Anonymous wrote:Great school, huge variability by major.

3.5gpa kid we know got in for philosophy, engineering and architecture are much tougher (but not top UC tough).

My kids turned down two top UCs for SLO

Literally the only reason Cal Poly is ranked as a regional university is because it doesn’t offer PhD programs.

CalPoly is not vocational. It has a very solid engineering program and generally is strong in STEM. Loads of their graduates either go to silicon valley jobs or on to STEM grad school (often at more heralded universities).

Anonymous wrote:Great school, huge variability by major.

3.5gpa kid we know got in for philosophy, engineering and architecture are much tougher (but not top UC tough).

The only 3.5 kids getting are from out of state. It’s much harder to get into in state.

Great school, huge variability by major.

3.5gpa kid we know got in for philosophy, engineering and architecture are much tougher (but not top UC tough).

Anonymous wrote:The student experience is 10/10.

Really strong, intentional weeklong orientation program.

Most students live on campus, unlike many commuter school UCs. This makes the campus feel lively during evenings and weekends.

SLO's campus is a student utopia: bowling alley, rock climbing wall, theater, pool. And the classes are all very hands-on and experiential. Big focus on internships and practical skills. And beach and breathtaking nature hikes nearby help with stress.

Very hard to get into unfortunately for top majors: STEM, psychology, poli sci, etc.

I know this is an older post but it’s not correct. Only one year of housing is guaranteed. Local housing is pretty expensive and can be fairly far off campus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)

Cal Poly is a regional vocational school. UVA, VT and UMD are much better options. No comparison.

You obviously know nothing about SLO. It is not a vocational school. That’s hilarious. Do you also think Cal Tech is a vocational school? Or do you just not understand the difference between a vocational school and a university with strong stem?

Not the PP you quoted. But are you seriously comparing Cal Poly to Cal Tech? Cal Poly is not even ranked. Sorry!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)

Cal Poly is a regional vocational school. UVA, VT and UMD are much better options. No comparison.

You obviously know nothing about SLO. It is not a vocational school. That’s hilarious. Do you also think Cal Tech is a vocational school? Or do you just not understand the difference between a vocational school and a university with strong stem?

Anonymous wrote:Just to note that it is a slog and expensive to get to SLO from DC. No direct flights. That said the SLO airport is like a spa.

My son is there and it’s quite easy. You fly American with a layover in either Dallas or Phoenix. And the fact that you can breeze into the SLO airport a half hour before departure makes it even easier.

Anonymous wrote:

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)

Cal Poly is a regional vocational school. UVA, VT and UMD are much better options. No comparison.

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.

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.

I had a college friend who did a masters program there. She was supposed to do research with a faculty there, but the faculty was incompetent…

Anonymous wrote:

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!

Top 20%? I’m sure your kid will get much better offers than Cal Poly!

Anonymous wrote:The student experience is 10/10.

Really strong, intentional weeklong orientation program.

Most students live on campus, unlike many commuter school UCs. This makes the campus feel lively during evenings and weekends.

SLO's campus is a student utopia: bowling alley, rock climbing wall, theater, pool. And the classes are all very hands-on and experiential. Big focus on internships and practical skills. And beach and breathtaking nature hikes nearby help with stress.

Very hard to get into unfortunately for top majors: STEM, psychology, poli sci, etc.

UCI and maybe UCR are the only UCs that feel like commuter campuses. Cal, Davis and SB off campus housing is all around campus. SC students sleep in their cars. UCSD off campus housing is a little weird as the campus is surrounded by highways. Off campus housing at Cal Poly SLO isn’t great, very old run down properties for rentals. UCLA students stay on campus as off campus housing is very expensive.

SLO is a great town and fantastic for students who want to stay around campus or do outdoorsy things. It is not great for students who want to travel or want access to an urban city. Cal and Davis are connected by Amtrak and BART giving access to SF and Sacremento.

SLO is not a good choice if your kid is serious about poli sci though. It’s fine if your an instate student looking to have fun, get a degree and then figure it out but humanities and social sciences are very weak there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the OOS tuition and fees?

https://www.calpoly.edu/financial-aid/costs-and-affordability/undergraduate-costs-attendance-2025-26

It’s a steal!

The student experience is 10/10.

Really strong, intentional weeklong orientation program.

Most students live on campus, unlike many commuter school UCs. This makes the campus feel lively during evenings and weekends.

SLO's campus is a student utopia: bowling alley, rock climbing wall, theater, pool. And the classes are all very hands-on and experiential. Big focus on internships and practical skills. And beach and breathtaking nature hikes nearby help with stress.

Very hard to get into unfortunately for top majors: STEM, psychology, poli sci, etc.