP (other than the private universities like U of LaVerne, Brandman U., etc., which, for personal reasons, I did not give any consideration to.) If I could move my family, I would have also applied to Berkeley and possibly UCLA. </p>
<p>However, if I were coming straight out of high school, my parents would have never allowed me to apply to that many schools. They would not have wanted to pay so many application fees, even if I had a certain number of fee waivers. It’s good to have options, but jeez…You must be a really nice dad!</p>
<p>Good luck to your son at Cal Poly!</p>
<p>@wayold – Glad to see that the painful experience of choosing is over! Congrats on your kid becoming a Mustang! My kid turned down the following schools:</p>
<p>UCSD – Second place after Cal Poly. Great school, but an overemphasis on theory vs. hands on teaching methodology. This was a real contender.
Cal Poly Pomona (Kellogg Honors Program) – Third place from my kid’s perspective. Just like Cal Poly SLO, just not the same academic level and not nearly as nice a campus/environment. My son said that he could see himself going to this school. It just did not “wow” us.
UCSB – Kid did not rank this school. It was fourth on my list. One of the most beautiful campuses on the planet. The ocean views are priceless. Santa Barbara is a great town, but always feels a tad grungy with Isla Vista and the large homeless population downtown. Otherwise nice area and close to home.<br>
UCI (Honors Program) – Kid did not rank this school. It was fifth on my list. We did not visit due to lack of interest.<br>
UCSC (Scholarship) – Kid did not rank this school. It was sixth on my list. We did not visit due to lack of interest. Way too far from home.<br>
UCLA – Last place in my son’s rankings. Overemphasis on theory, the extreme exact opposite of my son’s learning style. Intellectual elitism at its pinnacle.</p>
<p>We live in the OC so geography & getting out of town played a part I’m sure. Cal Poly was the only CSU either of my kids applied to. Admitted to UCLA, UCI & UCSD. Because of the SLO environment, the quality of the Cal Poly students & faculty, ‘Learn by Doing’ & ‘The Mustang Way’, the UC’s weren’t in the race once the Cal Poly ED acceptances came in. Going to school with a sibling was a big factor for my two. As pretty as UCSB is, SLO has no Isla Vista and that was a plus for us as parents. Sadly, IV is close enough for some SLO kids to make the trip.</p>
<p>Turned down NYU, BU, Miami, Fordham, and Washington for Cal Poly. I want to graduate debt free!</p>
<p>CPSLO was son’s first choice. Applied/accepted early decision, chose ahead of UCD, UCSB, UCSC, CPP and SDSU.</p>
<p>My son only applied to 4 schools.We did however research all the schools I mentioned plus several others.We felt he could have been admitted to all the ones listed with the exception of Rice where it would have been a toss up.So you can see how Cal Poly stands against these schools in his mind.#1 reason was Cal Poly fit him.#2 was the approx. of Cal poly and UCDavis to the computer world,#3 was the campus,town,weather and ocean (which he loves).So just to let others know what may be important for your student to consider.</p>
<p>My daughter chose Cal Poly over UCSD. The campus is smaller and everyone was so friendly. UCSD felt bigger and more impersonal. Also, she like the downtown area a lot. La Jolla is a beautiful town but the stores and restaurants are geared toward rich people, not students. The farmer’s market on Thursday was really cool. Also, although they are about the same distance in miles from where we live, it took us two hours less to get to Cal Poly because we did not have to sit through the LA and Orange County traffic. That alone sold me before we even got to Open House.</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO was always my son’s #1 choice, primarily because of the hands on approach, plus when visiting it felt “right”. Cal Poly SLO was the first college he visited, and he chose not to visit others after making his decision. </p>
<p>He turned down: Cal Pol Pomona (honors), UC Irvine, UCSC, his safeties (SF State, Maritime Academy), plus three liberal arts colleges - Grinnell with generous aid, Whitman with generous scholarships, and Redlands with generous scholarships). Price was not a factor in his decision.</p>
<p>i turned down University of Michigan Ann Arbor to go to Cal Poly. I picked Cal Poly because its campus was small and concise versus Michigan’s VERY spread out campus. I also didn’t like how engineering was almost its own campus. I want to meet people outside my major as well as inside it.</p>
<p>I turned down San Jose State and San Diego State. I wasn’t interested in San Jose State much, but applied anyways because I’ve heard their accounting program was pretty good. San Diego state was close because I already live in San Diego and it would be easier to stay there, but I didn’t feel like the school presented itself well during it’s Open House. It more or less applauded how great the city was and how awesome it is to go to school in San Diego, but never really talked about the academics much, or showcased the effectiveness of the curriculum.</p>
<p>Our son turned down Wisconsin (Madison), Fordham, U of I Urbana Champaign, and Purdue. He liked Wisconsin a lot but the Open House at CalPoly was very impressive and the “learn by doing” method as well as the location sold him. In the end, the price was also a huge factor- about $5000 less than Wisconsin. Even though he received an $8000 academic scholarship and $12000 grant to Fordham, it was still more expensive and did not offer many options in Engineering. He elected to stay on the wait list at Johns Hopkins, but even if he gets in I do not see him going there.</p>
<p>I’m so happy so many awesome new people will be coming here - even though I’ll be gone! When I applied a few years ago, Cal Poly was definitely my first choice (early decision). I turned down SDSU, Fordham, University of San Francisco, University of Arizona.</p>
<p>We’re OOS so these answers will be a little different than the others. My daughter was accepted to UF, UCF, FAU & FSU for engineering (basically all of our FL state schools - UCF probably being the only one with an especially good engineering program) and was thrilled to get into Cal Poly (we have relatives in SLO - hence the connection). </p>
<p>We visited CP in February for 2 days and did all of the tours. It really was a no brainer and she can’t wait to get started in the fall!</p>
<p>The only other school I applied to was San Francisco State University. I didn’t have many options for colleges since I’m a transfer student, and other schools I wanted to apply to had certain prerequisites I couldn’t meet unless I stayed at my current community college longer. </p>
<p>When I got in to both schools, it was kind of a no-brainer to pick Cal Poly. I based which college I was interested in on my major ranking, campus atmosphere, recruiting opportunities, education style, and college prestige. Cal Poly beat SFSU in all these categories. </p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>UC Berekeley, UCLA, UCSD, Northwestern, Cornell, UChicago, Northeastern(Full ride), MIT. Felt like Cal Poly SLO was more hands-on. I like hands-on colleges ;)</p>
<p>You turned down MIT for Cal Poly?</p>