About Cal Poly

A - Z  •  Maps  •  Calendars  •  Directories

• About Cal Poly
• Make a Gift
• News
• Events
• Colleges
• Research
• Athletics
• Admissions

Loren Roberts

Kathy Sabine

Laura Diaz

Rick Sturckow

Robert "Hoot" Gibson

Mike Krukow

John Madden

Lisa Satriano

Welcome!

Cal Poly is a nationally ranked, four-year, comprehensive public university located in San Luis Obispo, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on California's Central Coast. It is a distinctive learning community offering academically focused students a hands-on educational experience that prepares them for today's scientific and technical world.

Postal Mail Address:
California Polytechnic State University
1 Grand Ave.
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
(805) 756-1111

Cal Poly Grads Get Jobs!

A Cal Poly education pays off. For the past decade, 89.2 percent of Cal Poly students report working full-time or attending graduate school within one year of graduation. A full 89.2 percent of 2007–2008 grads are working full-time or attending graduate school—70.2 percent are working full time, and 18.9 percent went on to graduate school. And 94 percent of those employed are in fields relating to their college degrees.

According to data on our 2007–2008 graduates, the most recent group surveyed, within one year of graduation:

Read more about our graduate statistics

The median starting salary for 2007–2008 grads was $52,000 a year. Grads from the College of Engineering led the way with a median starting salary of $60,000, followed by grads from the Orfalea College of Business with a median starting salary of $52,000 and grads from the College of Architecture and Environmental Design with a median starting salary of $53,000.

Cal Poly graduates are in high demand in the job market. A full 64 percent of the grads of 2007–2008 had job offers before graduation. Within three months of graduation, 86 percent of the grads of '07–'08 had jobs; by 9 months after graduation, 98 percent were employed.

Hundreds of firms recruit and employ Cal Poly graduates each year. Depending on the status of the national economy, Cal Poly hosts from 300 to 600 different employers each year through its on-campus recruiting program and job fair events, including Adobe, Deloitte & Touche, Gallo, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft...see our more complete list of employers.

back to top

Cal Poly Students Are the Cream of the Crop

Cal Poly's admissions process is a highly competitive one. 2008 was the fourteenth straight year the university experienced a record applicant pool: nearly 38,000 applications for 4,100 available spaces. Freshmen enrolled for the 2008 term had an average high school GPA of 3.78, average ACT score of 26.1 and average SAT score of 1200.

*SAT1: reading and math only

back to top

Nationally Known

For the 17th year in a row, Cal Poly has been rated the best public-master's university in the West by U.S. News & World Report, in its 2010 America 's Best Colleges guidebook.

Cal Poly moved up four spots from 10th to 6th in the magazine's overall list of the West's best universities, including both public and private institutions, that provide "a full range of undergraduate and master's-level programs but few, if any, doctoral programs." U.S. News ranks colleges that grant doctoral degrees, such as those in the University of California system, in a separate category.

Cal Poly’s College of Engineering program ranked third among public engineering programs, bested only by the U.S. Military and Naval Academies, for schools whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's. A number of College of Engineering programs ranked high in the Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs in their individual specialty categories. The university’s industrial and manufacturing, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering programs were each ranked as the top program at a public university in their respective specialty categories. Cal Poly’s civil and environmental engineering program was ranked the second best program at a public university.

Cal Poly ranks third nationally among public universities in a Forbes.com ranking of college campuses, based on a recent study that looks at earnings of alumni at colleges around the country.

Forbes.com says it bases its ratings on the salaries of college degree holders who have 10 to 20 years of work experience.

Cal Poly followed only Berkeley and University of Virginia in the public rankings, tying for the third spot with UCLA and UC San Diego.

According to the study, compiled by PayScale.com, Cal Poly alumni with 10-20 years of experience earn a median salary of $101,000, with 10 percent of the graduates at this experience level making more than $178,000..

For more information on the rankings and the study, go to the Forbes.com Web site

In 2009, Cal Poly's architecture program was rated as the No. 3 architecture school in the nation by the leading architecture and engineering journal DesignIntelligence.

Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences is consistently rated among the top agricultural programs in the nation in granting baccalaureate degrees to minority students. In 2009, the college was ranked No. 4 in the nation in granting agriculture degrees to Hispanic students, and No. 6 in degrees to Asian American students, and No. 7 in degrees granted to all minority students.

Cal Poly's architecture program was ranked fifth in the nation in granting architecture degrees to students of all minority groups, architecture degrees, to Asian American students, and architecture degrees to Hispanic students.

Read more about the 2009 rankings by the organization Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business is one of only two public universities in California to rank in Business Week magazine's ranking Top 100 undergraduate business programs in the nation. Cal Poly and UC Berkeley are the only public universities in California to make the list.

Thanks to the university's location on California's Central Coast, it enjoys some other rankings as well. Cal Poly ranked No. 3 in the nation in the 2009 'Top 10 Surf Schools' ranking by Surfline.com in 2009.

US News and World Report has ranked San Luis Obispo among its Best Places to Live in 2009. And according to the magazine, Cal Poly played a big part in the distinction. “Tucked into California’s sweeping Central Coast region is lovely San Luis Obispo ... Its warm, gentle climate, with temperatures rarely surpassing 90 degrees, is perfect for hitting nearby beaches or touring local vineyards,” reads the magazine’s story. “In addition, California Polytechnic State University, which is located in town, infuses the community with intellectual energy.”

back to top

Cal Poly Alumni Shine

Cal Poly now has more than 117,000 alumni living and working everywhere from New York to Washington D.C. to Wisconsin to Idaho to Hawaii to Hong Kong. Geographically, San Luis Obispo County has the largest concentration of Cal Poly alumni (14,479), followed by Santa Clara County (8,480) and Los Angeles County (8,454).

Prominent Cal Poly alumni include:

Cal Poly Alumni in Government

Cal Poly Alumni in Athletics

A Few Alumni Comments About Cal Poly:

"My years at Cal Poly shaped my life and my career."

"Ozzie" Smith
Class of 1977

"I have a special place in my heart for Cal Poly. The university's reputation for excellence is legendary."

Jim Considine
Class of 1968

"Cal Poly emphasizes educating the mind and learning by doing. Both are invaluable to architects, enabling us both to design and build."

Kenneth Rodriguez
Class of 1976

Contact Us

Last Update: 03/02/2010

California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
805.756.1111
Copyright © 2010 California Polytechnic State University
All rights reserved