Anonymous
03/13/2026 16:56
Subject: Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
Anonymous wrote:DC got in for engineering!
This is one college campus/area visit that I am definitely looking forward to!
PP here - electrical engineering- would love to hear how this program
Compares to UVa or VT or UMD which are local to us ( in state in Virginia)
Anonymous
03/13/2026 13:29
Subject: Re:Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
Anonymous wrote:What is your DC’s major?
Cal States are great IMO but different from other UCs or other large universities in that they are more vocationally focused, have less breadth and don’t do research. This works really well for kids interested in one of their areas of focus or regional kids just looking to get a business degree. Different Cal States have different strengths.
Cal Poly has excellent engineering, CS, and architecture programs. Premed can be done as all the STEM courses are there but not sure about whether it can offer shadowing and good counseling for premed. No idea how pre med kids get research opportunities there. Degrees like business, graphic arts, education, agriculture are all there too. Architecture/engineering are the hardest programs to get into while agricultural business is the easiest. There is a wide gap in academic capability between the two groups.
Cal Poly and other Cal States are not very strong for social sciences or humanities. The exception being psychology which is very popular.
The faculty still do research https://bio.calpoly.edu/content/student-research-opportunities
I went to Cal Poly and my college BFF's daughter is now there as a biology major/pre-med. They live in SLO and her (the student's) father is a doctor. So she gets plenty of shadowing working with him and colleagues (no idea how much the college does with this but there is a big hospital in town). And she does research with a biology professor. Biology is extremely selective there, 4% admit rate was the latest I saw. I don't know anything about med school preparation but she had many options and her doctor-father was very enthusiastic about her going to Cal Poly.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 13:21
Subject: Re:Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
For physics, the programs are different. UCs offer more research oriented opportunities, more theoretical physics programs and there is more emphasis on preparing for graduate school. Cal Poly has a focus on applied physics.
Cal States have smaller classes and focus more on teaching, though that doesn’t guarantee a good instructor. UCs have larger classes and focus on research, though that doesn’t mean the TA won’t be a good instructor. UCs do expect students to be strong independent learners. Cal States do focus more on teaching.
Cal States are less expensive.
Cal Poly in particular is really strict on changing majors if the intended major is impacted.
Cal Poly didn’t seem to have intense weeder classes.
UCs are pretty flexible in changing majors within your school and it’s possible to change schools but you have to do well in the weeder courses.
UCs can have weeder classes and deflationary curves.
Cal States have smaller classes and focus more on teaching, though that doesn’t guarantee a good instructor. UCs have larger classes and focus on research, though that doesn’t mean the TA won’t be a good instructor. UCs do expect students to be strong independent learners. Cal States do focus more on teaching.
Cal States are less expensive.
Cal Poly in particular is really strict on changing majors if the intended major is impacted.
Cal Poly didn’t seem to have intense weeder classes.
UCs are pretty flexible in changing majors within your school and it’s possible to change schools but you have to do well in the weeder courses.
UCs can have weeder classes and deflationary curves.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 13:10
Subject: Re:Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What is your DC’s major?
Cal States are great IMO but different from other UCs or other large universities in that they are more vocationally focused, have less breadth and don’t do research. This works really well for kids interested in one of their areas of focus or regional kids just looking to get a business degree. Different Cal States have different strengths.
Cal Poly has excellent engineering, CS, and architecture programs. Premed can be done as all the STEM courses are there but not sure about whether it can offer shadowing and good counseling for premed. No idea how pre med kids get research opportunities there. Degrees like business, graphic arts, education, agriculture are all there too. Architecture/engineering are the hardest programs to get into while agricultural business is the easiest. There is a wide gap in academic capability between the two groups.
Cal Poly and other Cal States are not very strong for social sciences or humanities. The exception being psychology which is very popular.
How is Cal Poly for a physics major? How would it compare to say, the UC schools?
UCLA/Cal
UCSD
UCD/UC Irvine
UCSB
Cal Poly
SJSU/SDSU
Anonymous
03/13/2026 12:51
Subject: Re:Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
Anonymous wrote:What is your DC’s major?
Cal States are great IMO but different from other UCs or other large universities in that they are more vocationally focused, have less breadth and don’t do research. This works really well for kids interested in one of their areas of focus or regional kids just looking to get a business degree. Different Cal States have different strengths.
Cal Poly has excellent engineering, CS, and architecture programs. Premed can be done as all the STEM courses are there but not sure about whether it can offer shadowing and good counseling for premed. No idea how pre med kids get research opportunities there. Degrees like business, graphic arts, education, agriculture are all there too. Architecture/engineering are the hardest programs to get into while agricultural business is the easiest. There is a wide gap in academic capability between the two groups.
Cal Poly and other Cal States are not very strong for social sciences or humanities. The exception being psychology which is very popular.
How is Cal Poly for a physics major? How would it compare to say, the UC schools?
Anonymous
03/13/2026 12:48
Subject: Re:Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
What is your DC’s major?
Cal States are great IMO but different from other UCs or other large universities in that they are more vocationally focused, have less breadth and don’t do research. This works really well for kids interested in one of their areas of focus or regional kids just looking to get a business degree. Different Cal States have different strengths.
Cal Poly has excellent engineering, CS, and architecture programs. Premed can be done as all the STEM courses are there but not sure about whether it can offer shadowing and good counseling for premed. No idea how pre med kids get research opportunities there. Degrees like business, graphic arts, education, agriculture are all there too. Architecture/engineering are the hardest programs to get into while agricultural business is the easiest. There is a wide gap in academic capability between the two groups.
Cal Poly and other Cal States are not very strong for social sciences or humanities. The exception being psychology which is very popular.
Cal States are great IMO but different from other UCs or other large universities in that they are more vocationally focused, have less breadth and don’t do research. This works really well for kids interested in one of their areas of focus or regional kids just looking to get a business degree. Different Cal States have different strengths.
Cal Poly has excellent engineering, CS, and architecture programs. Premed can be done as all the STEM courses are there but not sure about whether it can offer shadowing and good counseling for premed. No idea how pre med kids get research opportunities there. Degrees like business, graphic arts, education, agriculture are all there too. Architecture/engineering are the hardest programs to get into while agricultural business is the easiest. There is a wide gap in academic capability between the two groups.
Cal Poly and other Cal States are not very strong for social sciences or humanities. The exception being psychology which is very popular.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 12:40
Subject: Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
DC got in for engineering!
This is one college campus/area visit that I am definitely looking forward to!
This is one college campus/area visit that I am definitely looking forward to!
Anonymous
03/13/2026 12:15
Subject: Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
Our neighbors both went to cal poly slo and loved it and are successful awesome people.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 12:13
Subject: Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
Anonymous wrote:DC - 3.8 GPA. SLO is test-free so couldn't submit near perfect SAT.
Major: social science
Congrats! I went to Cal Poly and it was a great experience. I'm not surprised to see many of my college friends now have kids going there.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 11:17
Subject: Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
SLO recalculates GPA in their own way (different than typical weighted/unweighted and also different from UC recalculation).
Great school.
Great school.
Anonymous
03/13/2026 11:16
Subject: Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DC - 3.8 GPA. SLO is test-free so couldn't submit near perfect SAT.
Major: social science
Wow that’s a low GPA for Cal Poly, congrats!
It's a private school and it's an unweighted GPA so that's pretty high for our school's gpa as the highest GPA in the whole class is 3.95. No one gets 4.0 GPAs and all GPAs are unweighted. Sorry should have specified this in earlier comment!
Anonymous
03/13/2026 02:44
Subject: Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DC - 3.8 GPA. SLO is test-free so couldn't submit near perfect SAT.
Major: social science
Wow that’s a low GPA for Cal Poly, congrats!
Not really
Anonymous
03/13/2026 02:05
Subject: Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
Anonymous wrote:DC - 3.8 GPA. SLO is test-free so couldn't submit near perfect SAT.
Major: social science
Wow that’s a low GPA for Cal Poly, congrats!
Anonymous
03/13/2026 00:54
Subject: Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
DC - 3.8 GPA. SLO is test-free so couldn't submit near perfect SAT.
Major: social science
Major: social science
Anonymous
03/13/2026 00:34
Subject: Cal Poly SLO is out - anyone get in?
Beautiful school and campus. Congrats to everyone who was able to get in!