Xatal

I’m going to take a quick break from posting about UCSC’s colleges to talk about something I found out today.

Before I decided to attend UC Santa Cruz, I switched back and forth between two majors: economics and aerospace engineering. I chose aerospace engineering as my major for the schools that offered it, and I chose economics for the others.

I applied to Cal Poly, UC Davis, and UC San Diego all under this major. Davis had guaranteed me admission into my first-choice major through the ELC program, but I figured just in case I didn’t get in, Cal Poly would be my alternate. UCSD I wasn’t sure if I would be accepted to, but if I did, UCSD would become my #1 choice for aerospace engineering.

Basically, Cal Poly was last on my list for engineering schools.

However, after reading this list about the 25 best engineering schools, I realized that Cal Poly deserved far more credit than I gave it — it’s ranked second, above such schools as Stanford and UC Berkeley. Cal Poly apparently is one of the best schools for engineering, by giving students the experience and tools to begin a new career in their field.

It really is important to look into schools before you decide. Don’t rely entirely on what you think, and don’t count out a school before you look into it. Research a school as much as you can. Read about a school online and ask around to find out how to really evaluate a school.

In the end, I decided that my best fit was at UCSC, and even if I had known this about Cal Poly my decision would not have changed, but what if I had overlooked some other important piece of information about another school? I could very well have ended up regretting my decision.