Freeopp posted this article on ROI. I saw this posted on Reddit in the Cal Poly forum in regards to CS degrees. Cal Poly beats the UC’s in this particular metric @eyemgh
University ROI for CS
CMU $4,125,963
Rice $3,781,869
Brown $3,535,080
Stanford $3,305,484
Yale $3,296,380
Harvard $3,268,145
Caltech $3,102,888
Cornell $2,966,699
Cal Poly $2,920,317
MIT $2,909,266
UCLA $2,853,535
UC Berkeley $2,843,321
Duke $2,546,552
Johns Hopkins $2,515,869
Vanderbilt $2,461,053
UIUC $2,417,724
U Michigan $2,258,080
Columbia $2,130,692
GeorgiaTech $1,966,139
UW Seattle $1,943,759
University of Chicago $1,759,496
USC $1,746,446
UT Austin $1,701,149
UC Davis $1,683,705
UC San Diego $1,595,324
Purdue $1,547,437
UC Santa Barbara $1,530,075
NYU $1,478,390
UW Madison $1,378,374
ASU $1,154,840
UC Santa Cruz $752,320
Other majors are listed as well. Please proceed to attack. I’m just relaying the article from a Reddit poster.
That’s pretty impressive! They’re ahead of some really big names and really close to a few ahead of them.
I didn’t look at their methodology, but if you figure in opportunity cost of the price difference to every school ahead of them, then they really shine, especially for a CA resident.
It’s too bad that they didn’t subdivide engineering. I have a feeling that the outliers at the top are the hybrid EE/CS programs. MIT for example has one very high engineering, but the next closest is $1M, well below the best CP engineering listed. Ditto CMU.
I’m sure this will sway many admitted students to CalPoly and MIT to chose CalPoly.
And sorry to rain on your parade but I was just talking with a friend whose son is a freshman in Electrical Engineering at CalPoly and who is also a CalPoly graduate in engineering and she felt that the quality of education has gone down since she was there. CalPoly has been hyped up too much and can’t sustain the learn by doing philosophy (as she experienced it) because of the increased number of engineering students and the lack of funding (her opinion). Her son is doing well however. I just thought I’d share a multigenerational viewpoint.
Maybe not MIT, but the UC’s are definitely in the mix.
And the UC’s don’t have same stories about “the quality of education has gone down hill” too. Someone always has to post something negative about a university to make themselves feel better about their kid’s choice. smh
BTW, my D21 attends Cal Poly. We’re more than happy with her choice:+1:
I’m only trying to bring some balance to these forums. You and @eyemgh are very much the CalPoly cheer squad. I like it too if you remember correctly. I don’t have to bring balance if it makes you feel bad.
I thought my friend’s multigenerational story had some merit. We’re a multigenerational UC family and have not seen that much divergence yet between parent and kid experience. Overcrowded then, overcrowded now. Great educational experience then, great educational experience now. I don’t need any external validation for my kid’s choice.
My kid graduated 3 years ago. He and all of his engineering and CS/SE colleagues had a great experience. They all have very good jobs and make good money. @sushiritto has a student there now and can speak to the current climate.
The reality is, the number of students has been fairly consistent.
As for MIT, I have an alum in the family and a sib that turned it down for a full ride at a state school. My son had the stats to be competitive, but didn’t even apply. It wasn’t what he wanted.
By relaying an opinion from someone who’s not a member of CC? Ya, OK.
And then this SLO freshman’s parent’s (dog’s brother’s best friend’s mother’s grandfather…) says that the “quality of education has gone downhill” because of the increased number of engineering students and the lack of funding"? That’s about as generic as can be. What school isn’t seeing a huge influx of EECS students and funding is iffy at best.
Schools all around the country have the same exact issue. And the UC’s are finally raising their tuition after numerous years of increasing enrollment.
I don’t understand the overlapping categories with different results for the same school and no explanation. In any event, my quick takeaway is some degrees are a terrible investment everywhere - most social sciences and humanities, eg.
It’s only been about 5-6 weeks, but so far it’s been a great experience. Sure, there’s a lot of work and mid-terms come fast and furious, but SLO does a really good job of transitioning kids into college. To say I was worried, would be an understatement.
As for funding, I’ve now been to the SLO campus about 5-6-7 times now and when my D FaceTime’s me, she has to find a quiet spot because of all the construction. The Frost Center for Research and Innovation will be opening in 2022, an on-campus Scout Coffee is being built ($1MM in TI’s), Vista Grande, the new 3-story dining facility, a new rec center, etc. There doesn’t appear to be a funding problem from my first hand experience.
I’m willing to listen to your friend’s anecdote about how he/she added 10 lbs of lean muscle mass, but dumping on a college with 2nd hand info of the generic variety seems, well, not a nice thing to do. But that’s just me. As they say “carry on.”
@teleia, I’m a CP fan largely because our son’s experience affirmed all we believed to be true when he decided to attend in the first place. The classes were small, taught by instructors with terminal degrees, including labs and discussions, and the applied experience was far better than any of us expected.
He did multiple class projects that were on par with senior projects at other schools. His senior project was so robust, that multiple industry engineers were floored that he and two other guys built the whole thing rather than just iterating a part of it. They were told outright that no other CA schools were doing that level of work on their senior projects.
That’s not to say that it’s all awesome. Just because someone has a terminal degree, doesn’t make them a great teacher. No school is blessed with all great teachers though. The campus food at the time was quite bad as I understand it. Off campus housing is expensive and students sign year long leases.
What I hope you’ll notice in my comments however is that I speak to what I like about Cal Poly. I don’t typically denigrate other institutions (I certainly have, but it’s rare). The only time it comes up is when money and earnings are involved. I do point out the opportunity costs of specific decisions.
Feel free to advocate for your school of choice. That’s the beauty of CC, it’s an open format.
You guys (non gendered expression) seem too uptight about CalPoly’s reputation. I think it’s great and have said so many times. What I said was not mean. I was intrigued with what my friend shared and I thought I’d also share. But I’m going to butt out of the CalPoly discussions. I don’t have a preferred school. My daughter didn’t either. She chose based on many practical reasons (she has to live there for four years). I might pipe up now and again when people (ahem) share opinions and present them as facts.
And as you are sharing experiences, my daughter is in a number of engineer design courses. They just tested their first rocket this past week. And one of her classes has 7 kids in it. Of course it’s her favorite. Some others are over 100 students but she’s been able to have one on one time with professors which has helped a lot.
All those universities listed in the OP are top notch in more than just CS.
But having just sent my Class of 2025 off to college a few weeks ago, what I can tell you with certainty is that in the Class of 2025 Parents Forum, there were more than a few parents that had never heard of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
And to see it listed amongst the finest institutions in the US in this one obscure ROI calculation/article will still not give it the recognition it deserves.
The OOS COA for Purdue, for example, considered “cheap” by many for an OOS student is $42,000/year. The OOS COA for SLO is $48,000. COA for GT is $50,000. UDub is $58,000 for OOS.
Edit: I hit reply to @eyemgh but that was my mistake.
100 isn’t bad. Even 200 doesn’t feel that big. I had multiple classes with 600. That was less than ideal. For some though, it’s not a bother at all. My perspective is based on my biases. Everyone needs to figure out what their preferences are.
I get that. As an engineer that lives and works in California, CalPoly needs no advertising.
I don’t know Purdue well enough, but for an in state student having to choose between the two, I would not be able to find any reason to chose Purdue over CalPoly (other than wanting to experience another state and having easy money to do that). And I know many that do just for name recognition. So yes, I get it.
And I’m in your camp re:CalPoly. I thought you knew this by now. I would not have shared my story had I not established this to begin with. I’m sarcastic but not mean.
For Computer and Information Sciences, Purdue University Main Campus has an ROI of -$35,557 (-$64,673 after completion adjustment) (yes, negative) in the table at Full ROI Table | Flourish .
CPSLO drops downward, but is still on the first page, when using the ROI with completion adjustment (i.e. “The amount that a student can expect to see his or her earnings increase thanks to the college degree, subtracting the direct and indirect costs of college, and accounting for the risk that the student will drop out before finishing the degree.”).
-$304,880 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
-$191,965 University of Washington - Seattle campus
It would not be surprising if some of the oddities had something to do with what majors were included in the major groups (as noted by others, “Engineering” includes a variety of majors) or small or unrepresentative sample sizes in some cases.
I’d loved for there to be a location-/inflation-adjusted version of this data some day. I realize it’s nearly impossible, but at least data on initial work location is available from many schools.
I guess it’s good that all 9 of D22’s non-safeties are on the list.
(And if I’m wish-listing, maybe a joint Cal Poly/Chicago OT forum)
This location adjustment for the counterfactual situation of the person not attending college at all but going to work in the region the college is in probably helps ROI for CPSLO and other colleges in remote less expensive areas.
Someone always has to post something negative about a university to make themselves feel better about their kid’s choice. smh