Definitely embrace the independence. It will serve them well once they are in college.
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Cal Poly’s Open House this year is April 12th.
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Cal Poly Student-Led Walking Tour:
I have one of each. Last year my DD23 let me have full access (which I accepted with open arms). And this year, my DD24 did not…which seems to be healthier, but boy do I wish I had it!!!
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I know that CalPoly is a good school. But why is it that it doesn’t have the same name recognition that even UCSC does? And secondly, it is not even listed in the US News National Rankings. Any idea why?
Its is in the US News rankings for regional school. #1 in the west. I don’t know how they determine what is a regional school but cal poly doesn’t have doctoral programs, maybe this is why.
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I’m not sure that it has less name recognition than UCSC does.
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Yes, @mmkkmmkk is correct that it does not offer any doctoral programs so it is not listed in the National ranking.
Personally, I am not into rankings since there are so many different variables used by each ranking agency so you have to look at their specific methodology.
Regardless of ranking, SLO is a great school.
This is correct. Cal Poly SLO doesn’t offer PhD’s. From US News & World Report:
Schools in the National Universities category offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and Ph.D. programs.
Regional Universities offer a full range of undergraduate programs and some master’s programs but few doctoral programs.
If you look at USN&WR’s other rankings, Cal Poly is ranked highly for schools that do not offer doctorates https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo-1143/overall-rankings.
@ram_w Other rankings that don’t have this arbitrary classification issue, include Money Magazine 5 Star colleges: Money Magazine rewards 34 colleges with 5-star ranking which has Cal Poly SLO in top 34 with UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Irvine.
In case historical data helps: SLO has released the majority of admissions emails mid-March (3/14 to be exact in 2023) for the last several years. Thereafter, those who do not hear are slowly informed in waves whether they have been admitted so all is not lost after the first major release. I do not believe they send any decline emails in that first major wave. Be sure to check your email spam folder as the acceptance email has been known to land there.
I think that a big chunk of the USWR ranking criteria is what some collection of bean counters thinks about other universities research programs. CalPoly is not a research university and is therefore not part of their stream of consciousness. On the west coast at least, anyone that matters (i.e. hiring managers) knows what CalPoly is about.
Here are the timelines for 2022 and 2023. In general, there is a large admit wave followed by waitlists about a week later and then a week after waitlists, denials are posted. Between the waves there could be a few admits and waitlists.
2023: Admit wave with IS and OOS on Friday March 10,2023. Trickle of admits reported March 17-24 but not confirmed. Portfolio admits March 24 along with waitlist decisions posted after 6 pm. Denials posted on Thursday March 30. 2023.
2022: Cal Poly SLO admit wave started on March 10, 2022 with a mixture of OOS and In-state applicants. Waitlist decisions posted March 18, 2022 along with a few acceptances. Admits for students requiring a portfolio review trickled out on March 24, 2022. Denials were posted on March 30, 2022.
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Is a school (like CalPoly), which does not offer any PhD’s or conduct research, actually better in terms of teaching? Would the professors give more time and attention to actually educating undergrad students, instead of running after research grants? What has been the experience of students who have attended CalPoly ? Does anyone know?
The focus of CSU faculty is on teaching and not research, although many campuses have world class researchers too. Because of that, the classroom experience at a CSU could be better but not limited to SLO.
This is very much student dependent and what you are looking for in your Undergrad experience.
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If you care about smaller class sizes, CSU/CalPoly will be a better. I don’t think CalPoly even has a 300+ seat lecture hall.
There is some research at CalPoly, but the institutional focus is on delivery of teaching rather than research. Also, CalPoly distinguishes itself in that in addition to a lecture component, most classes have an associated lab/studio. That is where the “learn by doing” teaching philosophy comes from.
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The only folks it doesn’t have the name recognition with are folks who haven’t done their research on schools for certain majors. Folks here in CA who are aware of the strength of the school rank it up with the top UCs.
I’ve only had one parent make a comment like: “if my daughter doesn’t get into UCSD for mechanical Engineering, SLO is her backup school”. I had to explain that SLO is nobody’s backup school and some kids who get into UCLA, UCSD, UCI, and UCB don’t get into SLO.
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My current college junior got rejected at SLO and accepted at Cal, where he is now. He applied in Biomedical engineering.
Edit: he was accepted to all UCs but waitlisted at UCLA. Rejected at SLO.
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Does admissions automatically go to the 2nd choice major for admissions? My daughter applied Psych as 1sr choice - which is 2%. Curious how that works?
Last year, our neighbor’s son got into Stanford and USC (with scholarship) but rejected at Cal Poly (applied for Philosophy I believe). The valedictorian of my D’s high school last year was rejected from Cal Poly but accepted to Stanford (pre-med/Bio). The thing is that Stanford, UC’s, USC, etc, take more into account about the applicant (essays, some take SAT/ACTs (not UCs), Letters of rec (not UCs), etc) so it is baffling and mysterious to know the algorithms used by Cal Poly since they have much less subjective data about an applicant.
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No, SLO admissions does not automatically consider the alternate major. SLO states “you may be considered in your alternate major if space is available”
Alternate major admissions happen more with College of Engineering students whom list another College’s major as an alternate. Example: ME applicant gets into Physics instead.