FuturePoly: I wouldn't be criticize an older Poly student in haste. I read that you're still a high school senior starting college in the fall. All you know right now is all the facts stated on their websites. In actually, they just made changing majors more easy because they rather have people graduate on time. I just recently made the change to food science to business and during the process, no professor/advisor/department head told me Cal Poly discourages changing majors. Instead, they encourage change of majors so that you can be happy and graduate on time.
so what you are saying is that it is even easier than before to change majors? I do believe that further helps my point that he had several chances to change his life.
And I am actually very pleased to hear that! thanks, and congrats on your successful major change! I was actually told by several alums that major change was very frowned upon.
bjornredtailRegistered UserPosts: 142Junior Member
I'm not sure why folks get so defensive of a university that they do not even attend. Cal Poly has it's flaws. These flaws are significant to the point that many of the people reading this shouldn't consider Cal Poly. So, what's so wrong about pointing that out?
OK, I have just read all of these discussions and I just wanted to put my 2 cents in.
First of all I am writing this from the experience of my son that is a student at cal poly. If you are not completely satisfied with what you have accomplished and want to add to the classes that you have, add a minor. This is not that difficult to do. You must have the required gpa and show a reason why you would like it and talk to the dept. My son just did it and it was not that big of a deal. Also I do know many people who recently have switched majors. It is not just a quick switch you have to have a certain gpa and meet with the dept. but it can be done. It is a little late for you but not for the minor, which is all you need since you have so many classes already. Please stop complaining and be proactive. Go talk to the heads of the departments. Make an appointment and sit down with them and really explain to them your wishes. You might be surprised with what ideas they may have to help you.
And yes you can not just use the cal poly logo and put it on any club or anything else. This is the same at any school. It must be approved.
bjornredtailRegistered UserPosts: 142Junior Member
Yet, it seems every job listing in Mechanical or Electrical or Civil engineering requires (you guessed it) a degree in Mechanical or Electrical or Civil engineering, respectively. You will also notice that I do not have one of those things. In about 9 months, I will not be able to get one of those from any CSU. You will also notice how unsure about what I do want to do. All I know is that I hate coding. I hate how much of my industry is frivolous and trivial. Yet, it seems that Poly doesn't like me going off and doing oddball things.
You will also notice what I /have/ done so far. I've taken more math than I have use for. I've taken statics. Goodness, I'm even taking welding right now. The problem is Poly doesn't encourage things like that. I'm limited to 4 units at a time (which, since I take preforming ensembles means I can never take 'real' classes). Plus, the rest of engineering has around two years of prerequisites to do. I can't just start taking upper-division classes. Having a minor in an area doesn't get you out of that either, not that Cal Poly offers any sort of engineering minor besides CSC. Oh, and yes, adding a minor once you have senior is darn near impossible too. Heck, I will have had seinor standing for half my academic career when I graduate. Funny how that works.
So... I've done the math on this. I figure I'm around 16 units from either a Math or Music minor. You will note that neither of those qualify me to do engineering work... nor much of anything else employment wise. You will also note that I've got 12 units (after this quarter) or coursework remaining. That's two quarters (one of the classes I will need is not offered until Winter 2012). Now, assuming I can handle 16 real units a quarter (18-19 with ensembles).... Um... Yeah. That will not work. And, it says everywhere on eadvise website, "no minors allowed if they delay graduation".
And yes you can not just use the cal poly logo and put it on any club or anything else. This is the same at any school. It must be approved.
Go off and read the policies, then answer a couple of questions for me:
1. What happens when I want to create a club that advocates for firearms. Perhaps "Cal Poly Students for Concealed Carry on Campus"... Will my club never be allowed to have Tshirts?
2. Cal Poly Corporation is demanding royalties for use of the Cal Poly name. Fair enough. I just wonder if the students, whom collective have a whole lot more to do with value of that name than the folks at the Corporation ever will, ever see so much as a cent of that money?
dude, I have read your entire thread on this post. I have to say, you have got to be one of the biggest self-pity long winded whiner on CC.
If you are really so disenchanted with the university for so many years (5 years?), you should REALLY have left for a JC long ago (say 2nd year in CP) and transferred to another university.
Yes, Cal Poly does have draconian rules for change of majors. But that is because countless parents and students are screaming for on-time 4 year graduation, and coupled that with CA's blood letting budget cuts, the University has no option but attempt to be ruthlessly efficient in moving students through the system. This is nothing new!
CA has been in a near bankrupt state throughout your time at CP, even at your freshman year. And parents have been screaming for faster graduation time for years. And yet you chose to attend to this University. Even so, once you realized that Cal Poly is unbelievably BAD, you could have sucked it up and have the grit to leave the Cal Poly crap-hole behind and start afresh at a JC and transferred to whatever, let's say Stanford, a place where you can create your own custom major. And yet you stayed. You stayed at your own volition. So take responsibility for that life choice. We all make mistakes in life, but some of us take the responsibilities for those mistakes instead of blaming others. So stop whining like a little girl!
Secondly, I don't think most people on this board are offended that you are point out the flaws of Cal Poly. I go to Princeton, and my sister is at Cal Poly. We both complained to each other about some of crappy policies at our respective universities. But you know what, we don't go on CC and whine forever about how miserable our lives are (and our schools are) and how our schools completely and utterly ruined our lives.
It is totally cool to share your perspective on the areas that Cal Poly can or needs to improve upon, even if you are militant about it. But it is not cool to attribute your entire life misery and failures onto the backs of your school. This is because NO SINGLE institution in your life should have that much power over your personal success or happiness. If Cal Poly, or for that matter any university, really is capable of having such profound negative impact on one's life, then the converse of that MUST also be true. That means a university, if chosen correctly, can put me on a permanent state of bliss or nirvana! Everyone here knows that is simply impossible!
You inability to decide on a major that brings out your passion early on in your academic career is not CP's fault. Your inability to change major in time (did you have the sufficiently good GPA to change major??) is also not Cal Poly's fault. Your inability to transfer out of Cal Poly in time is MOST definitely not Cal Poly's fault.
What is Cal Poly's fault is their massive failure in selecting the right (in every sense, from academics to school culture) freshman candidate for admission. It is obvious that Cal Poly's flawed admission process lacks the holistic approach that will enable it to select for both academic, school cultural, and maturity fit. I can see how they made an admission mistake with your candidacy. There are others that would love to be studying CS at Cal Poly, and would have the deepest appreciation for that opportunity and thus the maturity to maximize the learning opportunity in all its facets. Simply put, not only you despise this chance, you also sound like you have the maturity level of a 14 year old, and the concept of personal responsibility means nothing to you.
And if I were you, I would keep the firearm club idea under wraps. Your fellow students might worry about your state of mental health, and fear for their safety.
If you picked a major that heavily involves something you truly hate, that's a big mistake, but understandable. Staying in the major after you figured out you truly hate it for real is again extremely silly, but maybe forgivable. But deciding to go ahead and graduate in a major you truly hate...... well let's just say you have bigger problems than what school you're attending.
bjornredtailRegistered UserPosts: 142Junior Member
If you picked a major that heavily involves something you truly hate, that's a big mistake, but understandable. Staying in the major after you figured out you truly hate it for real is again extremely silly, but maybe forgivable. But deciding to go ahead and graduate in a major you truly hate...... well let's just say you have bigger problems than what school you're attending.
Letseehere... I could outright fail out, I could drop out, I could transfer, I could crawl in a hole and die, or I could graduate. You know, graduating seems like the easiest option. I have less to explain to all of those around me.
It has a few disadvantages though: 1. It's going to cost ~$4000 to finish up. Of course, I'll make most of that from Cal Poly over the summer, so that's not that big a deal. 2. I'm stuck with that damn worthless CSC degree. 3. Most other CSUs would not admit me once I have a degree from a CSU.
It is totally cool to share your perspective on the areas that Cal Poly can or needs to improve upon, even if you are militant about it. But it is not cool to attribute your entire life misery and failures onto the backs of your school. This is because NO SINGLE institution in your life should have that much power over your personal success or happiness. If Cal Poly, or for that matter any university, really is capable of having such profound negative impact on one's life, then the converse of that MUST also be true. That means a university, if chosen correctly, can put me on a permanent state of bliss or nirvana! Everyone here knows that is simply impossible!
Why must the converse be true? In fact, I would contend that it's always easier to destroy things than to build them. Simply stating that the converse is true doesn't make it so.
I can think of a pretty good counter-example: Bullets. Clearly bullets have the power to (literally) destroy lives, therefore they must have the power to put people into a permanent state of bliss or nirvana! That's about as much as a non-sequitur as the argument you put forward. You might counter that shooting someone who is truly evil, like Stalin or Saddam Hussein, would do the world a whole lot of good. I wouldn't disagree, but that doesn't mean that bullets have the power to do $some_arbitrary_good_thing, just because they have the power to do something awful.
What is Cal Poly's fault is their massive failure in selecting the right (in every sense, from academics to school culture) freshman candidate for admission. It is obvious that Cal Poly's flawed admission process lacks the holistic approach that will enable it to select for both academic, school cultural, and maturity fit. I can see how they made an admission mistake with your candidacy. There are others that would love to be studying CS at Cal Poly, and would have the deepest appreciation for that opportunity and thus the maturity to maximize the learning opportunity in all its facets. Simply put, not only you despise this chance, you also sound like you have the maturity level of a 14 year old, and the concept of personal responsibility means nothing to you.
That's little more than a personal attack. And, it's not even a particularly good one. Just because I hate my major and my life doesn't mean I haven't given it a real effort. In fact, I would argue that in fact I have had tried to "maximize the learning opportunity in all its facets". One look at my transcript or my resume would show that. Why else would I have taken all sorts of somewhat-hard stuff (like statics, Staley's web dev, Linear Analysis, Calculus IV...) that I didn't need (and that sometimes doesn't even count towards my degree). The fact that I dislike CSC and Cal Poly is not the result of a lack of effort on my part.
And if I were you, I would keep the firearm club idea under wraps. Your fellow students might worry about your state of mental health, and fear for their safety.
I double dog dare someone to raise a stink about hypothetical example of a non-existent organization that promotes the exercise of a constitutionally protected right. With any luck, the University would try something stupid and I would go Stevn Hinkle on their hind ends so fast their heads would spin. There's nothing I would love more than to see the University waste thousands of dollars and get more bad PR.
"Why must the converse be true? In fact, I would contend that it's always easier to destroy things than to build them. Simply stating that the converse is true doesn't make it so.
I can think of a pretty good counter-example: Bullets. Clearly bullets have the power to (literally) destroy lives, therefore they must have the power to put people into a permanent state of bliss or nirvana! That's about as much as a non-sequitur as the argument you put forward. You might counter that shooting someone who is truly evil, like Stalin or Saddam Hussein, would do the world a whole lot of good. I wouldn't disagree, but that doesn't mean that bullets have the power to do $some_arbitrary_good_thing, just because they have the power to do something awful. "
Of course Cal Poly's Orfalea is top business school that produces graduates with salaries that are averaged into the rankings. Cal Poly business is 2nd best in terms of public university in Cali if you don't know! mostly only big firms and companies come on campus every week to have conference and have students network with them. And many alumni and distinguished speakers come back for us to network with them and actually employers support the learn by doing philosophy, students in some degree are at a premium status in terms of starting salary.
A report shows the median starting salary of 2009-2010 of $50,000 starting salary from undergraduates and graduate students of the Orfalea School of Business in all business areas. Everyone knows Cal Poly's business is top and students here get in mostly big firms. Average salary for a student here studying business with a concentration in IS makings a starting salary of $65,000. If you are thinking about accounting, the accounting program here is one of the best in california, Cal Poly is specially recognized and a "target" business school from recruiters of the Big 4. https://www.careers.calpoly.edu/search.php
Just want to put in my two cents. As a cal state long beach student, I would have to say the "learn by doing" extends to most csu's. I would go as far to say that students from a cal state are more prepared for the work force. Yeah sure you can do some stupid research if you go to a UC, but can you actually do well as (in my case an engineer) in real life at a csu. I think UC's truly are best for post graduate. A bachelor's degree really is the practical knowledge and anything beyond should be the research. This is why i believe fully into the csu philosophy.
You are partially right. However, a Cal Poly Pomona engineer, I believe Cal Poly SLO has the upper-hand over Cal Poly Pomona and C.S.U.L.B. because of its larger endowment. For example:
Cal Poly SLO has and endowment of $147 million for 18,762 students ($7800/student)
Cal Poly Pomona has and endowment of $50 million for 22,273 students ($2244/student)
Cal State L.B. has and endowment of $45 million for 34,870 students ($1280/student)
Even as C.P.P. is expected to break the $100 million mark at the conclusion of its current capital campaign (putting it at ~$4,500/student), they will still only possess slightly over 50% of Cal Poly SLO's endowment dollars per student. Of course the endowment-only argument is overly deterministic as Fresno State University currently has over $5,000/student and is conducting a capital campaign of its own, but it's "regarded" as a mediocre university (at-best) in the California Central Valley. BTW I'm from the Valley myself.
Moreover, I think that Cal Poly SLO has more academic prestige because (and I'm calling it as I see it on this one, so bear with me) being in a socially conservative area; it's not ashamed to put resources in its engineering program over liberal arts or humanities. Cal Poly SLO students are O.K. with the fact that their school is a polytechnic university, and engineering students are O.K. with the concept of paying more for it. (See: "Cal Poly College-based fees")
Unfortunately, at Cal Poly Pomona and at CSULB, it's taboo to be proud of being an engineer, and the grip of the forcing-it-down-your-throat multiculturalist crowds is borderline sinister. BTW I'm of Mexican-origin, but I despise groups such as M.E.Ch.A. and like-minded on-campus organizations because I believe they foster exclusion and hatred of traits that they consider White-Anglo-Saxon.
So, as much as I like C.P.P. and C.S.U.L.B. and their ethnic and cultural diversity and increasing selectivity, when it comes to engineering, Cal Poly SLO is still an academic outlier in the university system.
@CEinCali being a member of MECHA and other related organizations, I can say you are definitely wrong about the idea that we "foster exclusion and hatred of traits that they consider White-Anglo-Saxon" - we instead support each other academically and emotionally in order to graduate and excel in our major, among other things.
You probably met the wrong group of people that were part of those groups.
And how is it "taboo to be proud of being an engineer" at Cal Poly Pomona and CSULB??
From all the people I've met that are engineering grads from Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Long Beach, I can definitely say it DOES NOT matter what school you go to, it entirely depends on the person holding that degree. You can go to Cal State Long Beach, earn a bachelor's in EE (like my professor at my CC), and still be well off.
When you apply to a master's program in an engineering field, being UCB or the like, they don't base their decision on where you got your bachelor's from - its all about your GPA and GRE (correct me if I'm wrong if there's any more prerequisites).
Replies to: Cal Poly grads have highest salaries of all CSUs, higher than most UCs
And I am actually very pleased to hear that! thanks, and congrats on your successful major change! I was actually told by several alums that major change was very frowned upon.
First of all I am writing this from the experience of my son that is a student at cal poly. If you are not completely satisfied with what you have accomplished and want to add to the classes that you have, add a minor. This is not that difficult to do. You must have the required gpa and show a reason why you would like it and talk to the dept. My son just did it and it was not that big of a deal. Also I do know many people who recently have switched majors. It is not just a quick switch you have to have a certain gpa and meet with the dept. but it can be done. It is a little late for you but not for the minor, which is all you need since you have so many classes already. Please stop complaining and be proactive. Go talk to the heads of the departments. Make an appointment and sit down with them and really explain to them your wishes. You might be surprised with what ideas they may have to help you.
And yes you can not just use the cal poly logo and put it on any club or anything else. This is the same at any school. It must be approved.
You will also notice what I /have/ done so far. I've taken more math than I have use for. I've taken statics. Goodness, I'm even taking welding right now. The problem is Poly doesn't encourage things like that. I'm limited to 4 units at a time (which, since I take preforming ensembles means I can never take 'real' classes). Plus, the rest of engineering has around two years of prerequisites to do. I can't just start taking upper-division classes. Having a minor in an area doesn't get you out of that either, not that Cal Poly offers any sort of engineering minor besides CSC. Oh, and yes, adding a minor once you have senior is darn near impossible too. Heck, I will have had seinor standing for half my academic career when I graduate. Funny how that works.
So... I've done the math on this. I figure I'm around 16 units from either a Math or Music minor. You will note that neither of those qualify me to do engineering work... nor much of anything else employment wise. You will also note that I've got 12 units (after this quarter) or coursework remaining. That's two quarters (one of the classes I will need is not offered until Winter 2012). Now, assuming I can handle 16 real units a quarter (18-19 with ensembles).... Um... Yeah. That will not work. And, it says everywhere on eadvise website, "no minors allowed if they delay graduation".
Go off and read the policies, then answer a couple of questions for me:
1. What happens when I want to create a club that advocates for firearms. Perhaps "Cal Poly Students for Concealed Carry on Campus"... Will my club never be allowed to have Tshirts?
2. Cal Poly Corporation is demanding royalties for use of the Cal Poly name. Fair enough. I just wonder if the students, whom collective have a whole lot more to do with value of that name than the folks at the Corporation ever will, ever see so much as a cent of that money?
dude, I have read your entire thread on this post. I have to say, you have got to be one of the biggest self-pity long winded whiner on CC.
If you are really so disenchanted with the university for so many years (5 years?), you should REALLY have left for a JC long ago (say 2nd year in CP) and transferred to another university.
Yes, Cal Poly does have draconian rules for change of majors. But that is because countless parents and students are screaming for on-time 4 year graduation, and coupled that with CA's blood letting budget cuts, the University has no option but attempt to be ruthlessly efficient in moving students through the system. This is nothing new!
CA has been in a near bankrupt state throughout your time at CP, even at your freshman year. And parents have been screaming for faster graduation time for years. And yet you chose to attend to this University. Even so, once you realized that Cal Poly is unbelievably BAD, you could have sucked it up and have the grit to leave the Cal Poly crap-hole behind and start afresh at a JC and transferred to whatever, let's say Stanford, a place where you can create your own custom major. And yet you stayed. You stayed at your own volition. So take responsibility for that life choice. We all make mistakes in life, but some of us take the responsibilities for those mistakes instead of blaming others. So stop whining like a little girl!
Secondly, I don't think most people on this board are offended that you are point out the flaws of Cal Poly. I go to Princeton, and my sister is at Cal Poly. We both complained to each other about some of crappy policies at our respective universities. But you know what, we don't go on CC and whine forever about how miserable our lives are (and our schools are) and how our schools completely and utterly ruined our lives.
It is totally cool to share your perspective on the areas that Cal Poly can or needs to improve upon, even if you are militant about it. But it is not cool to attribute your entire life misery and failures onto the backs of your school. This is because NO SINGLE institution in your life should have that much power over your personal success or happiness. If Cal Poly, or for that matter any university, really is capable of having such profound negative impact on one's life, then the converse of that MUST also be true. That means a university, if chosen correctly, can put me on a permanent state of bliss or nirvana! Everyone here knows that is simply impossible!
You inability to decide on a major that brings out your passion early on in your academic career is not CP's fault. Your inability to change major in time (did you have the sufficiently good GPA to change major??) is also not Cal Poly's fault. Your inability to transfer out of Cal Poly in time is MOST definitely not Cal Poly's fault.
What is Cal Poly's fault is their massive failure in selecting the right (in every sense, from academics to school culture) freshman candidate for admission. It is obvious that Cal Poly's flawed admission process lacks the holistic approach that will enable it to select for both academic, school cultural, and maturity fit. I can see how they made an admission mistake with your candidacy. There are others that would love to be studying CS at Cal Poly, and would have the deepest appreciation for that opportunity and thus the maturity to maximize the learning opportunity in all its facets. Simply put, not only you despise this chance, you also sound like you have the maturity level of a 14 year old, and the concept of personal responsibility means nothing to you.
And if I were you, I would keep the firearm club idea under wraps. Your fellow students might worry about your state of mental health, and fear for their safety.
It has a few disadvantages though: 1. It's going to cost ~$4000 to finish up. Of course, I'll make most of that from Cal Poly over the summer, so that's not that big a deal. 2. I'm stuck with that damn worthless CSC degree. 3. Most other CSUs would not admit me once I have a degree from a CSU.
Why must the converse be true? In fact, I would contend that it's always easier to destroy things than to build them. Simply stating that the converse is true doesn't make it so.
I can think of a pretty good counter-example: Bullets. Clearly bullets have the power to (literally) destroy lives, therefore they must have the power to put people into a permanent state of bliss or nirvana! That's about as much as a non-sequitur as the argument you put forward. You might counter that shooting someone who is truly evil, like Stalin or Saddam Hussein, would do the world a whole lot of good. I wouldn't disagree, but that doesn't mean that bullets have the power to do $some_arbitrary_good_thing, just because they have the power to do something awful.
That's little more than a personal attack. And, it's not even a particularly good one. Just because I hate my major and my life doesn't mean I haven't given it a real effort. In fact, I would argue that in fact I have had tried to "maximize the learning opportunity in all its facets". One look at my transcript or my resume would show that. Why else would I have taken all sorts of somewhat-hard stuff (like statics, Staley's web dev, Linear Analysis, Calculus IV...) that I didn't need (and that sometimes doesn't even count towards my degree). The fact that I dislike CSC and Cal Poly is not the result of a lack of effort on my part.
I double dog dare someone to raise a stink about hypothetical example of a non-existent organization that promotes the exercise of a constitutionally protected right. With any luck, the University would try something stupid and I would go Stevn Hinkle on their hind ends so fast their heads would spin. There's nothing I would love more than to see the University waste thousands of dollars and get more bad PR.
I can think of a pretty good counter-example: Bullets. Clearly bullets have the power to (literally) destroy lives, therefore they must have the power to put people into a permanent state of bliss or nirvana! That's about as much as a non-sequitur as the argument you put forward. You might counter that shooting someone who is truly evil, like Stalin or Saddam Hussein, would do the world a whole lot of good. I wouldn't disagree, but that doesn't mean that bullets have the power to do $some_arbitrary_good_thing, just because they have the power to do something awful. "
This is getting really strange.
Recruiters Tell Wall St. Journal Cal Poly Among Top National Producers of Business, Engineering Grads in the Nation
Cal Poly Grads, Alumni Earn Top Starting, Mid-Career Salaries
A report shows the median starting salary of 2009-2010 of $50,000 starting salary from undergraduates and graduate students of the Orfalea School of Business in all business areas. Everyone knows Cal Poly's business is top and students here get in mostly big firms. Average salary for a student here studying business with a concentration in IS makings a starting salary of $65,000. If you are thinking about accounting, the accounting program here is one of the best in california, Cal Poly is specially recognized and a "target" business school from recruiters of the Big 4.
https://www.careers.calpoly.edu/search.php
You are partially right. However, a Cal Poly Pomona engineer, I believe Cal Poly SLO has the upper-hand over Cal Poly Pomona and C.S.U.L.B. because of its larger endowment. For example:
Cal Poly SLO has and endowment of $147 million for 18,762 students ($7800/student)
Cal Poly Pomona has and endowment of $50 million for 22,273 students ($2244/student)
Cal State L.B. has and endowment of $45 million for 34,870 students ($1280/student)
Even as C.P.P. is expected to break the $100 million mark at the conclusion of its current capital campaign (putting it at ~$4,500/student), they will still only possess slightly over 50% of Cal Poly SLO's endowment dollars per student. Of course the endowment-only argument is overly deterministic as Fresno State University currently has over $5,000/student and is conducting a capital campaign of its own, but it's "regarded" as a mediocre university (at-best) in the California Central Valley. BTW I'm from the Valley myself.
Moreover, I think that Cal Poly SLO has more academic prestige because (and I'm calling it as I see it on this one, so bear with me) being in a socially conservative area; it's not ashamed to put resources in its engineering program over liberal arts or humanities. Cal Poly SLO students are O.K. with the fact that their school is a polytechnic university, and engineering students are O.K. with the concept of paying more for it. (See: "Cal Poly College-based fees")
Unfortunately, at Cal Poly Pomona and at CSULB, it's taboo to be proud of being an engineer, and the grip of the forcing-it-down-your-throat multiculturalist crowds is borderline sinister. BTW I'm of Mexican-origin, but I despise groups such as M.E.Ch.A. and like-minded on-campus organizations because I believe they foster exclusion and hatred of traits that they consider White-Anglo-Saxon.
So, as much as I like C.P.P. and C.S.U.L.B. and their ethnic and cultural diversity and increasing selectivity, when it comes to engineering, Cal Poly SLO is still an academic outlier in the university system.
You probably met the wrong group of people that were part of those groups.
And how is it "taboo to be proud of being an engineer" at Cal Poly Pomona and CSULB??
From all the people I've met that are engineering grads from Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Long Beach, I can definitely say it DOES NOT matter what school you go to, it entirely depends on the person holding that degree. You can go to Cal State Long Beach, earn a bachelor's in EE (like my professor at my CC), and still be well off.
When you apply to a master's program in an engineering field, being UCB or the like, they don't base their decision on where you got your bachelor's from - its all about your GPA and GRE (correct me if I'm wrong if there's any more prerequisites).