UCSD vs Cal Poly SLO vs UCLA

eyemgh
Thu, 23 Mar 2017 23:46:24 +0000

There aren’t many ABET accredited nuclear engineering programs for undergrad. Twenty-One to be exact. So, as you’ve done, plan on grad school. You need a graduate degree to get meaningful work in that field anyway.

As for school, I’m a big fan of Cal Poly for the reasons you cited, and my son’s experience as an ME from out of state has confirmed that. Classes are small. Most professors care about their students and the quality of their instruction, although like all schools, a few do suck. Its location is great and the community is nice.

He had similar stats (most MEs will since it’s one of the most competitive admits at Poly) and lots of APs. He utilized his APs and dual enrollment credits as efficiently as possible, skipping out of freshman english, chemistry, physics I, calculus I and II and several GEs. He’s had an occasion or two where he was waitlisted, but he started back when registration was on rotation and there wasn’t seniority based on degree process. He still won’t graduate early.

The issue isn’t as much about class selection as it is about the sequential nature of the curriculum. He’s way ahead. In fact he’s taking his first graduate class this spring and he’s a junior. It’s Design sequence and Senior Project and all the classes stacked up in front of them that make it hard to finish in less than 4 years. His approach was to take advantage of the 4+1 and have most of his masters done in 4 years.

This will be a problem at any engineering program. The basics are set out by ABET and there’s no way to cut them short. They are very cumulative.

Good luck in your quest.