California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo Top Questions

I would say that Cal Poly is very open and friendly. There are many opportunites available to students and the professors are very open to helping you. The "hands on" approach also makes Cal Poly unique. Many of my classes have been interactive, project based which adds to the traditional lecture learning style.

Personally, Cal Poly offered me a chance at an education that rivals renowned engineering schools, such as MIT, for less than half of the price. I'm getting a top tier, hands-on academic experience that will prepare me for a career directly out of college. In addition, San Luis Obispo is known as "The Happiest Place in America" according to Oprah. It is a beautiful, nurturing environment that allows students to experience a college town in a location that has so much to offer outside of the classroom.

The size, area and strength of the school with regard to Engineering, SLO is the best fit for me.

Cal Poly has a great marching band which is cool because not all schools even have a band at all.

We have a motto 'learn by doing' and this makes our learning experience unique because we experience our future work field which makes us more prepared for the actual work environment that we will be in after graduating.

Cal Poly is unique because we pick our majors before attending school and begin major courses during the first quater of school.

The school feels a lot like a little community within the San Luis Obispo community and yet is still a big part of the city's community.

The "learn by doing" philosophy is what makes Cal Poly, professors allow students to learn by doing labs and not by studying someone's else research from at textbook. We also have a lot of office hours and such a happy community of students, facutly, and community members.

Although accepted into UC's such as UCI, UCR and UCM, I chose to go to Cal Poly because of their hands on experience. The school's motto is discere faciendo, which is Latin, translates to "Learn by Doing." Not only did the learn by doing motto capture my attention, but also the engineering/math department. It seems as though UCI's math program is not as well known as Cal Poly's. Also, Cal Poly's business program is well known. I hope to become an Actuary; the business and math helped my decision to choose Cal Poly.

Agriculturally centered.

There are so many opportunities for hands-on experiences. Within the Animal Science department, pre-vet students get to work with animals more than a lot of veterinary students do in the first 3 years. The experiences give us the opportunity to learn about different careers in Animal Science, and give us the chance to discover what we are truly interested in.

Has unique ties to industry and many resources are available that many schools do not have. Also, San Luis Obispo was ranked happiest place in America by a study.

There is an extremely active community surrounding Cal Poly. Most of the students ride bikes to school and hike on the weekends. With this type of atmosphere and my love for the outdoors it was easy to make friends. Cal Poly is enviornmentall conscious and encourages students and community members to be as well. There was no other school on my list that was 10 minutes from the beach, 3 min from multiple hiking spots and offered my major. It is not every day that we get to live in one of the happest places on earth.

There are many outdoor activities, the school gives a good education and is well known by many businesses but does not cost as much as a private school or university. I was also attracted to the moto "learn by doing" becuase that would mean hands on learning which (to me) meant a quality education. The area is beautiful, the people were nice, and the town feels small.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a smaller school where students benefit from small classroom sizes, namely the ability of knowing professors on a first name basis. Since my first visit, I have noticed that every student is enthusiastic about being at Cal Poly, and everyone is welcoming. As a transfer student looking for on campus housing, it was refreshing to find that Cal Poly offers a transitions program. This program puts all transfer students looking to live on campus in the same appartment style living complex. I am thankful to be living with students in similar situations.

Multiple family members are alumni of Cal Poly. There is a strong Christian community here. It prepares students for real-world work instead of simple academia.

This one is in the beautiful hills of San Luis.

It is in a beautiful location, and a very safe campus enviroment

Cal Poly has a very positive reputation as a good school, and my academic experience really reflected this.

Cal Poly takes a learn-by-doing approach, which is different than a lot of other schools. Instead of just sitting in lectures, a lot of classes include hands-on labs, discussions, and in-depth projects. It's a good way for students to get an idea of what their career field will be like when they graduate.

For my particular major, Cal Poly offers the number one architecture program in California; that however is not all , Cal Poly is in a small typical college town and the general environment is very homey and comfortable which makes for a smooth transition into the college life.

The motto at my school is "learn by doing" and it shows, everything I learn in class has a paralleling activity with real life situatuions and data.

For in coming freshman, I will always recommend them staying in the dorm for the first year to meet the people that will be your base friends for all of your college experience. I would join as many clubs as possible and use what ever resources are available if needing help with studying

Its an agricultural school located 10 min from the beach

good history of getting graduates jobs, overall academic reputation, small town

Ev eryone is very friendly and down-to-earth with common goals of being successful in college and after graduation. The surrounding town is beautiful and in a smaller town than I grew up in which made for a nice change.

Cal Poly is a small school with a great student to teacher ratio that allows teachers to be able to interact with students on a one to one relationship. The teachers pride themselves on their accessibility as office hours are plentiful and helpful. The students may even request appointments from teachers outside of their office hours. It really differs from a lot of these schools with simply large lecture halls where students are nameless numbers .

its in a small college town that completely centered around the campus. the whole town supports campus life.

It's philosophy is learn by doing, so everything is very practical and helps to train you in your field. For engineers this can mean actually learning programs and building things, for accounting concentrations this can mean doing taxes for students in a certain tax brackett, or for liberal studies (elementary teaching) this can mean actually being in a classroom. These experiences put Cal Poly grads ahead of most of the competition.

Cal Poly is a polytechnic school. Very hands on and has a learn-by-doing motto. Most of the professors have industry and career experience and are not there to just do research. We have very small class sizes. It's in a small coastal town.

Our school is very focused on engineering and agriculture. We are located in an amazing environment and have very unique people around us every day.

There are tons of labs and practical industry-like assignments. The work load far exceeds that of my friends in the same majors at other schools.

Cal Poly SLO is a unique school compared to most other California colleges in that it is a small town. There is a strong community of college students and families that live in SLO. It is also convenient that we can get around town without relying on owning a car. The bus system is very useful and bicycles are also very handy.

Cal Poly gets you started studying in major from the first day. To me, getting right into what interests you was very attractive. The whole "learn by doing" aspect also drew me to the school. With a more practical major, like engineering, I liked how the teaching wasn't all just theory, but actually allowed the students to learn be seeing and experiencing what they were learing about. The relatively relaxed attmosphere and the enthusiasm of the professors also drew my attention. There is something here for every interest and every personality type. Cal Poly is amazing!

Cal Poly is unique, because of its strong academic standing in the slightly-less-expensive CalState System (as compared to UC). It has smaller class sizes and a much heavier focus on hands-on experience; hence its motto: "learn by doing".

Great downtown and great weather. Really inexpensive to attend for what you are getting acidemically.

Our school is unique because it is a very very small town. The population of San Luis Obispo is 40,000, while Cal Poly has 20,000 students. It is a really cool place to live because it is a true college town, diversity of ages is slim.