California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo Top Questions

What do you consider the worst thing about your school? Why?

Isabel

The fact that I cannot have a car on campus. I am trying to apply for jobs in order to create an income for myself so I can apply for apartments off camous next year; however, without having a car on campus it is very hard to get to and from a job.

Isabel

The fact that I cannot have a car on campus. I am trying to apply for jobs in order to create an income for myself so I can apply for apartments off camous next year; however, without having a car on campus it is very hard to get to and from a job.

Alexandra

I am not sure, I haven't started yet.

Ninon-Claire

On the outside there is a lack of ethnic diversity. However, the students come from a wide variety of backgrounds that helps.

Lindsay

If you're looking for diversity, Cal Poly is not the best choice. Cal Poly's students generally consist of white kid from upper class families. It can make it difficult to adjust for people from ethnic minorities and for people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Kathrine

While I love my school, I would say the worst thing about it is the fact that they are increasing the amount of incoming students. It is getting annoying that the library is slowing getting too small and that I now have to search around the UU for a good table. I wish the University would look at how much public space we have and how a larger incoming class sie would affect that.

Nancy

The worst thing about my school is that everyone there put so much pressure on you when you don't know your major. It is really annoying and they make you feel bad if you are not sure about what you want to major in. I felt like if I attended another school, or community college, people won't make a big deal out of it.

tyrone

The worst thing is probably the amount of work one is required to do to get a good grade.

Jazmin

The limited food selection on campus is one of the worst things about CalPoly.

Nicholas

The worst thing about Cal Poly is the campus dining plan. As a freshman living on campus, the school requires you to pay for a dining plan. The problem is that the food is overpriced and generally quite unappetizing. It seems strange to me that a school so agriculturally based would not take advantage of that and provide quality food that is locally grown. Instead, most of the food they serve arrives frozen. However, this is not a reason no to attend Cal Poly. After your first year, you have the freedom to choose your own food.

Ashley

The worst thing about this school is registering for classes. Most classes fill up within the first week of registration and then students have to crash classes afterwards. It makes it really difficult to get a good schedule with the classes you want to take and makes it a little bit harder to graduate on time. I felt lucky that I was usually able to plan a good schedule and that I am graduating on time. However, registering for classes has always been a stressful time.

Hilliary

Just like most schools, it is sometimes tough to get classes you need due to budget cuts and less class availability.

Nick

The Campus dining plan/food

Melissa

The worst thing is the difficulty all students have in getting the classes they need. Class sizes are getting smaller and smaller, and less sections of classes are being offered. Not getting the classes one needs prolongs one's degree, and often times, this results in many students taking longer than four years to graduate.

Claire

The worst part is the scheduling. Classes are offered starting very early and very late at night and not necessarily available at optimum learning times due to lack of professors.

Amy

it is not very diverse or liberal. many students are white and come from upper-middle class backgrounds, so they are not open to learning about new lifestyles

Steven

The worst thing about this school is the quarter system. The quarter system really requires students to stay on top of their schoolwork. If you fall behind in your studies you will have a very hard time catching up. The classes move along very fast because students learn what most schools teach in a full semester in ten weeks which requires a very fast pace. However, the fast pace is manageable if the students stay on top of their assigned work.

Sharon

The food served in the dining areas isn't as good as what I'm used to eating at home.

amanda

the worst thing is having to declare your major before applying and how difficult it is to change your major once you are attending the school.

Alejandro

Once you fail or miss a class in the scheduled rotation, you have just put yourself behind in graduating on time.

Matthew

The worse thing about Cal Poly is that it is extremely "hilly" and very spacy. The campus is very spread out and walks between classes can become extremely lengthy and arduous.

Chris

The worst thing about this campus is the furloughs that professors have to take, it causes our education to suffer.

Eduardo

There are several things I dislike about Cal Poly SLO. The worst thing about my school is its lack of ethnic and cultural diversity, I often feel out of place in SLO. Another thing, is the lack of classes available to the us, the students, in order to graduate on time. Lastly, the lack of affordable housing on campus.

kristine

only thing I did not like was the drinking aspect of it. Too much was allowed

Aaron

The town is small and if school is not in session then there is very little to do. It's beautiful in the surrounding area but can get lonely if you aren't busy.

Ashley

I would consider the worst thing about Cal Poly to be how low in diversity it is. The largest population of students are caucasian and they take up almost 80{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the school. And then Asian and Latino come in next. I feel that people go to college to be exposed to different ideas and different cultures and with very little diversity students miss out on that.

Joseph

the administration

Kendra

The major focus at CalPoly is degrees in Ag Business and Engineering. While they do offer degrees in many other subjects, these represent an extremely small portion of the school's population. However, being a technical school the Ag and Engr degrees make sense. Also, their organization is somewhat lacking. I don't know anyone who hasn't had at least one (usually multiple) administrative problems with wrong grades, classes not being dropped on time, registration holds for reasons not applicable to the student, etc.

Laura

Lately there has been some criticism about certain groups not being tolerant of other's beliefs and opinions and I think this goes hand-in-hand with the lack of racial diversity on campus. I think more diversity and/or understanding of different cultures would help elievate this problem.

Kristine

Students will sometimes take things too far.

Quinn

The quarter system and high expectations are sometimes very hard to handle.

Brett

I have entered the engineering school at SLO. Although they warned us of the work load, they didn't tell us that the freshman/ sophmore classes were designed to weed out most of the applicants. It is so hard. Everyone tells us once we hit the junior/senior year it is actually ....easier.

Christopher

There is alot of hate on this campus because it is not very racially or culturally diverse.

Jason

I find that the worst thing about my school is the lack of school spirit and rivalries. We do not get very excited over our sports teams, nor do we have strong rivalries between nearby schools. This is mostly due to the fact that we do not have other universities that are close by, UCSB being a 2 hour drive south and UCD being a 3 hour drive north.

Grant

How far away from home it is because I live amost 12 hours away from school and only have the money to make it home twice a year.

jeff

The dean, he is very very very conservative. He is a good man but i feel like he holds cal poly from being one the biggest universities on the west coast

Danielle

The worst thing is how some students waste the opportunity available to them.