<p>I work in San Diego as a manufacturing engineer. I have spent 2 years unemployed and looking for this job before I landed so I’m not quitting now, though I want to move on to bigger and better things in the future. I have just been accepted to Cal Poly Pomona into their MSME program. I have just spoken with the head of college recruiting at Northrop and he says that Cal Poly is “the cream of the crop”. My college tuition would be paid for through financial aid. So it’s FREE! Should I commute 2 hours to go there and 2 hours to come back to San Diego, 4 days out of the week to attend Cal Poly Pomona?</p>
<p>You seriously are nuts. That’s 2 hours assuming traffic doesn’t suck ass, which depending on the time it really could. If you could manage to leave SD by 5AM and leave Pomona before 3 or after 7, it’s managable, but not advised.</p>
<p>Wait, so you’re planning to commute for a minimum of four hours per day, four days out of the week and still work–which I assume is going to be full-time?</p>
<p>I’m sure some people have done worse, but it sure as hell won’t be easy or even enjoyable.</p>
<p>You should assume traffic if it is during rush hours. So tack on another hour if it is. The drive might wear you out with the traffic and all. If that is the case, it might accept your ability to perform at school and work.</p>
<p>Yes, a 4 hour commute… I should be OK with traffic if I take the 15. I get off at 3:30pm so that leaves me 2 hours and 30 minutes. I’d get there before 6pm which is when my class starts. Most MSME classes are either at 6pm or 8pm. I’m going to start off taking one class at a time and if I feel I could handle it, I’ll take more. Yes, I’m going to be working full time. I guess everybody agrees with everybody else that it’ll be a pretty crazy schedule. Well… has anybody pulled off something similar?</p>
<p>That’s nearly 1000 miles on your car… per week. Not only is that expensive in terms of gas (Especially with the price of gas in SoCal), but that’s going to be putting a lot of wear and tear on your car.
And that also means oil changes every 3 to 5 weeks (depending on if you’re on a 3000 vs 5000 mile oil change).</p>
<p>That’s just intense.
Major props to you if you manage to succeed.</p>
<p>That is a journey, but if your tution is free maybe you should look into dorming. If they dont have dorms and if you really want to commute everyday try to schedule your classes for only 2 days outta the week. I’ve done like monday wednesday all day or tuesday thursday all day.</p>
<p>If the tuition is free then you get a job in the Cal Poly area and live in an apartment or dorm while you attend school. For MS programs you can often get a job as a TA; talk to the dept and see what they can offer you. You should be able to earn enough for food and rent. It is just nuts to think of driving SD to Cal Poly Pomona every day; you’ll be too tired to study.</p>
<p>You seriously have to drop this southern California driving mentality. You’re investing time for your future so academics should come first. They have pretty nice dorms there and if you’re past your freshman year, they have brand spanking new dorms with little kitchens. Seriously, have you also considered the financial cost of commuting and the possibility of getting in an accident? Those costs by themselves, would more than offset the cost of living on campus, not to mention the lost productivity of at least 12 hours per week. Get a job near Pomona and you can crunch the numbers. You can’t be serious. Don’t do it. Otherwise, go to SDSU and save the world your greenhouse emissions.</p>
<p>If you tell people not to commute because they might get in an accident, do you also tell people not to walk because they might trip?</p>
<p>To OP, it’s a great oppurtunity, but jobs are very hard to come by. Have you considered starting to look for a job in that area now? You might start off commuting, but if you can find a job closer to the school, you’ll be able to move there once you have something lined up.</p>
<p>It’s going to be intense though. Good luck with what ever you decide on.</p>
<p>Not to mention, driving 4 hours a day does raise your chances of being in an accident. But yes, I believe, in an ideal world, that all people would have hovercrafts that could never let you get hurt; therefore, people shouldn’t walk 2 hours back and forth to school either.</p>
<p>I have been unemployed for 2 years. During that 2 years I have filled out 3000 applications. I have stalked recruiters at major companies like Northrop and Raytheon. I’ve been to 20 interviews. Most of which I’m not qualified for and I had to lie to get into. During the 2 years of unemployment I practiced interviewing everyday such that I now have a canned line that sounds natural to say to every question. I worked hard for this job. Entry level engineering jobs just aren’t avaliable right now. I just moved from LA to SD for this job. So, I have to keep this job and I can’t just snap my fingers and get a job in Pomona.</p>
<p>I’m getting paid $45,000/year for this manufacturing engineer position. My friends who got jobs before the recession hit are getting in the range of $65,000 with a bachelors degree. So I figure when I graduate from Cal Poly the recession should be over and entry level engineering jobs would once again be plentiful and companies have the ability to pay more. I’d get a $30,000+ raise in 2 years, when I finish my MSME. I just visited the Cal Poly campus the other day. It seems they put emphasis on their students being able to acquire good jobs as they have a wall full of businesss cards from their engineering graduates.</p>
<p>I’m going to drive Pomona twice a week and take one class to begin with. If I decide I could take more I’ll add. The commute will be 120 miles from work to Pomona and 100 miles back to my apartment in La Jolla. My mom is also concerned with me being in an accident if I were to drive that much but I drive a Honda Pilot, which is pretty safe but sucks up a lot of gas. Yea, I would rather spend the $500 I spend on gas on a shopping spree at the mall and spend my time picking up girls. I guess this is what they call an investment.</p>
<p>I’ve considered SDSU. It just doesn’t have the recognition that Cal Poly has in their Mechanical Engineering program. I have already gotten 3 of my undergrad professors to write letters of reccomendations for Cal Poly Pomona. I feel I’m pushing it by asking them for more letters of reccomendations so I can apply to SDSU.</p>
<p>Thank you guys for all your input. I’m going to take 1 class to start and I’ll be driving 2 days out of the week.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to make such a big deal about the “accident” aspect, but driving and walking across a street are statistically some of the most dangerous things you could do. The more one engages in it, the more likely one is to get in an accident. That being said, congratulations for both getting into Poly and getting such a good job in this sucky economy. Cal Poly Pomona is probably better than SDSU in engineering, but probably not by that much and yes, you would loose a year if you decided to make the switch. I would suggest, as others, that as soon as you get to Pomona, start asking faculty about job opportunities in the area. CPP has the innovation village on campus, which is basically a cooperative between the campus and private employers such as NASA, SC Edision, and the Red Cross. You may be able to find a job there. If not, maybe you can keep commuting, but since you’ll be going there for a while, don’t stop on your job search. Eventually, you should be able to find something and hopefully live in the area or on campus. Good luck… </p>
<p>No, I had not made up my mind and all of your input as well as my friend’s input have made me decided that I should go to CPP and take 1 class, 2 days a week. I thought about this for a week straight and considered all of your guy’s posts. Thanks for helping out.</p>
<p>Coincidentally being in an accident was the first thing my mom thought of when I tossed her this idea of commuting to CPP everyday. I will definitely be looking for jobs in LA.</p>