Schools like Cal Poly SLO?

Corbett
Fri, 10 Nov 2017 04:29:40 +0000

I’m not too enthralled by research and besides that there’s little else they offer for engineering.

It’s not a secret that UCs put more emphasis on research, while CSUs (including the Cal Polys) put more emphasis on undergraduate teaching.

For example, in 2016 the Cal Polys issued more than 10 undergraduate degrees in ME for every graduate degree in ME. The ratios of undergraduate:graduate ME degrees were as follows:

12:1 Cal Poly SLO
13:1 Cal Poly Pomona

UCs put more emphasis on research, which typically means more graduate students, and so they generally have more even ratios:

1:1 UC Berkeley
1:1 UCLA
2:1 UC San Diego
3:1 UC Irvine
4:1 UC Davis
4:1 UC Santa Barbara
4:1 UC Riverside

Not too surprising. But now look at the following number:

10:1 UC Merced

Looks a lot more like the Cal Polys, doesn’t it? It may be that in 20 years, UC Merced will have the same research focus as other UCs. But they don’t have a strong research reputation yet. For now, Merced is still primarily focused on undergraduates.