Cal Poly fosters teaching, scholarship and service in a Learn by Doing environment in which students, staff, and faculty are partners in discovery. As a polytechnic university, Cal Poly promotes the application of theory in practice. As a comprehensive institution, Cal Poly provides a balanced education in the arts, sciences and technology, while encouraging cross-disciplinary and co-curricular experiences. As an academic community, Cal Poly values free inquiry, cultural and intellectual diversity, mutual respect, civic engagement, and social and environmental responsibility. Learn by Doing has been the cornerstone of a Cal Poly education since the university's inception. Over the past century-plus, Cal Poly has evolved from a vocational school into a premier comprehensive polytechnic university, with its special hands-on teaching approach at the core of the curriculum. Classes emphasize active-learning methods and include a high proportion of laboratory and field work. Activities both on and off campus provide opportunities to apply classroom theory to real-world solutions. At Cal Poly, Learn by Doing is a deliberate process whereby students, from Day One, acquire knowledge and skills through active engagement and self-reflection both inside and beyond the classroom.

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