<p>I know CalPoly is great, but how does it stack up to some of the top 20 for engineering? On USNWR CalPoly often outranks Olin and Harvey Mudd in MechE, EECS, and so forth, but it is often perceived as much less prestigious than those.</p>
<p>My friends often say that Cal Poly is below my league (I am ranked 1/500 with 4.5, 1460 CR + M SAT) not to be arrogant or anything, but will I find it academically challenging?</p>
<p>You sound arrogant.
Read what you wrote.
On USNWR CalPoly often outranks Olin and Harvey Mudd in MechE, EECS, and so forth,…will I find it academically challenging? </p>
<p>Frankly prestige has nothing to do with you finding a school academically challenging, nor will it have to do with the strength of a particular program. I can bet the average person on the street isn’t even aware of harvey mudd, yet prestige to them might be any school with a great basketball or football team.</p>
<p>If you’re really smart, you could be the one out of six people who graduate from SLO in 4 years. Most people seem to take 5-6 years
and many don’t even finish! Depends on what you’re looking for, right?</p>
<p>Let’s see… you want to study engineering, and you’ve identified a school with top programs in many sub-disciplines. How do you think Cal Poly-SLO got to be considered a good school? Was it because it was not academically challenging, or because it turns out well-prepared entry level engineers? What am I missing here?</p>
<p>Outside of engineering, it may not be as prestigious as other places your peers are considering, but outside of impressing your non-engineering neighbors in the future, there isn’t a downside to going to a good school and getting prepared for your future career. If you want prestige, you can go to TooGoodForYou U for grad school.</p>
<p>So, if the other pieces fit (size, location, cost, etc.), you’d be foolish to rule it out for its relative lack of prestige. It’s not MIT, but with VERY few exceptions, you’ll be just as well off there as any other school. Once you reach a certain level (which MANY engineering schools do), you’ll be fine with your education, and it’s better to make your school decision on other factors. If prestige is one of those for you, so be it.</p>
<p>I think it’s a fair question. The peer group would certainly be very different at MIT, Caltech Mudd, Olin. and there is a significant difference in job and internship opportunities. Poly gets bright kids from CA public schools, but not the super achievers from all over the world the top schools do.</p>
<p>Throw in the CA budget crisis and all of the cutbacks at CSUs, if you have the opportunity to attend one of the elites, I’d take it.</p>
<p>Cal Poly’s mantra is “learning by doing”. It is an excellent, challenging school for the type of student who wants a hands-on education. For the type of student who is excited and engaged by designing and building a power supply (the first-quarter project in IME), Cal Poly is an outstanding school. For students who would rather study theory than get their hands on a circuit board, Cal Poly would not be the right school.</p>
<p>I have anecdotal evidence that Cal Poly engineering graduates are in higher demand for entry level positions at high-tech companies than UCB graduates. They can step into a job and be immediately productive.</p>
<p>The difference is that most grads of the elite programs do not take typical engineering jobs. About a third of every MIT class has been going to Wall Street with many more going to management consulting firms at considerably higher salaries than the average engineer makes. Many of the tech companies also have groups they only hire from the top schools for that do their leading edge development projects.</p>
<p>So really, we’re comparing apples and oranges when we look at Cal Poly vs. the elite engineering programs. Both are excellent at what they do, but they do different things for their grads.</p>
<p>who cares much about rank when Olin is FREE – or it has been, but with their endowment declining. OTOH, yes, SLO is a great school. Mudd’s a great school for someone who wants the suburban LAC experience – don’t choose it for prestige. If you are instate, you have a high probability of UCLA and probably Cal-Eng.</p>