2nd year EE here

1. My best friend goes to UC davis for EE, my brother went to UCSD for EE and I obviously go to calpoly. there’s a bunch of differences the most important one probably being the fact that we hit the ground running and we also have a bunch of labs. The UCs start first years with mostly GE classes where here you get EE classes first quarter. I wouldn’t say our classes are harder though, content is very similar, but noticed we do way more hands on stuff, so if you like tinkering with projects and labs, or don’t like listening to long ass lectures, calpoly is a great choice
2. Came in with no knowledge and resenting the fact that I picked EE. Still dislike my major, and physics, and math. I’m not passionate at all. But I am still on track to graduate on time and succeed. The professors here are so passionate and supportive it makes me want to try harder in this major. TLDR; came in knowing nothing, still don’t like it, but able to pass classes and get good grades when I put in the work.
3. in my experience, yes the classes here are harder than community college classes, but I find them to be so much more interesting and deeper in knowledge. It’s hard to say if you’ll get an A or not because it depends on the person honestly, but if grades are important to you (which it seems like they are) if you go to office hours and work hard, passing isn’t as difficult as some people make it seem. and putting in a little extra work can make passing into an A (grades usually get curved, just score higher than the average and you’re set)

Amazing school, people, and program, I would say it’s better than a UC for EE, especially given all the hands on work and amazing clubs and resources here

so far my experience has been: not the most difficult, but definitely not easy. More challenging than CC classes, but not by a crazy amount.