When most people think of California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo, they don’t think liberal arts, but the college of liberal arts here at Cal Poly still has a lot to offer. The liberal arts majors offered are art and design, communication studies, English, ethnic studies, graphic communication, history, interdisciplinary studies, journalism, liberal arts and engineering studies, music, philosophy, political science, psychology, child development, anthropology and geography, sociology, theatre arts, and Spanish. According to the Cal Poly admissions website, the acceptance rate in the university overall was 29.3% in 2022, and the population total of first-time first-year students who arrived last fall was 5,100. For the college of liberal arts specifically, 30.8% of 11,032 applicants were accepted, contributing to the CLA (college of liberal arts) being one of the smallest colleges on campus. I spoke with first-year students from a variety of majors to find out how they are liking their programs so far, and if it appears that the size of the CLA is impacting our studies and opportunities.
For starters, I am a first-year English major myself and want to include my own insights on the program so far. I want to become a high school English teacher in the future, so after my bachelor’s degree I plan to move on and get a single subject teaching credential, which I know Cal Poly offers as well and there is advising available on how to prepare for that program. My major and the strength of the program here was not a major factor in my college decision, until Open House 2022 where I attended a breakout session and heard from multiple professors and faculty members within the English program. I remember being convinced by their passion for the multiple facets of the English major (and the amazing views on campus) that this was the school I wanted to go to. While that initial excitement is definitely something I have to remind myself of, I have definitely continued to enjoy my major since arriving at Cal Poly. There have been various hitches, like a huge ton of reading assignments that I have yet to master the art of getting done on time, and facing doubts about whether I am cut out for the complicated concepts of language and literature, but I think that these struggles and doubts are to be expected with most college students. The passion that I have for my major is still going strong, and most of the self-doubt I have dealt with has been quickly melted away by engaging lectures and interesting studies. A majority of the English professors I had this year have been extremely insightful and brought a great presence to their classes. The total of English professors that I have taken classes with is only 4, but this means that I have many more professors to meet in the future. I look forward to getting to learn more about Cal Poly’s English program in the coming years and meeting more people within it. I have only been familiar with a small portion of what the program has to offer and I am confident that even though there will be certain drawbacks, I will continue to be impressed by Cal Poly’s English program and the people within it.
To get more information on Cal Poly’s journalism program, I interviewed Leila Touati, a first-year journalism major and news reporter for Mustang Media Group. She enjoys the small class sizes within her major and the fact that she gets to know many other journalism majors and gets one-on-one time with professors. While noting that she feels (like most CLA majors) the journalism program could benefit from a boost in funding or building renovations, Touati definitely had much more positive comments to make than negative. The program benefits from professors who “all want to see you succeed” and regular emails from the department to students about registration tips as well as notification of upcoming journalism events, scholarships, and local employment opportunities. As a last note, Touati’s message to prospective students considering journalism was that many large state schools all have great journalism programs, but that what is more important to success is “your own drive and passion for journalism.” Touati also advises joining Mustang Media Group and to apply for a job as early as during the summer before arriving at school.
The first-year that I spoke to from the Graphic Communication program was Ashlee Kiner, who had great things to say about the program. Kiner has enjoyed meeting and learning from professors and mentioned that a lot of the work in her major classes has been very project-based, which has helped her get used to applications important to the major, like Adobe. This relates to the advice that Kiner stated she would give to a prospective Cal Poly student considering GRC, which was not to worry if you don’t have too much experience because you will “learn along the way” and “all the professors are there to help you.” Kiner also praised the fact that the GRC program has a lot of resources specific to the major, like occasional career-fairs. As a relatively small major, Kiner also stated that she has shared multiple classes with many people from her major and that the reputation of the GRC major being referred to as “The Pod” reigns true because she feels the major is very close-knit.
The Art and Design major here at Cal Poly includes three concentrations–studio art, graphic design, and photography and videography–one of which must be chosen during the application process. I was able to speak with students from two of these concentrations. Firstly, Halina Herc, who has a graphic design concentration and a particular interest in creating packaging as a future career, noted that she has loved her experience in the program so far. She feels that the professors “all have their own personality and they all bring in different things that [she is] just now learning even though [she had] taken art throughout high school.” One class she has particularly enjoyed taking was ART 104, Art and Design Foundation Studies II, with Professor Ian Pines. When asked what about the program she thinks could be improved, Herc stated that she feels there is too heavy of a “use of busy work” in many of her art classes and that she thinks more of a focus on project work would be beneficial. Herc’s advice for incoming Mustangs with interest in her same major is to “just come in with an open mind,” “be as creative as possible, and ask as many questions as you have.” To get more information on the Photography and Videography concentration, I interviewed first-year Lucas Vergara, who is considering career goals within the film industry, or with a focus on fashion and street photography. Overall, Vergara feels his experience with the program has been “pretty good” and that he has “learned a lot that’s beneficial.” He did note that the classwork can be very time-consuming, stating that students should expect to put in effort to the major. Vergara encourages students not to count out Cal Poly as a place to study art and stated that despite the small size of the program, he feels the facilities are relatively nice and that all of the professors are experienced and wise within the subjects they teach. A favorite class for Vergara has been ART 224 or Intro to Artificial Lighting for Photography, which was a very hands-on course that took place in the art studio, so once the lecture was over, students got to get straight to working on projects. When asked about registration, both Herc and Vergara noted that they are aware of some struggles for getting into art classes, with Vergara specifically saying that having no priority as a first-year student caused difficulty with getting into major classes that many other students were trying to take for GE credits. Overall, though, the impression from my interviews with both students is that although Cal Poly is not a university known for its art program, it still has plenty to offer for students who want to come to SLO.
As for Communication Studies, I spoke with first-year Sunny Wakeman, whose career aspirations currently are to work in sports marketing for professional women’s sports teams. She personally really likes her program so far. One particular strength that she noted was the university including a COMS 100 course, which is entirely devoted to informing students about the major. It helps prepare students for what classes and professors they will need to take and how to get on track for their degree. Wakeman noted that this class helped her get excited about her major. She noted that she has loved all of her professors and that when attending office hours for various COMS classes, she has felt “so comfortable” going in to speak to professors. Wakeman noted that one professor she has had a particularly great experience with has been Dr. Nelson, who is “super friendly and very open,” and who she feels is approachable as a professor. For something in particular the university could improve for the program, Wakeman stated she would like to see concentrations made available to students, who as of right now can only select “focus areas,” a sort of first step to getting a concentration. Other downsides we discussed were that registration for major classes has been a bit of a struggle for Wakeman and many other COMS majors that she knows, as well as a sense of the major not being taken seriously, even though there are plenty of things to be done with it. A piece of advice Wakeman wished to leave prospective students with was to look into COMS as a major and try to get an idea of what they might want to pursue with the degree.
I was also able to speak with a first-year music major, Tyler Russell, who is actually a double major in music and English, about his experience within the music program. Overall, Russell noted that in his opinion so far, the program “could use some improvement” and modernization. Russell would really like to see the program become more career-oriented, as he currently has doubts about how applicable the major is, despite the heavy workload and time practicing that it comes with. Russell did express that all of the professors in the major are “amazing,” and that he has had no troubles with registering for music classes. Russell advises prospective students considering a music major at Cal Poly to “be sure that you really care about it” and “ want to pursue it,” and make sure to “follow your passion.”
Jackie Maginnis, first-year history major who aspires to go into contract law, has had a good experience with her program so far. She enjoys the tight-knit community within the major and the fact that she knows a lot of people she takes classes with. She noted that she has liked all of the professors that she has had classes with and a favorite class that she mentioned was HIST 110, Western Civilization: Ancient to Renaissance, which she took with Professor Jason Linn. A couple possible improvements that Maginnis noted were that the history major at Cal Poly may be a bit underrepresented, especially considering there is no history building on campus and that major class sizes tend to be large because of overlap between major courses for history students and general education courses for all other students. As a message to prospective Cal Poly history majors, she Maginnis stated, “Don’t listen to what people say to you about being a history major because it’s actually a lot of fun” and “a super useful major” with many possible career avenues.
Another available major at Cal Poly is child development, which I spoke with first-year Sammy Bertotti about, who aspires to become an elementary school teacher. She likes her program a lot and feels that it is full of experts who really care about the topic and make classes interesting. Bertotti finds that “every class [she goes to, she is] learning things that [she cares] about.” Child development majors are also involved with the on-campus pre-school through the major, providing access to experience for the major. Bertotti did note that it can be difficult to get into major classes during registration and that the major requires more psychology classes than she expected. Bertotti has liked a majority of her professors, although she does feel some of them have a little bit of an old-fashioned approach. Bertotti advises prospective child development students to “think about what they want to do in the future” and be sure “they want to work with kids.”
Overall, there are definitely a lot of great things going on in the College of Liberal Arts here at Cal Poly. The small size of the CLA itself often provides for small class sizes and relatively close relationships with peers and professors. One thing I want to add, however, is that almost all of the students I interviewed for this article, as well as myself, have experienced some sort of struggle with registration, most often with general education courses in particular. This pitfall is something that may not be specific to the College of Liberal Arts, but nevertheless, I would advise incoming students to be prepared to look closely at their list of class that they need to take for their degree and plan ahead for what specific courses you want to take, for the coming school year and in the future, take note of the pre-requisites of those courses, and be prepared to get your GE credits done on time. This process can be tricky, but do not be afraid to reach out to and take full advantage of the resources available, or just reach out to an individual from your department for advice or directions to a way to get advice–in my experience, the faculty at Cal Poly has always emphasized that they are here to help. It is evident to many CLA students that Cal Poly absolutely has room for improvement within a lot of programs, but it is also evident that despite the College of Liberal Arts being small in size, students are enjoying themselves, the things they are learning, and the people they are learning from here at Cal Poly.