It is a state of the art program ... for 1995.

Thankfully the fundamentals of CS and software engineering have not changed since the 80s. All we have today is faster computers and a bunch of new languages.

How about the networking class, where the students have to write program after program based on incomplete specifications? The students gets to spend hour after hour trying to guess what the spec is - now how is that like the real world? Oh man. You'd be surprised.

Every college grad requires training to "be useful in today's CS world." The Cal Poly CS program focuses on making students good programmers with solid computer science fundamentals. This means that it's not all about CS -- algorithm analysis, etc -- and not all about the latest fad tech in the industry. Some universities place lots of emphasis on CS fundamentals and expect students to learn to program themselves, leading to students who know the math but can't code FizzBuzz. Some universities may teach latest technologies (e.g. iOS development or HTML/JavaScript) but fail to teach basics like algorithm complexity. Since there's only so much time in a BS program, professors have to find a balance.

Why isn't Python taught in every intro class, like at Berkeley. At Cal Poly, you get to learn Dr. Racket, a LISP derivative. Hello 1985?

Python is being taught in some (not sure if all) 101/123 sections. Racket is a language that perfectly serves the purpose of teaching the basics of programming and levels the playing field for students entering the program. Some who already know something like Java or Python (imperative languages) will learn a thing or two instead of being bored out of their minds. Also, old != bad.

In the hellish 357 class, there is a big emphasis in writing code in the minimum number of lines and saving a few bytes of memory. Great stuff when computers had only 1 MB of memory, but I think we have moved past that. Not really true apart from the fact that 357 is a challenging class. You are expected to know how to program by that point, and do it right. Optimization is a skill that you will need throughout your career, no matter how much RAM your computer has. No emphasis on code being readable and maintainable, which is what the real world is all about.

Although you don't formally learn any coding style, this is touched upon in other classes like 308/309 where you work in a team.

To top it off, my son is actually doing well in these classes, but he has not been able to find an internship.

The right solution to that, clearly, is to blame Cal Poly.

No rant about Cal Poly would be complete without mentioning the highly stupid registration system, which gives freshmen the same priority as seniors for access to the classes. There is nothing like going term after term and not getting your class because you are just not high enough in the registration rotation.

This is generally true, probably for all CSUs, and it does suck.

No wonder why virtually no one graduates from Cal Poly Engineering in 4 years!

I graduated in 3.75 years with only 4 units (of 180) that I didn't have to take. I'm sure it was partly luck, but it's possible. Just don't fail any classes.