Future of Cal Poly

calpolyslorocks · May 2013

Student Profile - Admissions - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

Cal Poly is becoming more competitive every year! The average GPA was a 3.96 and the average ACT was a 29 for this fall's entering freshman class. The math and science related majors have even more impressive stats. What do you guys think the future has in store for Cal Poly? Lower acceptance rates? U.S New's rankings? Maybe even surpassing the UC's?

OsakaDad · May 2013

Thanks for posting this information. Yes, Cal Poly attracts incredibly well qualified students and will continue to do so. I am sure that the UC's have upped their game too.

However, in the future you can expect Cal Poly to become even more selective. It already is in the top tier for its category with U.S. News. Of course it could go slightly higher, but it already is the top public school for universities in the West whose highest degree is a masters for almost two decades straight.

Cal Poly already surpasses most UC's and has stats for entering freshman similar to UCLA, UCSD and UCB.

What I see as most likely is that the reputation of Cal Poly will continue to skyrocket and we will see more applications from highly qualified candidates and public recognition.

Lecter · May 2013

Just a clarification - the GPA and ACT scores reported above are for *accepted* freshmen. They are not for *enrolling* freshmen (not yet available); those stats will be lower.

blueskies2day · May 2013

"Cal Poly already surpasses most UC's and has stats for entering freshman similar to UCLA, UCSD and UCB."

Not sure why the constant oversell? It comes off a little insecure, or a constant marketing move to entice the smart kids to come. If you are a really super bright kid whose goal is to be around other really super bright minds across all disciplines, are you going to find more of those similar minds (and stats) at CP or UCB? That answer should be clear. I think the intellectual population is in fact very different, sorry. Not saying CP doesn't have some super achieving really smart kids, it certainly does, but this constant elite status sell is getting old and is sometimes misleading to these young students and parents.

OsakaDad · May 2013

@blueskies2day -- There is no oversell going on here. I am a totally satisfied Cal Poly parent whose kid is having an awesome educational experience at the school. I love it too. With the world as messed up as it is, it is great to have something in our lives that is off the charts awesome. My posts are generally from our own personal experiences and quite frankly, for us there has been very little downside to this school. I appreciate your opinion, but you are sorely mistaken that we are insecure about our choice. We are literally so satisfied with the program that we feel completely justified crowing about it from the roof tops. Sorry if my posts annoy you. But they are genuine. We really do feel this great about the school.

universityfreak · May 2013

I don't think it's an oversell at all. To each his or her opinion. Cal Poly is certainly on the rise and in certain areas more highly regarded than some of the UCs. And I went to UCLA. I experienced zero "hands on." I did become a master test taker though. My son is an EE major at Cal Poly and his best friend is an EE major at UCLA. The educational experience is very different and my son believes he will be more ready for industry, which is his goal. He also learns the theory behind his hands on education. For my son, it is the perfect fit.

slolearner · May 2013

@ blueskies2day Well, you pose an interesting question. Many of us have felt for a very long time that a UC education carried real weight, and for me, I believe it still has some of that value. However the GPA/SAT/AP race to the top in the last 10 or 20 years has put an unfavorable spin on the access to public schools in California. Let's not fool ourselves, an 800 on a SAT math test is no guarantee a kid will even graduate, let alone become a productive member of the work force, but it might get the kid into UCLA or UCB. We are surely all aware that the system can be gamed to the advantage of the privileged. Not every California kid has $6,000 to spend on a summer long SAT prep crash course, but taking one will give some kids a seat at UCB at the expense of a seat lost to someone who does not have the deep pockets. Many’s the kid who had a coach ‘help’ write his or her Personal Statement. I know a number of UC kids who are working as lab techs or EMT’s instead of engineers or MD’s. There are plenty of smart kids who worked their way through high school and college who are good at something useful besides taking SAT & AP tests, and yes some of them attend Cal Poly. If you know any of the extraordinary kids at Cal Poly you are aware that many of them turned down UC’s some even UCLA & UCB. They go to SLO because they want to, they like it there, and that’s part of the reason it’s tough to get them out in 4 years. Every kid is different, as is every school. Most of the kids at Cal Poly choose to go there because for them it’s a great place to go to get an excellent education, not because it has a fancy label. Pretty smart kids it seems to me.

ouiounon · May 2013

I do firmly believe that Cal Poly is a great university, one of the crown jewels (if not THE crown jewel) of the CSU system.
On the other hand, Cal and UCLA are the two fantastic flagship universities of the UC system; they are highly respected world-renown institutions.
The UC and CSU systems are set up by the state to achieve somewhat different objectives.
Why can't we just accept them as such, they are some of the greatest assets of our state. I agree that the frequent attempts to prove that Cal Poly is on par with Cal and UCLA do reveal a sense of insecurity. I doubt if there are many posts on the Cal and UCLA forums comparing Cal and UCLA to Cal Poly.
I've also seen some knocks on UCLA and I also wonder if this may be due to a sense of insecurity and some hidden animosity. Unless you've been a student at UCLA, you do not know what it is like to really be a student there. One can extoll the virtues of one university without knocking another one.
Regarding the post by slolearner, somehow I doubt that one of the reasons that it's hard to complete your degree in 4 years at Cal Poly is that the students like it so much they want to stay longer than 4 years.

ickglue · May 2013

@Oui

As a Cal Poly engineering graduate, I have to embarrassingly admit that I purposely overstayed my time at SLO because of my love for the school, San Luis Obispo, and my friends. I took several classes (Japanese cultural evolution from feudal to modern era, I loved the class) that are completely unrelated to my major and told my parents that I needed those classes for "graduation". I know this "overstay" is actually quite common and became a problem for the university.

As for the comparison issue, I agree that Cal Poly doesn't really need to be constantly measuring itself against other schools. Just being good on your own terms is already an achievement.

But I also want to note that I have seen frequent Cal Poly bashing (frequently related to UCLA threads) even if poster casually mention that Cal Poly is a good university in response to other threads. Due to the strong pride people have in Cal Poly, these denigrations attract very strong responses from CP supporters. I think Cal Poly has grown enough that it can feel secured regardless of what detractors have to say. Not every insult requires a blistering response.

But I also opine that there is nothing wrong praising Poly in this thread, given students and parents come here to actively seeking information for the school.

blueskies2day · May 2013

Ya the sticking around thing at Cal Poly can be perceived as a love for the school or just kids wanting to hang out and avoid responsibility longer, which is not a selling point. On here I read np getting classes, my dental hygenist tells me her son is bored and only in 12 units this semester cause that's all he could get. But I think the biggest mislead I ran across over and over was certain people stating their student had turned down UCB or UCLA or UCSD or Harvey Mudd or whatever for CP, when if you read their other posts, you realize they didn't even apply to those schools. They turned down simply being interested in them, very different than actually getting accepted. That's misleading and oversell. Evaluating and pontificating on the academics at another institution because they went on an hour long tour/open house is very different than going through the entire process (applying and getting accepted) where a lot of time is spent in deeper research to get to that final decision, or having a kid that actually goes to these other schools. In that case, they would actually know about it. This is a kids life and an important choice is being made, don't come off as an authority unless you really are, is what I am suggesting. Tell the real CP story without the uninformed bashing of some of the best schools in the country.

OsakaDad · May 2013

^^^

But I think the biggest mislead I ran across over and over was certain people stating their student had turned down UCB or UCLA or UCSD or Harvey Mudd or whatever for CP, when if you read their other posts, you realize they didn't even apply to those schools.

It appears that you are referring to me and that is troubling. My kid applied and was accepted to Cal Poly SLO, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCI (Honors), UCSC (Scholarship) and Cal poly Pomona (Honors). We attended the admitted students day or toured all these schools except UCI and UCSC. My kid also applied to Harvey Mudd, but it did not work out and we were very grateful for that due to the expense (over $55K annually which I most definitely could not afford). My kid had no interest in UCB and would not have attended regardless of outcome -- his choice. I am not giving false information nor and I misleading anyone on this forum. Cal Poly SLO was his first choice. Please do not make these accusations if they are not true.

I respect all these schools, otherwise my kid would not have applied to them. However, they were a mismatch for my kid and some left a less than favorable impression on us.

EVILteddie · May 2013

@blueskies You are acting like this is the only board on this site that oversells its respective school. Honestly I find it highly unlikely that students are basing their decisions based on the postings of strangers on a message board. You are over generalizing the decisions people make on their schooling, and often prestige is not the overall deciding factor on where they want to go.

slolearner · May 2013

@ blueskies2day Say what you want. For lots of different reasons not every kid wants the experience offered by the UC system. That is surely no knock on the UC's, they offer an excellent education from Berkley to Merced. A casual look at the grades & test scores for incoming Cal Poly freshmen and the same for the UC freshmen show a fair amount overlap. It is likely that each and every engineering student at SLO was or would have been accepted to one or more of the UC's. I have had the privilege to meet hundreds of Cal Poly students, not one of them has expressed any regret for making the choice to attend SLO. The diploma from SLO will get a kid hired just as fast and for essentially the same amount of pay as a UC diploma. Again, no knock on an excellent UC system. Five or ten years after the ink is dry on the diploma, prospective employers will be shifting their gaze from the school name on the diploma to what the applicant can do to strengthen their business. Cal Poly grads are adding muscle to business all over California, quite a lot of muscle. You’re lurking on the Cal Poly CC blog and talking smack about SLO won’t change that.

BusyMei · May 2013

Cal Poly already surpasses most UC's and has stats for entering freshman similar to UCLA, UCSD and UCB.

There is no doubt that Cal Poly is a desirable college. But I also agree that I feel there is an oversell from some in the forum and when I attended admit day this year. My son was deciding between Cal Poly, UC Irvine and UC San Diego. We toured all 3 and I only felt the oversell from Cal Poly. My son also passed up on UC Berkeley which he was accepted.

It is fine to show that you like your/your student's school. But it is not good for students and parents who are trying to learn about various schools when mis-information is given.

Following link has freshman profile for 2012 for all the UCs. I don't know if the 2013 ones are available but they are probably similar.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/index.html

Cal Poly freshman profiles are below UCB, UCLA and UCSD.
They are similar to UCD, UCI and UCSB.
They are above UCSC, UCR and UCM.

slolearner · May 2013

@ BusyMei You are correct about the freshman profiles. We know that those profile stats use a single number to represent thousands of kids in different schools and departments at each campus. Obviously there are some students at Cal Poly who were also admitted to UCB, UCLA and UCSD. There are a number of reasons to choose Cal Poly over these schools as well as other UC's. Putting forth the things that made students choose Cal Poly over the UC schools is not "oversell" in my opinion. You are not likely to find a discussion of those topics on any of the UC threads. For some kids Cal Poly is the preferred choice. This thread should be a place to discuss those topics.

kschall · May 2013

OsakaDad, I love your posts!

ickglue · May 2013

@blueskies

You said, "Ya the sticking around thing at Cal Poly can be perceived as a love for the school or just kids wanting to hang out and avoid responsibility longer, which is not a selling point. "

Overstaying during my undergraduate days is a personal choice of mine and not the university's fault. It was not meant to be a selling point. Not sure why you thought that. You are right on about avoiding responsibilities, that was pretty much my entire goal at that point in my life at age 21. I enjoyed sitting out at Pismo beach or Dexter lawn sunning myself and looking at girls a bit too much, doing all that while hanging out with my Poly pals. But it's okay, I grew out of that. I am productive member of society with a paying job now.

@blueskies and also Busymei

As your assertion that Cal Poly students were just window shopping UCs but never applied/accepted. The admission data for CP would pretty much rule that out due to the high degree of symmetry between mid-tier UCs' admission requirements and Poly's. I read somewhere that UC Davis' highest cross-admit school is SLO, and vice versa.

As for oversell, my take is that this thread is sort of like a Cal Poly showroom hosted by happy customers of Poly. So if they don't share their happy experience with other prospective clients here, I don't know where else. I know it is the exactly same for my graduate school's thread. Students, parents, rave about my graduate alma mater ad infinitum.

So if you want some undiluted raw reviews of Poly, you can go to UCLA, UCSD threads (more so UCLA, SD/SB/Davis people are mellow, and UCB mostly doesn't care either way). I have read plenty of unbiased feedbacks there.

jamestg · May 2013

@blueskies- I too see very little bashing of other schools, with your posts as the exception. I'll back up osakadad's "real" experience.

My son, a freshman Computer Science major at SLO, exceeded every category of the freshman admin stats for all UCs, including UCB. He visited every campus in which he was interested, before he even applied. He didn't apply to UCB because he didn't like the campus vibe or size. So, these were his results.

Early Decision declined for Stanford. Declined at CalTec. Waitlisted UCLA and University of Chicago, and I certainly would not put UCLA at the same level as Chicago. Accepted by UCI- Honors, UCSD, LMU - Honors, Chapman University- Honors/Chancellor's scholarship. Every other private school, to which he applied, offered him acceptance with significant scholarship dollars.

He re-visted his top 5 during their respective accepted students day. CP was the last campus we re-visited. At the end of the day, walking back to the car, he said to me and my wife, "Looks like I'm a Mustang."

So, yes, there are some UC-worthy kids who knowingly turn down "better" schools to attend at SLO.

BusyMei · May 2013

@slolearner
Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion. College is a very personal choice. Most students I know are happy with their college choice. I am definitely not disagreeing that Cal Poly is a good college as I stated in my earlier post.

The only reason that I posted was in direct response to a quote which I included at the top of the post.

Cal Poly's freshman profile surpasses 3 of the 9 UCs which truly is not most UCs.
Cal Poly's 3.98 gpa is not similar to UCB's 4.16 gpa.

I am only sticking to the facts, not opinion. Please there is no need to be defensive or insecure.

engineerisme · May 2013

Well I am a happy freshman at Cal Poly SLO in computer engineering. I was accepted at UCSD, UCSB, UCI and Cal Poly Pomona. SLO was the last one I toured and within 30 minutes of stepping into the campus I was sure this was the place for me. So don't say that those of us that accepted SLO did it because our stats were not good enough and we just dreamed about the other schools. That is not true. If you hate SLO go hang out on a different board, we will not miss you.

ickglue · May 2013

Cal Poly 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007
GPA Average 3.87 3.84 3.84 3.81 3.78 3.71
ACT Average 27.1 27.0 26.8 26.3 26.1 25.5
SAT Composite* 1231 1226 1215 1202 1200 1183

UCSB 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008
GPA Average 3.91 3.91 3.92 3.85 3.84
SAT Composite* 1852 1846 1832 1801 1781

*out of 2400

Future of Cal Poly

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