The California State Polytechnic University, Pomona is a public, coeducational university situated at the western corner of the city of Pomona, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. It is commonly known as Cal Poly Pomona and is one of the 23 campuses that comprise the California State University.

History

See: History of Cal Poly Pomona
Cal Poly Pomona was established in 1938 as the Voorhis Unit of the California State Polytechnic College. It was originally located on the former Voorhis School for Boys in San Dimas, California.

In the fall of 1956, the campus was moved to the former ranch of cereal magnate W.K. Kellogg who donated it to Cal Poly in 1949. The former Voorhis campus became relgated to a education outreach center, before being leased for 7 years and finally sold to the Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in 1978.

The university became fully independent from Cal Poly SLO in 1966 and gained university status in 1972.

Academics

Cal Poly Pomona is well-known for its "learn by doing" philosophy where an essential part of the curriculum is hands-on application of knowledge. This has resulted in a high interest by many firms for Cal Poly engineers.

The university also has the only agriculture program in Southern California leading to a stark contrast from a stereotypical university appearance, as the farmlands circle the main campus. And with the exception of its sister school, Cal Poly Pomona maintains the only accredited archtecture program in a California public university.

Cal Poly consistantly ranks in the top of Western Colleges in U.S. News & World Report's annual college ranking and was named one of the "Best of the West" by The Princeton Review in 2004.

The most popular undergraduate majors include Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.

Some departments (Mostly engineering) continue to follow the originally mandatory requirement for an undergraduate senior/research thesis to graduate.

Student Life

Cal Poly has the reputation of being a relatively boring place. Its location in what could be called an industrial-agricultural suburb, limited housing, general student apathy, and mostly commuter student body do not help to encourage students to stay.

Athletics

Cal Poly Pomona ranks among the best of the NCAA Division II schools bosting, most recently, the 2001 and 2002 women's basketball champions. However, student apathy results in extremely low turnout for games, perhaps, influenced by the lack of a football team--disbanded in the early 1980s following a slow decline in performance.

Architecture

Apart from the bland Modernist boxes that are typical of CSU campuses, Cal Poly Pomona is also home to a futuristic-looking structure called the Classroom/Laboratory/Administration Building. The CLA Building was used in the films Gattaca and Impostor, as well as many TV commercials for cars.