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hey guys what's up it's erica welcome
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back to my channel
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i'm making a video talking about the 10
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worst things about cal poly slo
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i went to cal poly from 2015
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until the end of 2019. i actually loved
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cal poly
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um i think it's a great school obviously
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there's room for
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improvement but i thought it would be
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helpful to make a video talking about
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the worst things about cal poly if you
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are considering going these are the
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biggest
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downfalls of cal poly that i think i did
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talk to
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my friends and ask them like what they
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thought was the worst thing about cal
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poly the first thing that i wrote down
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as being a horrible thing about cal poly
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is the
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lack of diversity on campus cal poly
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is ranked the widest university
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out of all of the public schools in
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california
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they also have the lowest percentage of
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black students on campus
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they actually have under one percent
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population of black students on campus
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which is like
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crazy that's not a representation of
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where we live obviously i'm white i
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can't experience racism
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so i don't personally know but i did
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hear many stories of horrible things
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that people said and did
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and just in general walking around and
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not seeing anybody that looks like you
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is not a great feeling yeah i would say
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that that's the worst thing about cal
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poly
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along with that there's just a lack of
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diverse backgrounds and ideas
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a lot of people when they visit cal poly
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slo are like wow i feel like i'm being
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transported
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back in time and when you like first say
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that you know it just seems like oh it's
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just a small quaint town and then you
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realize
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it's because i don't see tons of
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diversity on campus
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in sexual orientation expression of
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gender different ethnicities
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all that it's lacking a lot of diversity
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in so many ways
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the next issue that i wrote down is that
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housing
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is really hard to get and it's really
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expensive my
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first year i lived on campus you do have
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an option to live on campus
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your whole time at cal poly but it's not
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really a popular option
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most people i know move off campus their
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second year i lived
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in a town home it's called musting
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village it's like right across the train
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tracks from the football field
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super close to school but i think i paid
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like 600
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to share a room and it's gone up in
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price a lot
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after that i moved to a house it's great
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because you're in a small town like you
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do
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get options of living in a house and
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having a backyard and all that which was
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awesome but rent is so expensive i think
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my rent was like a thousand dollars or
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something if you have like your own room
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and slow
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you will probably pay between 700 and
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over a thousand dollars a month on rent
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there's such a small selection of houses
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around campus and it is so hard to get
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them
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and it's really dominated by people in
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greek life the houses around campus
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are obviously everybody wants to live
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within walking distance of campus
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people in greek life get the houses and
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they just
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they're not like official houses but
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they're just passed down to
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people in that house greek life really
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kind of
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dominates and would benefit just in the
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sense of you would have
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way more options for housing the next
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thing that i wrote down is that parking
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is really expensive on campus
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and it's hard to park around campus
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because you need a permit pass
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there are a bunch of neighborhoods
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around cal poly but
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you need a permit to park there so you
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can only get a permit if
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you live in the neighborhood and the
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city gives you two passes
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when i was at school parking i think was
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about 400
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a quarter which is really expensive it's
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also really hard to find parking
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unless you get there early in the
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morning you're going to be searching for
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parking so that's like a pain that you
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pay so much and you still
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are not guaranteed a great spot or that
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you're not going to circle for like 20
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minutes
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the next thing i wrote about cal poly is
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that
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flying in and out of cal poly is really
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difficult and expensive
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most students are from in-state but cal
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poly compared to other csu campuses does
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pull in
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way more out-of-state students than they
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normally get
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they redid the slow airport since i was
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a student
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there i flew out of the airport one time
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and they only
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were going like three places and i got
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there at like
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nine am and i had to sit outside because
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they weren't
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open until 10 which i feel like most
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airports
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at least since i'm from san jose and
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near san francisco airports are open 24
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7.
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they've redone the airport and they do
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fly more places
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it's nicer they're definitely increasing
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the capacity at their airport but it's
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expensive
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it's not easy to fly in and out of a lot
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of students fly into san jose or san
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francisco
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or lax but then there's just like the
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whole coordinating your
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ride share or a car of how to get to cal
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poly which is about three hours away
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from all those airports
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the next thing i wrote about cal poly is
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something so many people complain about
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it is genuinely like a horrible thing
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about cal poly and they know it and they
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do not change it and it is just the food
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in general at cal poly it's just
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not good let me say that it's okay your
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first few weeks
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but they have so little options that you
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are gonna like be so tired and so sick
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of all the food also if you have any
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like dietary
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restrictions or follow like a certain
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diet
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that would be really really really
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difficult because you like
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don't really have that many options the
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healthy option on campus
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was red radish which is like a salad
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place but it was
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really expensive they've changed how
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they do their meal plans
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uh every year pretty much but one thing
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that hasn't changed is i know
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you have to pay for it your freshman
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year
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and whatever you don't spend you don't
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give back you lose so my freshman year
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i would just buy everybody food because
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it was just going to go to waste
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if i didn't spend all my plus dollars
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back then we were on this plus dollar
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system
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and every quarter i had extra money so
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it would roll over
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per quarter but then by the end of my
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freshman year if i didn't use that money
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it was just like gonna go to cal poly
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and i'd never see it
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so yeah i would just buy other people
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food i bought a bunch of random stuff
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for me to bring home
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my freshman year i ate horribly i would
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eat a cookie for breakfast half the time
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which was like such a horrible life
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choice but that's what your freshman
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year of college is for i guess
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if you are like in any way conscious of
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what you eat and put into your body
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there are just not a lot of great
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options at cal poly the next thing i
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wrote is that
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the campus is really hilly and it also
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has a lot of ada issues
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so if you have trouble walking or in a
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wheelchair
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or disability that makes getting around
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more difficult
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honestly i would rarely see students in
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wheelchairs on campus
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probably just because they stayed away
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from the campus because
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of how hilly it is and how little
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accommodations
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there are there were very few classrooms
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that i ever even walked into that
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had a desk that could accommodate a
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student in a wheelchair
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obviously it's a california state public
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school so
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they must comply with the regulations
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but i gave a speech in an english class
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just about
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the lack of effort that they put to even
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making it like
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make sense like they'll have a ramp but
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it's so far away
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and in a random spot that's like hard to
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find
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and it's just not convenient the next
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thing that i wrote down
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might be a good thing or a bad thing
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there is no greek row
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and just greek life in general is not
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huge on campus
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it's pretty big but it's not like a
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southern school where it dominates
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most social aspects of school pretty
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much all of the houses
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house less than 10 girls if that's
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something that like you've always wanted
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in your college
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experience i've seen tours of greek
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houses on youtube
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and i'll see all the southern schools
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where they have these huge rooms and
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like
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a bathroom is like a get ready space and
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it looks amazing and that's not at all
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what cal poly's
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greek houses are like yeah if that
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typical
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greek row greek life experience is what
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you're looking for in college
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cal poly offers some of it but not
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all of it if that makes sense the next
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thing that i wrote is
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that big cities are about three hours
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away slow
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is such a cute town it is adorable i
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love slow
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there's so many quaint parts of it and
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there's so much to offer
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but you can get a little bit bored and
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if you're really into like
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events and going to concerts and
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big things like that slow does not have
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a whole lot to
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offer and if you do want to go to those
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things you would go to la
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sometimes in santa barbara which is
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about an hour and a half away
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we'll have some bigger city event but la
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or san jose or san francisco which are
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three hours
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away you're farther from that city life
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scene
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and just simple things like there is no
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maul in slo
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it's kind of nice to not have them all
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but as someone who grew up in
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a bigger city i was just not even
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expecting that like i didn't even think
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that there were places that didn't have
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a mall
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the next thing that i wrote down kind of
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goes along with the whole greek life
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thing
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um this might be a good thing for you
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this might be not a great thing for you
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but if you're picturing that typical
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college experience of tailgating and
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going to football games
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cal poly has a football team there are
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some tailgates but
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they are horrible we i never went to a
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single football game and i never felt
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like i missed out by not going i didn't
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really know anybody that went
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maybe they went like once or twice i
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don't love football but
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i definitely especially my freshman year
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seeing a lot of
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friends at other colleges going to
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tailgates and just having that school
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spirit and that school pride cal poly
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has a ton of school spirit in school
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pride but our sports are not what
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motivates it so if that's something
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that's like really important to you and
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you love to watch football and
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you want that experience you're not
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really going to get that at cal poly
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the last thing that i wrote about cal
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poly is that police
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give out tickets like crazy and
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police know that students are an easy
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target and
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they are literally always looking not
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that much happens in slo so police use
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students as like the opportunity
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to give out tickets with like parking on
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a street
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they literally if you're there for 20
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minutes you're gonna get a ticket
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i saw so many people who were just like
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riding bikes
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obviously like they were not doing
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anything blatantly unsafe
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but they you know they're all these rule
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i don't know i didn't ride a bike to
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school but
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you know the rules of the road on a bike
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they would give tickets to bicyclists
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which i just think is crazy because like
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they're helping the environment by
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biking like that's the last thing i
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would want to discourage
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and then on campus too they're crazy
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with the tickets i mean just in general
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like
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noise complaints underage drinking is
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definitely caught more
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and slow than it is at i feel like most
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other colleges yeah like most people
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will get their fake ids taken away
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like i have friends who went to school
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in
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other states and like in bigger cities
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where you can go to the clubs when
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you're not 21 and like you don't get
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caught so like i said i loved cal poly
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slo but obviously there are downfalls to
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every school
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and if you are trying to pick between
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colleges
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um feel free to message me on instagram
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or leave a question in the comments i'm
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happy to talk
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to anybody about cal poly and my
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experience um but these are
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the 10 biggest downfalls that i could
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think of
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i hope this video was helpful again
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reach out to me if you have any
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questions
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thank you guys so much for watching and
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i will see you guys in my next video
