CP SLO vs UCLA DECISION!!

ickglue
Sun, 13 Mar 2011 04:52:22 +0000

Have you visited both Cal Poly SLO and UCLA? They are very different schools with very different style and cultures.

You need to pick the one that gives the you most sense of belonging and comfort. Ultimately, you need to be happy where you are, because it will be for at least 4 years!

As for getting out of your ED bind with SLO, if you can’t afford the tuition, it is a valid excuse to exit from the arrangement. No one should go broke paying for school.

I did my undergraduate in EE at Cal Poly SLO and my graduate at Harvard, and I have 3 younger cousins who did their BS EE engineering at UCLA. We are all happy with our choice of engineering schools. 2 of them went on to get their Master in EE right after undergraduate in UCLA, then went onto work in engineering. From speaking with them, there is mainly 1 glaring difference b/w Cal Poly and UCLA, Cal Poly’s career placement center is light years ahead of UCLA. I think this accounts for the better career placement rate and higher starting salary in Cal Poly. But otherwise, both are great engineering schools.

So pick the one that you can afford and makes you the most happy. Don’t worry too much about the rankings.

The only caution I would give you is that Cal Poly is brilliant at 4 fields of studies: 1) Engineering, 2) Architecture (#4 in the US for undergrad or something), 3) Agriculture (#2 or 3 in the US or something), 4) Business. Should you decide to not pursue any of these 4 areas, go to UCLA for the academics.