Cogswell Polytechnical College

Cogswell Polytechnical College is a private, non-profit college located in Sunnyvale, California. It holds accreditation through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), but its engineering programs are not ABET accredited. Cogswell had a small student body of approximately 145 full-time and 141 part-time students in 2006.

Along with several other non-profit organizations, Cogswell College is under the umbrella of the Foundation For Educational Achievement , as was the similarly-named Henry Cogswell College, which has since ceased operations.

History

Cogswell College was founded as Cogswell Polytechnical College on March 19, 1887 by Dr. and Mrs. Henry Cogswell. The college opened in August 1888 as a high school offering technical classes for boys and business classes for girls. It changed its status to technical college on June 30, 1930. Cogswell College is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, but lacks professional (ABET) accreditation for its Engineering degree programs.

The original campus building, located in the Mission District in San Francisco, was occupied in 1888. When the 1906 earthquake partially destroyed the campus, the College relocated across the street to an existing home on the property. After the City of San Francisco purchased some of the land by eminent domain in 1917, a new building was constructed at Folsom and 26th Streets to house the school. In 1974, having outgrown the existing campus, the College moved to a location at Stockton and California Streets. In 1985, the College moved to Cupertino, where it remained until 1994 (its old San Francisco building became a Ritz Carlton hotel). The College purchased its present Sunnyvale campus in 1993.

Among the college's current programs are animation and video game design.

Facts

• About 15% of the student population are women.
• The student to faculty ratio is approximately 12:1 or possibly 9:1
• Cogswell currently offers the following degrees (note: as discussed above, the engineering programs are not ABET Accredited):
  • B.A. Digital Art and Animation
  • B.S. Digital Audio Technology
  • B.A. Digital Motion Picture (Apparently eliminated in Fall of 2008)
  • B.S. Electrical Engineering (Apparently replaced with Computer Engineering in Fall of 2008)
  • B.S. Software Engineering
  • B.S. Digital Arts Engineering
  • B.S. Fire Science
• Additionally, in November of 2007 Cogswell announced the addition of a minor in business management.
• Cogswell students won first place in the 2007 SIGGRAPH SPACE-TIME Student Animation competition in the category of Storytelling/Narrative
• A Cogswell student won for “Best Editing” at Columbia University's National Undergraduate Film Festival.

Cogswell Polytechnical College is a private, non-profit college located in Sunnyvale, California. It holds accreditation through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), but its engineering programs are not ABET accredited. Cogswell had a small student body of approximately 145 full-time and 141 part-time students in 2006.