California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

This school is filled with arrogant, snotty white people who all think they are so cool because they got into this school. The school only accomodates engineers, and the engineers think they are the only significant people who go to this school. The administration is awful, they do not make you feel welcome whatsoever and put holds on your account every single quarter. There is so much hype about the jobs they get you outside of college but it does not provide a good college experience whatsoever. People only want to hike and get blacked out drunk every day and the campus is not attractive whatsoever. There is no school pride at all, and the sports are awful. The Greek life is small and does not provide the feel of an actual college experience. Overall this school is a waste and you're better off going to a uc where you will get a real college experience and still get a quality education that will provide you with a quality job after undergraduate.

1st Year Female -- Class 2018

Faculty Accessibility: A, Individual Value: F

CalPoly's faculty is average at best. I transferred here from a community college that had a higher ratio of PhD's and pioneers in their fields. I had always heard that CalPoly had an excellent reputation for academics, and maybe that's true in their engineering and agriculture programs, but if you take any other classes here, the professors are very hit-or-miss. Most of them are tenured, and extremely apathetic. Expect to be taught entirely from an outdated textbook. Learn to regurgitate what the professors want to hear. Creativity is not a virtue here.

My main complaint with CalPoly is with the administration. I had to submit my transcripts to them 3 times because they kept losing them. When I transferred out, I had to request my transcripts from them numerous times because they couldn't be bothered to send them out. Every term that I was here, they put a hold on my registration for some irrelevant nonsense, such as claiming that they needed copies of my vaccination records even though I was over 24 and didn't live on campus, and therefore should have been exempt according to their own catalog.

During the Summer 2004 term, they raised the tuition rates 2 weeks AFTER classes started, and then threatened to kick out every student who didn't pay the balance. We all had to pay up, since they had us by the balls. Then they did it again a week later.

I transferred out in Fall 2004 and was given conflicting information regarding how to drop my classes; I was told to fill out the green form at the window, turn it in to the bursar, and that would be it. 6 months later, I started receiving mildly-threatening phone calls regarding an unpaid balance there for tuition. I told them I had transferred out and had filled out the green form, as instructed, only to be told that "there is no green form, and never has been." That took several more months to resolve, and I still ended up having to pay a part of the balance, all because they have no idea what they're doing.I could go on and on, but let me just sum up by saying that CalPoly's administration is by far the worst of any school I have ever encountered. Expect everything to take 10 times longer that it should. Expect to pay every administrative fee twice, because they will constantly "lose" your payments.

1st Year Male -- Class 2008

Surrounding City: B, Faculty Accessibility: F

All of the classes are supposed to be taught by professors and 99% of them are. This is very nice because you have teachers who know their field teaching all of the courses.

However this also leads to the problem that the school requires every teacher to teach a lower division course every year. Many teachers, especially when teaching support courses, act as if the class is a waist of their time. Most treat the students as nuisances and some are outright hostile. Since support courses are 40-60% of your classes any given quarter this can lead to a very bad atmosphere.On the plus side, when professors teach the upper division courses they really enjoy them.

3rd Year Male -- Class 2011

Collaboration/Competitive: A+, Individual Value: D-