UC Riverside Bourns Engineering vs Cal Poly Pomona Engineering

TB54
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:57:16 +0000

Disclaimer: I’m more partial to UC. I came from UCLA.

UC = More theoretical, huge classes, professor don’t really help, don’t help you find your job, more for graduate school
Cal states = More practical, smaller classes, professors help/teach, help you find your job, more for industry.

CPP is a commuter school. UCR is out in the middle of inland valley.

Choose the school you feel comfortable with ultimately.

CPP I feel produces sub par graduates. SLO on the other hand produces graduates I feel make good engineers. I’ve worked with some CPP civil engineering graduates (shoddy work, incorrect units, can’t do basic calculations). I find it funny that a CPP CivilE can’t pass the Civil PE whereas a UCLA ChemE can pass the Civil PE on the first attempt (mind you I had 3 weeks to learn CivilE whereas this CPP graduate had 3 months + B.S. in CivilE). In no way is this an accurate reflection of CPP’s student body, this is based on an individual.

However, in my experience I feel this is a good representation of UCLA versus CPP student body.

UCLA = driven, cutthroat, snooty, arrogant
CPP = laid-back, more friendly and easier to work with, not as apt at technical

(disclaimer: total ancedotal evidence but the admission statistics do show a difference [GPA/SAT/etc])

I have a friend (Stanford undergrad, UCSD grad) who use to be a recruiter for Fluor. He told me, we want people who are smart enough to not mess up the work, but stupid enough to not talk back and not leave us, hence why CPP graduates are great. Disclaimer: He eventually left Fluor.