Initial (kinda) Thoughts on Cal Poly

Hrm, so today is Tuesday (almost Wednesday) and I’ve finally mustered up the effort to write about my thoughts concerning my trip to Cal Poly over the weekend. I am slightly disappointed that I did not have a computer over the trip so I can recall all the different emotions and ideas I thought of while still fresh in my mind. But o’well hopefully I still remember most of my points.
I’ll stary off with the social thoughts about Cal Poly. The campus on paper is very much similar to Davis. Both agriculture schools, yes – I smelled cows in both places, that later became pretty good engineering schools (copied from an e-mail from one of the UCD professors). They had similar weathers (hot as hell), and they pride themselves on being a “college town” (yet that remains to be seen in Cal Poly, but more on that in a bit). Also similar, was the parallel in my trip to Cal Poly to my trip to Davis. Both consisted of a group of: me, my two parents, and my two aunts.
Let me say right now that I did not enjoy Cal Poly in a social manner. Firsly, I did not really “feel” the campus. While walking around on my tour of simply walking aimlessly, the entire thing felt more like a family vacation than any educational trip. I somewhat think that my aunts seemed to be a greater presence this time around, whereas in Davis they were actually separate from me a majority of the time sitting/drinking coffee. This time around, it definitely felt like they were on my ass the whole time. Perhaps the most annoying part was when all the family seemed to be checking in on me while I was having a conversation with one of the professors. We had been talking for quite a long time, around 30-40 minutes and it was clear that my family were tired of waiting. While I too was somewhat tired of talking with this guy, I was perhaps more annoyed that my family would not allow me to really capture the educational value of this school. So in essence, to reiterate, I did not feel at home. I could not picture myself as a student on campus and it just felt awkward a lot of the time.
Perhaps an addition to the awkward feelings is the campus’ physical presence. As a CSU, I think the campus is simply smaller. They probably have much less funding and their buildings are all really squished together, or simply, they just have less students and faculty. But regardless, it felt small, and I felt confined. The worst part for me was the constant presence of cars and large roads and intersections. Looking back, I thought I would love to go to UCLA because it was straight inside of a metropolitan city. Being a city-boy, I loved that aspect, and detested schools like Davis or Cal Poly because they were so nature-ey. I’m not sure what changed my mind – or when – but now more than anything, I seem to want that “college town” feel. I really enjoyed the campus setting in Davis. Where the campus itself is closed to cars and it’s just a little community inside. In Cal Poly on the other hand, I felt like everywhere I turned there was another fat street with cars whizzing by. I don’t like that.

I guess I’ll touch a bit on weather too. It sucks. I had some pretty heavy allergies actually, which could be a bad sign that the trees in SLO are worse than Davis. But whatever. Both cities suck; it’s way too hot. However, I would think that SLO is better since it’s so near the coast, but people say all that stuff about Davis having 4 seasons and how it’s pretty cold/rainy in the winter.

Now turning toward the education side of things.. During the beginning of the open house in the auditorium, one of the first things that came up was years to graduation when the dean said “and for the engineering kids.. well we’re never quite sure with you guys.” I did not think too much of it at first but as I went to the CS discussion panel, a few questions regarding graduation time was brought up. I did not know that graduation in 4 years was so much of an issue at cal poly. At Davis, this was never brought up as an issue. It was obvious that it wasn’t even a few select students, pretty much everyone needed more than four years. I definitely see this as a negative for cal poly (which I guess I’m showing a lot of in this blog…). I don’t want to spend more than 4 years. For one, it highly distrupts my chances for graduate school or a job after school. Many companies have the hiring cycle where they recruit new graduates. A majority of students graduate in 4 years in June. Many companies start hiring then. Also, I would think that graduate admission works similarly to undergrad and that a specific time slot is needed. More than 4 years really hurts that too.

I’ve heard from the beginning that Cal Poly was a great school in that it incorporates labs into every class and thus, students have a lot of hands-on coding and application of the stuff they learn in class. Perhaps UCD teaches the same crap and everyone is very talented, but from the presentations at Cal Poly, the kids really knew their stuff. They showed this one project of people building mini-satellites to launch up into space, they work in conjunction with NASA. They also showed off a bunch of student made projects and things they’ve built. It’s probably that I’m just a huge n00b right now, but being able to do all that stuff is just like.. wow. But I guess that’s just what college in general does for you, it teaches you these things. Anyway, regardless, Cal Poly really showcased a good array of skills and I was thoroughly impressed. I’m not really sure what else I want to add here other than it really seemed like Cal Poly taught their students well. I feel really bad for leaving such an important section so… blank, but I really don’t know what else to write about. So that’s all for now.

So looking back at what I just wrote for the past page and a half, it seems like I really hate Cal Poly. I mean, I like it, I think they do an excellent job teaching their students, probably a much better job than UC Davis does. But iono,