<p>momneeds2no, I didn’t say anything in my post above about 4 year graduation rates. I only pointed out that those posting with actual experience at CP have stated that they HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET NEEDED CLASSES. There are many other reasons already listed in this thread why students at CP often take longer than 4 years to graduate. No one is disputing the published statistics.</p>
<p>Not to be a jerk…
This means,“A remedy or other agent used to neutralize or counteract the effects of a poison.”</p>
<p>I think you meant “anecdotal”…sorry, just though that you should know. Again, I am not poking fun at you.</p>
<p>My kid has never complained about getting a class other than that he had to work a bit harder than normal to get a few of them. He always got them too. The biggest complaint he has had has been after he got the class and one or two of the professors were either extremely demanding or off in space somewhere.</p>
<p>No argument on it taking more than 4 years to graduate. But we knew that from the beginning. Learn by doing, internships, coops, ABET accreditation course requirements, and being a CSU with strict curriculum flow charts has its drawbacks. It takes longer to graduate, but at least you will know your stuff.</p>
<p>Good catch Osaka. But you did get my point about quantifiable data, right? Perhaps if Cal poly published the top five reasons for prolonged grad rates we could be discussing facts instead of speculation. </p>
<p>I wasn’t trying to say that required classes weren’t offered. Simply pointing out students must stay in perfectly timed lock step with the curriculum flow chart. Rigid programing is a historical hallmark of all CSUs as is the bargain basement tuition.</p>
<p>Even at five years, it’s killer deal for a quality degree. The price tag and career oriented programing allow grads to jump right in the job market with a minimum of debt.</p>
<p>Cal Poly may not know the reasons why students take longer than 4 years to graduate because many of the reasons are not Cal Polys fault nor something Cal Poly would know about.</p>
<p>As a high school student, you have adults who give you reminders, help guide you, or set limits. Once at (pick any college), freshman have lots of freedom with no adult supervision. This can lead to too many distractions. As a result, the grades drop, you may have to repeat classes, you may drop out of (pick your university), you change your major, etc. This happens to sophomores, too. It may take a few years for students to get their priorities straight, which can add to their time at Cal Poly.</p>
<p>It is a real adjustment to go from high school to college classes. In (any) college, there are no more reminders, usually homework doesnt count for much, you need to pace yourself, get ready for only 2-3 tests that determine your entire grade, and classes are a lot harder. Again, for freshman, this can be a rude awakening, leading to poor grades, retaking classes or dropping out. Add some distractions to this mix, and Cal Poly (or any college) can be real challenging.</p>
<p>Students think that 4 classes per quarter is doable for 4 years. Sometimes, just taking 2 or 3 upper division classes in your major is more realistic/sane than trying to add a 4th class. This can lead to taking longer than 4 years to graduate. The quarter system is tough as the course material goes by quickly, but one can take more specialty classes in your major.</p>
<p>Some have to work during school and may not want to take 4 hard classes each quarter. Some students choose to take 2 consecutive quarters for an internship or do an internship/special project during the academic year, and this can delay graduation because your course sequencing is off.</p>
<p>Some students have personal or medical reasons for not attending Cal Poly a quarter or several quarters. Students can get sick (the flu or bad cold) any quarter, have to drop a class, and that can set them back.</p>
<p>Some students take extra classes and that adds time to getting their degree. Some students actually love Cal Poly so much that they stay a tad longer. Changing your major can prolong your stay at Cal Poly.</p>
<p>I dont think Cal Poly could accurately list the top 5 reasons why their 4 year graduation rate is lower because most reasons are those Cal Poly has no control over. And most of the reasons listed above are applicable to many universities, not just Cal Poly.</p>
<p>When I visited Cal Poly I asked the admission dept head what the stats were for computer science applications versus students excepted versus attending.The person said we know but we will not release it.I think that is the same case with the graduation rate.They do not want to tell you the truth becasue it will hurt thier image or rankings making it less a selective school than everyone thinks it is.The reason the numbers come up so selective for admissions is the amount of people applying to very select majors.I also think that the graduation rate is VERY low for the supposted quality of the school.Since everyone wants to compare rankings and quality tell me why MANY higher ranked colleges have a much higher number of 4 year grad. rate?To me it is as a big red flag for Cal Poly.</p>
<p>@wayold, I just responded in good faith to your post on the other thread, but after reading your post here, I’d say you should probably send your son elsewhere. You seem to not have much appreciation for what CP has to offer, so for you, I definitely don’t think it would be worth $150K.</p>
<p>@wayold</p>
<p>Did you get a chance to read through this whole thread from the top? You will find all the reasons for low grad rate here. </p>
<p>Also, the graduation rate is published. It is in the common data set. There is a link in a earlier post if you had read the thread from the top. </p>
<p>And they only give admission stat for engineering college only for good reason. They don’t want students to game the admission process by applying to an easier major then change major after matriculation.</p>
<p>Thank you for taking time to answer my ? rather than being critical.I have read this thread and it has given me much insight into Cal Poly.I wonder what is the retention rate for computer science students at this school is?Also since the graduation rate is 40 percent in 5 years what happened to the other 60% ?</p>
<p>Wayold.
You’d think a state CSU school, would be more transparent with it’s stats and reporting… </p>
<p>take a look at this thread from 2011. Some of the same posters. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-san-luis-obispo/1072826-concern-over-4-year-graduation-rate.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-san-luis-obispo/1072826-concern-over-4-year-graduation-rate.html</a></p>
<p>Since you are from OOS, I’d recommend that you become familiar with our state university system (UC v CSU v CC) before investing $150k. Read-up on the effects of “impacted majors/campuses” on class availability. Allot of kids co-enroll at CSUs and CC, taking a portion of GEs at CC (if they can get in) and on line. Again you’ll need good, knowledgeable advising on what counts towards a Cal Poly diploma. </p>
<p>Again, I don’t intend this to be “cut” against CP, merely providing information from my prospective as CA resident and CSU grad (from back in the glory days before “impaction”). Believe me, I understand what it means to part with a pile of $$$. You are smart to investigate.</p>
<p>@ wayold:</p>
<p>You asked for facts about Cal Poly. So, here you go. The Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis at Cal Poly publishes every possible statistic that they release to the public on its website. Here are some links. The last Fact Book was published in 2011 (over 100 pages of hard data), but the data for 2012-2013 (34 pages) is also linked below in a non-book format. Best of luck and enjoy!</p>
<p><a href=“IR Home - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo”>IR Home - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo;
<p><a href=“IR Home - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo”>IR Home - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo;
<p><a href=“IR Home - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo”>IR Home - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo;
<p><a href=“IR Home - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo”>IR Home - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo;
<p>Thanks Osaka. </p>
<p>from the report…</p>
<p>"…increased enrollment, along with a decrease in state funding resulting in limited course availability are the main factors that contributed to the drop in average unit loads…"</p>
<p>So rather then speculating, should we gear the discussion towards “limited course availability”? </p>
<p>Also interesting is that the college of engineering is easier to gain admissions than the college of liberal arts. (2011)
Engineering = 37% acceptance rate.<br>
LA = 29% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>I couldn’t find the average class size by year. Nor could I find acceptance rates (with corrolating stats) for instate v. OOS. Nor could find the alogrythms used for accpeptance decsions.</p>
<p>
Here you go!! Again, directly from the Cal Poly site… Just dig a little deeper folks! The school ain’t hiding a thing.</p>
<p><a href=“http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=statsp[/url]”>http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=statsp</a></p>
<p>osaka, isn’t this the same “research paper” posted by V-ball mom 6 weeks ago? </p>
<p>The paper, written by student as part of class project, doesn’t reference the formulas used to determine high yield applicants. I suppose the formula may be considered property (trade secret) by the university and that’s why they choose not to disclose. All prestigious universities are invested in protecting and increasing yield. Yet Cal Poly is still a CSU and should adhere to some level of transparency to us CA tax payers. </p>
<p>However, the student’s paper does analyze the statical significance of the quantifiable characteristic of admitted cal poly students. Interestingly, the best predictors of for success (success = not dropping out and maintaining at least a 2.0 and graduating in five years) is NOT SAT or GPA score. Gender and race were the top two significant predictors. </p>
<p>So I guess, we can conclude that one of the best ways to graduate on time is be a white female. But of course data alone does tell a complete tale…</p>
<p>White females are also not very likely to be engineering majors…</p>
<p>yupe. The correlation of graduation with gender and race is superficial. The more useful inference that should have been drawn is:</p>
<p>White and/or female = non-tech majors (overwhelmingly) </p>
<p>Minority and/or male = tech majors </p>
<p>Attrition rates in tech majors > non-tech majors (overwhelmingly)</p>
<p>@wayold</p>
<p>This thread is titled:</p>
<p>“Why does Cal Poly SLO have such a low 4 year graduation rate?” </p>
<p>Reading from the top seems to always helps me when the question I have matches the title of thread. The “truth” seems to be less hidden. </p>
<p>And not to be a word nazi, students are accepted into universities, not excepted.</p>
<p>@ blind monkey</p>
<p>From the CSU Graduation Initiative plan ([Welcome</a> to the CSU Graduation Initiative](<a href=“http://graduate.csuprojects.org/home?noCache=201:1365390615]Welcome”>http://graduate.csuprojects.org/home?noCache=201:1365390615)) </p>
<p>“…graduation rates among women students and transfer students averaged over all disciplines significantly exceeded the campus average as well as the averages of comparator groups…” </p>
<p>STEM majors are covered by the term “all disciplines”.</p>
<p>The good news is that CSU system has a plan in place to address the problem.</p>
<p>Here’s a few more reasons:</p>
<p>The amount of credits needed to graduate must be taken into consideration. Four year graduation is based on 15 credits/quarter for 12 quarters. Some majors (mostly accredited, professional programs) still require more than the minimum 180 quarter units. Cal Poly has been working to look at each degree program to determine the necessity of exceeding the 180 credits, but some programs like architecture and some engineering majors have outside mandates on the curriculum. A four year architecture program would not get accreditation. I think I saw that one of the engineering degrees required 193 credits. That is almost an additional quarter if a student doesn’t take heavier class loads for several quarters to make up for the extra 13 credit requirement. Some students do better than others at heavy credit loads. For some, the sacrifice is too great and they decide it’s better for them to stay an extra quarter.</p>
<p>Some students in the first year take fewer credits to acquire/maintain/improve their GPA. There are lots of freshmen taking 12 units, not because they couldn’t get classes, but because they desire or, after getting on academic probation, need a higher GPA. </p>
<p>Some students are unwilling to take an 8:00 a.m. class or a class that goes from 6:00-9:00 p.m. Some won’t take a class with a professor that doesn’t get good ratings. The more self imposed requirements, the harder it is to get classes.</p>
<p>All that being said, I hate the registration system and it can be hard to get classes. I wish they would broaden the number of courses that could qualify for GEs. I wish they would get rid of the priority system. I wish they would register by class and number of credits so seniors would have priority and seniors with the most credits would have even a higher priority. </p>
<p>Cal Poly has been impacted by budget, but I don’t know of any schools that haven’t been. It seems we spend more and more on education and get less and less. When government pays less there’s only a few options universities have and that’s what were seeing. I think Cal Poly offers an amazing education and it’s a great place to spend 4 (or 5) years.</p>
<p>So registration is not done by priority in terms of student standing (the order of registration starting w senior standing and so on)?</p>
<p>No, it is not done by student standing/year. Here’s how it works:</p>
<p>The whole student body is divided alphabetically by last name into 12 priority groups. (ex. AAA-CAR, CAS - DUN, DUO-GRI, …, TIS-ZZZ) Then, each quarter each priority group will be assigned a priority number any where from 1 to 12. Enrollment appointment date/times for a quarter are then assigned in order 1,2,…12. So the alphabetic grouping assigned priority number 1 will go first, followed by the alphabetic group assigned priority number 2, etc. During a 4 year period (excluding summers) there are exactly 12 quarters, and each alphabetical group will get assigned each of the unique priority numbers (1 - 12) exactly one quarter each. So in a four year period, it is very fair, everyone gets the same number of good/medium/bad rotations. Each student also gets awarded three “priorities” that can be used anytime after freshman year. “Priorities” are like trump cards, and basically move you to the front of the line, even ahead of priority group 1. Everyone has the same number of these “trump cards”, and most people use them when they happen to have poor enrollment priority (group 10, 11, or 12). It is wise to use them strategically to help you get “hard to get” or “must have now” classes.</p>
<p>I hope this makes sense. I think it is actually a very fair system, although NCAA athletes, marching band members, and perhaps some others get automatic priorities during their training seasons.</p>