Expert: Paul Soderman - 5/4/2009

Question
Hi Paul,
My son, who is graduating from high school this June, has been accepted at San Jose State for aeronautical engineering,is on a waiting list for Cal-Poly, but was not accepted at UC San Diego, which was his first choice,even with a GPA of 4.2 and an SAT score of 1920. We are having a hard time deciding if it is better to go to our local community college, De Anza college, for a couple of years and try to transfer into UC San Diego, or just attend San Jose State, which my son thinks is not as good a school as UCSD. Have you any words of wisdom you could send my way which might help us decide?
Thanks
Brian

Answer
Sorry Brian - I have little personal experience with San Jose State or UC San Diego engineering schools, though my son studied English at UC San Diego and loved it.  However, I have worked with professors and students from Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo and found them to be first rate.  One thing your son could consider is entering San Jose State and getting two years under his belt before transferring to another school.  I am sure that would be a more rigorous experience than the JC experience.  And most engineering schools offer basic science and math the first two years anyway - all programs at that stage are pretty similar.  I spent two years at Oregon State U. and transferred to U. of Washington my junior year and only lost credit in one course.  I later did graduate work at Stanford and found that OSU had better teachers and Stanford had better research professors, which is good for graduate students.  There are many paths to a career.

Best of luck. Your son has good choices and we need engineers for the challenges ahead.
Paul