Hello, my son was accepted to both Cal Poly and UCSB as a Chemistry major. To our surprise he was chosen for a scholarship at Cal Poly that would cover most of the COA. It will also allow him to do research and have a faculty advisor.
He was also accepted at UCSB with honors, but we would be full pay.
His goal is to go into research, and has no desire to become a doctor or to teach. I would assume that he would need an advanced degree to do that.
He much prefers UCSB over Cal Poly. My questions are: Which school would better prepare him for a career in chemistry or are the differences (other than cost) negligible? Is prestige a factor in getting into graduate school?
I know this would be a no brainer if he was an engineering major, but I know nothing about the Chemistry departments at Cal Poly and UCSB.
Go visit and talk to the two depts, look at curriculum/flow chart in detail. They are both excellent schools–personally, can’t see passing up the money from CP over SB. Although SB is known for science–Cal Poly is still widely viewed as a great school across the board…
UCSB over Cal Poly any day for preparation in research. However, to prepare him for just a career, Cal Poly is better for that.
Prestige
Currently at Columbia for grad school and what I’ve learned from my professors is that if they didn’t go to Ivy League+Stanford/MIT/Top 10, no one cares about the school’s prestige or reputation in comparison to each other (unless one of their colleagues/someone famous in their industry is at the school and wrote a letter of rec).
To be honest, grad school matters more than undergrad when trying to get a research position, but application all relies on (in order of importance) Letters of Rec + Statement of Purpose > GPA > Test Scores > Where they went to school
@clairevoya My son is a Cal Poly SLO graduate with a major in chemistry. He participated in chemistry research at SLO since freshman year and was able to have two publications. He did research at SLO one summer on grant funds and two summers through REU at other colleges. Cal Poly prepared him well. He’s now pursuing his PhD in chemistry at an east coast college. Whether your son decides to pursue a career right after graduation or attend grad school, Cal Poly will provide an excellent education in chemistry.
MLM’s response is a good one. If you want to be hired into a research position in industry (research assistant, lab tech, etc), a BS from either UCSB or Cal Poly is fine–it is important to get research experience, and to be able to perform well on a technical interview. I have one colleague who has gone out of his way to hire CP SLO chem grads into research associate positions–he feels they are well-prepared to perform in the lab. Of course, chemistry is a field full of PhDs, and to go far you almost have to have a PhD (and usually a 2 year postdoc). As preparation for grad school, again, either UCSB or Cal Poly would be fine. I would say that if your son goes to UCSB and does research, he will get a better exposure to what graduate school would entail, and to see how things work at a major research university. But that’s not necessary. Once he has a PhD, it will be irrelevant in a professional sense where he went for his bachelor’s work. You are associated most closely with your PhD and postdoc advisors, then with the PhD and postdoc schools, and, very distantly, with your undergraduate institution (you might get a little nod if you did undergraduate research in the lab of a well-known prof).
Oh–and actually, I don’t think it would be a no-brainer for engineering. Cal Poly is (rightly) known for its engineering programs, but UCSB also has an excellent college of engineering-- the CS program is highly-ranked, and its material science program is the top-ranked program in the country.