College Day 2015 - Cal Poly Pomona
For College Day on Tuesday, October 13th, I visited California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, otherwise known as Cal Poly Pomona. I was fairly impressed with the campus, and I was surprised by how organized and neat the setup was for a rural campus. The "quad" included a square of various buildings for majors such as engineering, business and education, and the recreational and athletics centers were in one part of the campus. Before this tour, I wasn't exactly thinking about going to a rural campus, but I think I changed my mind after seeing Cal Poly Pomona. I really enjoyed seeing all that it had to offer, from the magnificent palm trees to the modern classroom buildings, and I was left feeling like I had gained a sense of what CPP was all about when it was time to go. As a whole, I thought College Day was a great experience, and I had a good sense for the institution. Below, you will find my "Pros" and "Cons" for Cal Poly Pomona, along with a slideshow of some pictures I took on the guided tour of the campus.
|
Pros
Cons
- Business Program - The School of Business Administration at Cal Poly Pomona houses the second-largest number of undergraduates at 4,703 students, which makes up 21% of the college's student population. I was able to look at the building to check it out, and I was definitely satisfied with what I saw. Since I want to go into business for both my future studies and career, this was a great sign for my impression of Cal Poly Pomona.
- Recreation/Intramurals - Cal Poly Pomona has a large, three-story recreation and athletics complex called the Bronco Recreation and Intramural Complex (BRIC). We were able to step inside the building on our guided tour, and I was amazed by the tall rock wall as I stepped inside the facility. I was also excited to hear that on the second and third floors there were multiple indoor basketball courts and a ten-lane track. Accessibility to fitness or athletic facilities is pretty important to me for college (I need to get my exercise somehow, right?) and I was happy with what I saw.
- Residence Halls - As part of the tour, we were able to step inside of a dorm room in the Encinitas Residence Hall, and it was my first time seeing a living room on a college campus with my own eyes. I thought it was an awesome setup; each side of the room had a twin bed, a desk and some school pennants. It probably sounds pretty basic to those of you who have already gone to college, but I just thought it was fascinating to see what the living situation looked like in person. In the residence hall we visited, there was also a game room and various flat screen TVs stationed throughout the room, which was a nice touch to the vibe.
Cons
- Too Much Diversity? - Don't get me wrong: I definitely want to go to college with diversity. We're not all the same, and I want that to be reflected in whichever university I decide to go to. However, I feel like Cal Poly Pomona geared a lot of their attention for majors and programs on kids from minority backgrounds. This is not a negative – in fact – it is a positive factor for the college. I just have to consider campus demographics, and where I am going to fit in during college. (Note: This explanation would more so follow under an "Observations" section than a "Cons" category, but I decided to place it here for the sake of the page.)
- Commuter Campus - We were told on the tour that freshmen who did not live within a certain proximity from the campus had to live in student housing, which is what I wanted to hear. However, it was mentioned that once you enter your second year of college, you are "kicked out" of residential housing. I would at least like to have the option of staying on campus for two years so that I could become better prepared to pay rent for my own place off-campus, which is not offered here. Most students at Cal Poly Pomona live in Orange County or the L.A. area, so this would not necessarily be a problem for them if they commuted from home, but it would be an issue for me. I can't exactly make the trip from Carlsbad to Pomona every day, so this would definitely be a downside of going here.
- Class Size - The average class size at Cal Poly Pomona is 35 students, which makes sense, since the school hosts 23,966 learners in total. I do want to go to a school with a medium or large student body in size, but I was not exactly thrilled to hear that the average number of students in a class was 35. Many big schools have small seminar classes and large lectures, but Cal Poly Pomona has middling class sizes of almost 40 students per class, and I don't know if this is ideal for me. After graduating from a school with an average class size of about 20 students, I would think I would want to find a school with a variety of classes.