Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo...Possibly The Happiest Place in America

Back in December I attended was invited to visit CaliforniaPolytechnic State University – or Cal Poly for short. While I’ve visited a good number of colleges on the west coast, I have never visited the central coast of California and was eager to learn why the city of San Luis Obispo is nicknamed the Happiest Place in America (not to be confused with this place, which calls itself the Happiest Place on Earth.

Getting There: This was definitely an adventure. San Luis Obispo has a tiny airport and there are no direct flights from the east coast.  You can connect through San Francisco or Los Angeles and take a prop plan into SLO or, if prop planes make you nervous you can connect through Phoenix.  I opted for a connecting flight in San Francisco and upon landing in San Francisco I learned that my flight had been cancelled due to bad weather in other parts of the state. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I rented a car and drove down the coast from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo. If you have never been to the west coast I highly recommend making the drive at least once. I've lived my whole life on the East coast and the beautiful geography of the California coastline never ceases to amaze me (mountains and beaches and more mountains and more beaches – the scenery is truly breathtaking.

The University: Cal Poly is a public institution (part of the 23-campus California State University system, not to be confused with the 10 campus University of California system). The student body is mid-sized for a public institution at 19,703 and houses six undergraduate colleges (Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences, Architecture and Environmental Design, Business, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Science and Math. Students apply directly to a major and admission criteria varies from college to college so it’s important to study up on all of the programs before applying!

The Campus: Wow, wow, wow! The campus is self-contained, residential, and walkable. Best of all, it is filed with palm trees, surrounded by mountains (I snapped photo after photo of the palm trees and the mountains…it is so different from our geography on the East coast), and a short jaunt from the ocean. The facilities are fantastic and include state of the art and modern engineering, business, and science facilities. The fitness center, complete with an outdoor rock climbing wall, is among the nicest, most student friend, and best equipped fitness centers I have ever toured.

Seeing the stables that are part of the School of Agriculture was such a treat for DC counselors!

There is a working dairy farm at the School of Agriculture - part of Cal Poly's Learn By Doing philosophy. 

Outdoor pool at the fitness center with a beautiful view. Yes, you can swim in the outdoor pool in December!

The Students: Cal Poly’s guiding philosophy is “Learn by Doing” and we heard this again and again from the students. The curriculum focuses on real world application and Cal Poly students are doing projects and presentations and internships and are so actively engaged in their programs of study. I heard so much about academics and studying and research that I was beginning to worry that they didn’t have any fun (this is definitely not a party school!).  I should not have been worried because the students I met were eager to share about their lives outside of academics. When they are not studying or interning, students venture into San Luis Obispo which has a very lively and beautiful downtown area with shops and restaurants and things do to (a smaller and more family friendly version of M Street – with palm trees – have I mentioned the mountains?). I would describe Cal Poly students as “outdoorsy” so they also spend time hiking and exploring the amazing coastline, horseback riding (you can “borrow” a horse and take horseback riding classes on campus or you can board your own horse in the stables on campus).  Apparently it is not unheard of for a student to ride a horse to class (you won’t see that at Boston College!). The beach is also a popular destination and I learned that Cal Poly is one of the top “surfschools” in the country. Greek life is also popular and those over 21 sometimes venture into the nearby wineries (Cal Poly offers a degree in Wine andViticulture). Obviously there is plenty of fun to experience! And because I get this question all the time, the student “uniform” seems to be jeans and cowboy boots or workout pants, a t-shirt, and flip-flops. The students are hard-working but laid back California casual in their appearance (no J Crew or Sperrys or otherwise preppy attire in sight!)

Who Should Consider Cal Poly: If you are adventurous enough to consider colleges on the west coast please look beyond UCLA, UC Berkeley, and USC! If you like those colleges, you will like Cal Poly. If you are looking for a top Engineering or Architecture program, look at Cal Poly. They boast some of the strongest programs in the country in both fields. If you like UC Boulder but are worried about the size, think of Cal Poly. If you like the idea of hiking and biking and warm weather year round, this is your school!

Thank you to the wonderful admissions staff at Cal Poly for an amazing visit and wonderful hospitality.

Published by: TSM

What’s a Nittany Lion? I traveled to Penn State to find out!

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Pennsylvania State University to learn exactly what a Nittany Lion is and to check out their awesome campus located in State College. Penn State has 24 different campuses in cities across Pennsylvania and their largest campus is called University Park, which is located in the city of State College. University Park is home to 46,000 undergraduate students, including 11 current Visitation alumnae! The campus is an easy 3.5 hour drive from the DC area and there is so much to see…..

My first stop was to take a selfie with at the Nittany Lion Shrine. 

It is a tradition for students to pose with the Nittany Lion on graduation day. The word “Nittany” comes from the Algonquin word Nit-A-Nee meaning “single mountain.” The original inhabitants of the area used the word to describe one of the mountains near the campus, which was at one time populated with mountain lions (not anymore!) After checking out the shrine, I drove to see Beaver Stadium, which is the second largest college football stadium in the country and seats 107,000 people. I can’t even imagine how exciting it would be to see a football game there- the stadium is massive and fills to the brim on game days.

Walking around downtown State College, I was amazed to see so many shops and restaurants. The downtown area is directly across from campus so it was filled with students at lunch time. There are plenty of places to pick up your requisite Penn State gear!

Approximately 13,700 students live on campus and all first year students are required to live on campus and are guaranteed housing. The campus is easily walkable but I passed lots of buses, which would be great on particularly cold days. Even though there are a lot of buildings and dorms, it is not that hard to walk from one end of campus to another.

Penn State offers more than 160 different majors, which are housed in the different academic colleges. One of the most well-known academic colleges is the Smeal College of Business. The business school building has state of the art classrooms and a trading room, which allows students to experience hands-on, real-time analysis of financial markets and manage an actual investment portfolio through the Nittany Lion Fund. 

Inside the Smeal College of Business

While Penn State does offer some large classes, 85 percent of first-year classes at University Park have 50 or fewer students. As students being to take courses in their specific major, classes get even smaller.

No visit to Penn State is complete with a trip to the Berkey Creamery. In 1892, Penn State began offering America’s first collegiate instruction in ice cream manufacturing. The Creamery sells over 2.5 million ice cream cones each year and it features a wide array of unique flavors.

YUM

 I tried the Berkey Brickle, which is vanilla ice cream with a caramel swirl and pieces of peanut brickle- it was delicious! Thankfully, I was told in advance that you are only allowed to order one flavor of ice cream- you cannot mix and match. The only person that was allowed to order more than one flavor at a time was President Clinton during a visit to campus in 1996!

University Park has so many resources available to undergraduate students.  

Student Union. And Actual Students.

Home to one of the biggest research libraries in the country, as well as the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center, which is the largest multi-faith centers in the country, and the student union building that has offices for the more than 900 various student organizations, it is clear that everything is done on a bigger scale at Penn State! After my visit, I can definitely understand why our students love the university.

 Published by: LP

Class of 2016 - here we go!

Today is the first day of second semester and that can only mean one thing....high school seniors are relaxed and high school juniors are:

A. Excited to begin the college process!
B. Counting the days until spring break.
C. Wondering why took so many hard classes this year.
D. All of the above.

Hopefully the answer for the Class of 2016 is A. The college process officially begins with the first day of College Counseling groups tomorrow. In preparation, juniors should check their schedules, and be sure to:

1) Read pages xiii - xxiv. in our class textbook The College Finder (available in our bookstore).

2) Bring your i-pad to class fully charged with the Fiske Guide app downloaded and ready to go (Mr Haller sent this to you back in October.)

It's going to be an exciting semester!

Published by: TSM

O-H-I-O!!

The Buckeye State: home to eight US presidents; the first man to step on the moon (Neil Armstrong); and currently, 22 Visi grads are there attending college! 

This year nine Ohio colleges visited our department to bring us news of interesting things going on at their school.  Word is out, Ohio schools have a lot to offer in the way of academics, sports, travel abroad opportunities, and campus life, so check them out!  The number in parenthesis reflects the number of Visitation graduates currently on campus:

University of Dayton, Dayton, OH (6)

Denison University, Granville, OH

John Carroll University, University Heights, OH (3)

Kenyon College, Gambier, OH (1)

Miami University, Oxford, OH (10)

Ohio University, Athens, OH

The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

The College of Wooster, Wooster, OH

Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH (2)