California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo Top Questions

Please add Cal Poly Pomona to your schools list.

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If you go to office hours then professors will recognize your efforts and help you a lot more. The GE classes can be difficult but I have met some of my good friends in these classes. Cal Poly prides itself on its academics and all the students are very dedicated and challenged to succeed. The classes are hard but all the work you do pays off in the end. It also depends on your major. For example, a business major has a harder time getting to know professors because the department is larger but it depends on how invested the student is in connecting with the professor.

Professors in smaller classes always know your name, but I even have a teacher for a lecture of 200 students who knows and remembers many of the students' names. Professors at Cal Poly are really helpful, especially if you go to see them during their office hours. One thing I love about Cal Poly is being surrounded by such brilliant minds. It takes brains to get into Cal Poly, so most students are intelligent and motivated to do well.

I believe at Cal Poly that your major dictates a your academic life at Cal Poly. I am a history major, at a school focused on engineering and math/science. Engineers therefore study far more than I do. I still have a fulfilling experience. I learn so much from strong teachers. Being the smallest major, my classes are small meaning my teachers get to know me by name. I have loved every single history class I have taken. The majority of my study time is in my GE classes. These classes are tougher because they aren't my strong suit. The classes are also larger, so I don't get that one on one time with teacher like in my major classes. I believe the GE classes at Poly are tough and require studying. Major focused classes are easier in work load, but because we are more interested in them. I love learning at Cal Poly. My teachers make it fun and interesting.

One of the great things at Cal Poly is that the class sizes are much smaller than at other universities. I generally have 40 kids in my classes so the professors get a chance to learn your name and its easier to get to know your classmates. Students are competitive but the grading schemes most professors adopt can balance out course grades. My major is Aerospace Engineering which is a smaller department at Cal Poly. The professors are extremely knowledgeable. At the same time there is a lot of individual effort expected of the students. Once students get into core classes teamwork is a big part of the academic experience. The most unique class I've taken is probably an experimental aerodynamics lab where we use the Cal Poly wind tunnel in our testing. The education at Cal Poly is job focused following the learn by doing motto.

Academics at Cal Poly, SLO are very, very good. Students are challenged in every class, and Cal Poly's "Learn-by-Doing" philosophy is great for teaching students real world scenarios and actually preparing students to go out into the world and start a career. Many classes at Cal Poly are relatively small, and I have been in only one class where the teacher did not know everyones name. Even in my art class first quarter of freshman year, my teacher knew everyones name, and there were 100 students in the class! Also, Cal Poly is on a quarter system, so each class is only 10 weeks long. This seems intimidating at first, but really it just helps students to stay involved academically because midterms occur after only a few weeks, and it really isn't that hard to keep up with classes if you just keep in mind that school comes first.

Cal Poly SLO resembles an educational institution that prides itself on offering the best education not only on the West Coast but in the entire nation. With its superior engineering program and up-and-coming business/industrial technology program, Cal Poly SLO is continuing to attract more and more students with outstanding high school resumes. The future for Cal Poly as a profound university is looking bright and competition to receive admission into this university will only get more difficult and demanding.

The curriculum here is challenging. Since we're on the quarter system there is a lot of information to squeeze into a short period of time (ten weeks), and if you miss class or don't stay on top of your reading and other assignments you fall behind FAST. The administration recommends studying 25-35 hours a week outside of class, and although I think that's a little exaggerated (at least if you're taking the standard 16 units per quarter), you will have to put in more work than just cramming the night before an exam. Professors usually have 4-6 office hours a week and in most classes that aren't huge GE lectures, they make an effort to learn every student's name. All your hard work will pay off – you learn a lot. Poly's "Learn by doing" approach to education is evident in both general education and major classes, and it makes me feel prepared and excited to start my career once I graduate. So far, I haven't taken a single class where I don't feel like I learned something that's relevant to my future career – even when I, as a journalism major, had to take "Fossils and the history of life" as a GE last year. The professors really try to involve the students by having stimulating class discussions, and I'm constantly amazed by how much I learn just from listening to my fellow classmates. I wouldn't say that students at Poly are too competitive. We were all some of the best students in our grade in high school but that competitiveness doesn't really continue now that we're all pretty much on the same level. Some people are content skating by with a C average while others strive for A's and B's; how hard you want to work is an individual decision. There is a high level of stress among students, however, so people's psychological well-being may not be what it should be at all times. I'm not gonna lie: the journalism department is not the greatest department at Poly. There have been some faculty issues and last year we were unsure of whether or not we'd even be able to graduate with a journalism degree. Still, the classes are decent. Learning by doing is pretty much the only way to become a good journalist, so I feel like I will be competitive in my field once I'm done here. Cal Poly is not the best-known school outside California, but those who know it know that it offers an excellent education at a reasonable price. Its "Learn by doing" approach to education is evident in both general education and major classes, and it makes me feel prepared and excited to start my career once I graduate.