What are /sci/'s thoughts on state schools?
It's a familiar argument. Could it be better to go to a state school and bust out an engineering degree for 20k a year than to go to a university for 2-3x the dough, but have research opportunities and generally smarter peers? It's a question that still bothers me. I'm in California where there are some pretty good state schools (pic related) but even then, a state school is a state school.
I'd appreciate your input.
>>7906752
Picture is cal poly slo, if anyone's wondering.
>>7906752
I'm in CA as well and I'm going to assume by "state schools" you mean Cal States and not the UC system which has many top engineering programs.
I think a lot of this depends on how well the programs are regarded. Most Cal States aren't particularly impressive but SLO for instance has a good reputation in some engineering fields.
I definitely fall into the camp that thinks the quality of your peers can be hugely important and the UC's can have a big advantage here, this isn't to say there aren't some very good students at even mediocre schools though.
Research opportunities can be a mixed bag. You'll definitely have more prestigious research/advisors at UC's, but I wouldn't be surprised if you might have an easier time doing research as an undergrad early on at a Cal State vs a UC.
You also have the issue of what your plans are after undergrad. If you want to graduate with minimal dept as quickly as possible and join the workforce Cal States might be the better option. UC's will look better on grad school apps though.
If cost is a big concern you could always do what I did and go the CC route before transferring. Nothing beats that from a cost perspective but you have to be willing to deal with the hell that is CC for a few years.
Is this a dilemma you're currently facing?
>>7906752
Why in America everyone must live in the school?
>>7906752
>generally smarter peers
you mean richer peers.
I'm not american so you can just go ahead and spend half a million dollars on a degree that you'll fail to get after 4 years, simply because you missed a payment or something.
University of Michigan has the best nuclear engineering program in the country..
>muh ivy league
UG doesn't really matter much, depending on your field and whether you're born into the academic elite or not. Also, it makes a pretty big difference whether you're considering being an academic or getting a traditional career.
It is the graduate schools, and medical schools/residencies that really matter when it comes to getting a job.
>>7906973
It has been shown that university executives and investors treat the 'university experience' as a good to sell. Students are there to spend, basically. That is how Harvard's CEO has a salary of 300 million dollars a year.
If you owned a food business imagine how profitable you would be if you had a large group of people just live inside your offices and therefore their closest means of food acquisition is your own restaurant. That would be the easiest business to run.
Therefore you keep your students inside your buildings. Everyday you sell them the idea that they are the best 'Yale da best yo! Yale 4eva' and then you have them live and spend inside your buildings, making you more money.
It is the perfect business, which is why there are now a lot of for profit schools like Harvard. There are millions to be made.
>>7906976
$ talks.
>>7906973
generally it is only enforced for the first year, sometimes the second. only the sperg masters lived on campus year 3 forward.
>>7907035
I agree with this. I know a kid who went to a community college for two years, transferred to a state school for 2, got a masters from Syracuse, and then went to medical school at SUNY Upstate, and got the Mayo Clinic internship and ended up doing his residency there. I also know a kid who did UG and medschool at Harvard, and got shit offers for residency, because he thought Harvard would carry him, and he just dicked off the entire time. Of course this is anecdotal and should not be taken as empirical fact, but it does occur.
>>7906973
It took me a second to realize what this meant but I spat my coffee out laughing
>>7907040
look at the top engr schools, there are a lot of excellent state unis.
>>7907047
I completely acknowledge this. My point was more about research being conducted at private schools, but I stand by the assertion you may be questioning as a general trend.
>>7907063
I have, but to be completely honest I don't think I can stay focused and not suicidally depressed in that environment long enough to transfer well.
If its relevant, I got into pic related, cal poly slo for engineering. It's between that, UCs or perhaps CC as you've suggested.
Also one of my concerns is getting to work so I can suck as many dicks as I can, being an engineer. I'm not sure academia would be right for me.
>>7906752
Cal Poly is high tier. Cal State vs UC will make much less of a difference if you are studying a traditionally difficult subject, like mathematics. Where the Cal State System really sucks is in the non-hard subjects. In a G.E. class at a UC you will have to work hard and you will learn. In a G.E. class at a Cal State you will just have your time waisted.
>>7907095
What part of CA are you from? I grew up in the Bay Area and had a coupe of buddies go to SLO and they absolutely loved it. It's probably the most college town like place in CA and being so near the coast is great.
I work in aerospace now and have a couple coworkers who went to SLO for engineering and they have nothing but great things to say about their time there.
Of course if you have to choose between SLO and something like UCB/UCLA then it might be more difficult. If you're planning to go right into industry SLO vs a UC won't make too much of a difference as long as you have your shit together.
And I agree, the CC environment is absolute hell. It's not worth it unless you're sure you can stay focused or you have no other good choices.
>>7907118
Los Angeles area.
Thanks for the input. And since you mentioned it the choice is almost certainly not going to be between SLO and UCLA/UCB...getting into SLO was a fluke already, so I'm not expecting anything from them.
Are Flagship schools considered to be state schools? State schools are often regarded to be shitty quality, but aren't alot of flagship schools pretty good?
>>7906752
CSU system is shit.
State vs private is arbitrary distinction. Research is what matters. See Pacific University Oregon for an example of an old private school with shit quality.
UC Santa Cruz is a much better school than that, and UCSC is just a small research uni owned by the UC system, which is government funded.
Ignore people who care about state/vs not state. Pay attention to research and job prospects.
>>7906752
I support state schools but re-introducing the actual requirements. Have to literally be retarded to not get accepted to most state universities and half of them don't do interviews so they let in the worst kind of students.
State schools are good for people like me who don't have the cash or will to drain 100k into a degree vs like 20-25k overall. Yeah the facilities might be lesser but they're usually sufficient to get the job done.
>>7908790
Correction: most of the CSU system is shit.
I mean to say that I have heardany horror stories for San Jose state, SDSU, and a number of the even less popular schools.
Cal poly slo is probably going to be fine.
>>7906752
OP Im currently in SLO studying EE and from what ive heard from other UCs that arent la or berkely is that the engineering department here is really good at getting there students to find jobs almost right after graduating. I can't say much for other departments but i know CS majors pretty much land jobs even before graduating. The math department here is pretty good everything else is meh, minus architecture and ag major ( the majors that give cal poly a reputation). Having said that there some problems i have with this school, and that is mainly due to registration and housing. If you attend here, you will at some point get fucked by registration and this can add up to a year to graduate also housing is competive as fuck and not worth the stress involved in finding a place to live. Although as a freshmen youll be gauranteed a place to live your first year after that its up in the air.
>>7908750
Varies wildly, to be honest. I graduated from Mizzou and now attend Illinois. The quality of education through coursework, faculty research, and general academic opportunities is much different.
(Not to knock on Mizzou, it's better than you'd expect for a 'state school' in Missouri--just not necessarily huge hard sciences focus.)
>>7908896
Thanks. I'm in for EE as well, and I'd especially value what you can tell me about the difficulty of getting classes.
>>7908896
Damn son, you need to learn to type correctly. That being said, SLO is a great school, and gives potentially better results in terms of graduate adjustment to professional work than my university (UC Berkeley).
>>7907052
state schools conduct just as much quality research as private schools. which means, conversely, there's just as many private schools that have shit research groups as there are public.
private schools (read: GOOD private schools) have advantages that public schools can never have, of course. but if you think it's related in any way to quality of education or research, you need to drop that incredibly naive high school mentality and start actually LOOKING at programs
>>7908911
For EE, if you can register for classes when they fall on your flowchart you'll be ok. The main problem you will face is the limited sections that are offered on off quarter classes. if you happen to fail a class or not be able to take one on the quarter its shown on the flowchart and have to retake it in another quarter, good luck. Sometimes they wont open up any sections for that class in some quarters and if they do you'll more than likely be taking it with a shitty teacher(if you can even get the class). Sorry im on my phone and cant be arsed to check my grammer, hope you understood what im saying
>>7908932
So no failing. Got it.
How successful were/are you at getting technical electives you wanted?
>>7908940
Ive given up on trying to get tech electives and decided to do a math minor for the lulz, i still have another year plus 2 quarters to finish the tech elective requirements
>>7908943
Is it that bad, or are you just really feeling the math?
>>7908958
Its not that bad i just wanted to do a math minor, besides most of the EE tech electives you wont be able to take till your done with EE 308 which will happen your junior year. Im not sure how fucked tech electives are to get but i know that if your a degree progess is 60% or higher they shouldn't be that hard to get. This is becuase polys new regestration system is based on how far along you are in the program. The higher the percentage completed in your degree the earlier the registration date. This is why incoming freshmen will now get screwed over there first year here unless your coming in with mad AP credit.
>>7908993
Fortunately I should be entering with most relevant AP credit possible, with the exception of a 5 on chem. I'm suspicious that even physics C E&M will go far though.
>>7908994
I think you'll be ok if your coming in with AP credit. You may not get the class sections you want but you should still get some major classes your first year here
>>7908994
Not the EE guy but
those AP credits will definitely lighten the load. If you haven't already, check the AP/IB test score credit chart for the relevant school year you'll be entering.
As for registering proper, as an Arch major I am always fucked during registration. We're a five-year program, thus putting us always a bit behind others in terms of degree completion, which is what puts you ahead in registration rotation priority.
And it's because people in other majors like to take it easy a lot and not take many classes too soon that specific classes that need to be taken by many majors are overloaded at once.
Lazy people bring down the system. You might want to max out but others don't, and you all pay for it later.
That said, because EE is four year, you don't have it as bad. Just, come registration time, never wimp out and take anything less than 17 units unless there is absolutely no chance of you getting relevant courses.
>>7909001
*or should I say, never take anything less than all you can manage. Never 'take a break' until the classes start thinning out.
17 only applies to a few, my mistake.
>>7909001
Yeah definitely take this anons advice, ive been able to coast through this year with 16 units ever quarter and i could say for us EEs 16-18 units is very manageable. Always try to stay on flowchart and if you can get into other needed classes dont shy away from that oppurtunity even if it means crashing those classes
>>7906752
fuck i wanted to go there so bad but couldnt afford out of state tuition fuck my life
>>7907118
WAfag here, my high school was basically pipeline to Cal Poly since it was a cheap cali school compared to UCs, i havent heard a single bad thing about it man. For reference i got to UW where everyone is cutthroat as fuck and everyone is a goddamn edgy liberal.
>>7909009
>And I've heard arch is hell...horror stories about bringing sleeping bags to project desks and not leaving a 50-foot radius for three weeks
ive heard its a meme tier degree? not even as good as Construction management? what gives?
>>7909009
Arch is hell.
But Arch can also be love, and life.
Haven't exactly slept well (some of my friends haven't slept at all this past week) and the excuse isn't that I slack off.
Wake up, eat, work, sleep, with maybe thirty minutes of downtime every day. I love every second of it, but it definitely isn't for everyone.
>>7909032
'Good'.
The individual's perception of what is good in life largely determines Architecture's worth.
It's not like engineering where people automatically assume it's 'good' because you are doing work and getting paid well.
Good, as in well paying? Good, as in useful to the world? Good, as in holistically worthwhile?
The answer is different for everyone. What I will say is that those who fail in Arch usually switch to business (ie. absolutely failures) or CMs, which I will call more practical.
