<p>We took tour yesterday in Cal Poly -San Louis Obispo. I found that 99.9% of population is one single race -Caucasian. Mind, I am not racist at all and my children have friends from all races. However, by looking at this and talking to that 0.01% other race, it seems very very different from what I am used to in California. As my son, has got admission, I wonder is it worth going there(I am not Caucasian). I know he will excel academically there, but I have high doubt that he will have any social life or even any friends. It is shameful and shocking for the state which is considered most diverse.</p>
<p>Anyone has any experience/comments in this field?</p>
<p>I don’t know you or your son’s background, but the same graph shows a very low (1%) number of African Americans and Native Americans. I think many people would be uncomfortable being in such a small minority. Are you concerned about the representation of a specific group?</p>
<p>Perhaps you didn’t see a representative sample of students. According to collegeboard dot com, the student body is 62% White, 11% Asian and 14% Hispanic, 13% other.</p>
<p>Here’s a LA Times article from a bunch of years ago that talks about why (at least at that time) they lacked in diversity compared to the UCs: [Diversity</a> Lagging at Cal Poly - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://articles.latimes.com/2004/mar/21/local/me-poly21]Diversity”>Diversity Lagging at Cal Poly) They claim it is because they only have the funding to do numbers-based admission, which white students traditionally do the best on. Add in the fact they’re starting with a low percentage of minorities, and it becomes difficult to bring other ones in.</p>
<p>I went to a tech school across the country that was predominantly white (with a substantial portion of Asian/Indian students), and I don’t think any of my minority friends really felt that isolated.</p>
<p>My 99.9% is based on my observation for 1 day of tour all over the campus as well walking in downtown -not the number they published. I am still not convinced that it is 66%. Out of hundreds of students I saw literally, I saw at the most 4-5 other than Caucasian. As I mentioned, I even talked to a student who was not Caucasian and even he admitted my suspicion!</p>
<p>As others have stated, Cal Poly SLO is not 99.9% white – more like 62% NH white.</p>
<p>There are 31 other state universities in California, with varying ethnic mixes. For example, the other Cal Poly is 23% NH white, and UC Irvine is 21% NH white. At the other end, Sonoma State is 67% NH white.</p>
<p>My son toured last week. Of the admitted students on that tour, roughly half appeared asian and hispanic. Walking on campus that day, the majority of students were caucasion, but we did see asian and hispanics (and very few AA’s). </p>
<p>My (hispanic) son will be attending (and upon observation most would assume he is caucasion).</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO is one of the few CSUs that adds other criteria to the HS GPA and SAT or ACT score for admissions (nearly all of the others just calculate an eligibility index from HS GPA and SAT or ACT and admit by that until they fill the major or campus). The other more selective CSUs like CSULB, SDSU, SJSU, CPP have significantly different ethnic mixes than CPSLO.</p>
<p>It may have more to do with the location in a rural area (SLO county is 70% NH white). Note that engineering and CS majors (which are likely the ones that attract out-of-area students the most, as opposed to business, agriculture, etc.) are only a quarter of the graduates of CPSLO, so the common ethnic stereotype of students in those majors has only a limited effect on the overall student population.</p>
<p>I think Cal State Chico has the same demographics as SLO with a huge white population.</p>
<p>I think another issue to consider is how difficult it is to shift to a different major. I heard it’s extremely difficult in SLO but maybe UCBalumnus can shed some light on that matter.</p>
<p>FWIW, a lot of Asians got into SLO in my D’s class but many chose the UCs or private schools.</p>
<p>Your observation is incorrect. Sure there are a lot of white kids, but I can speak about this topic with authority. We are a mixed race, bilingual family with dual citizenship (US-Japan) and our son applied to Cal Poly as one of the 4% that declare themselves mixed race.</p>
<p>My son has friends from all over and on my tours of campus it is exactly as stated 63% white and 37% everything else. I also see a lot of mixed race couples too. So, the white kids and the minority kids interact well together and form close bonds at all levels. My son’s roommates have been Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese and mixed race. His dorm floor has Hispanics, kids from the Middle East and Indians. Yes, Cal Poly is majority white. However, it is still far more diverse than other schools out of state. Also, what is diversity? Cal is 45% Asian, UCI too. Most UC’s are disproportionally Asian. Anyway, don’t freak out. My kid is having a wonderful time and has many friends across all races and mixes well with the white kids as well as the white kids do themselves.</p>
<p>Is there something undesirable about going to school with white students? </p>
<p>Is it “racist” to assume that your kid won’t make friends with whites, or that whites won’t make friends with your kid? If your kid already has friends of all races, then why wouldn’t it be the same for him in college? Students are students–right? US population is about 63% white/non-Hispanic (2012). So it seems that whites are not disproportionately represented at this school.</p>
<p>How difficult it is to change major likely depends on how impacted the target major is. This is true in any school where there are majors enrolled to the department’s maximum capacity. While some wealthier private schools can afford to maintain reserve capacity in every major to accommodate major changers (or happen to have other types of enrollment constraints the limit enrollment to the point that departmental capacity is not an issue for any department), this is usually not the case for more budget constrained schools (both public and private, but especially public schools whose mission includes educating as many resident students as can be accommodated).</p>
<p>On the other hand, given the negative comments that sometimes pop up when discussing schools with high populations of other races or ethnicities, it is not surprising that some people may hesitate about a school with a higher proportion of white students than they are used to (similar to those who hesitate about a school with a higher proportion of non-white students than they are used to).</p>
<p>As “politically correct” as people may claim to be, it does seem that ethnic mix of the student population is an important “fit” factor applied by more students and parents than who will admit to it.</p>
<p>So OP would not consider Hispanic whites–who can’t be identified on sight–as contributing to diversity?</p>
<p>Good point. There are blond/blue-eyed Hispanics. I went to school with on of the Portillo family daughters. She had white blond hair and light blue eyes. I doubt anyone would guess that she was from one of Mexico’s prominent families.</p>
<p>But, also there are many non-white Hispanics and American Indians that could “appear white”. Many kids are mixed race, so they can “appear” to be one race, yet be able to claim another. I know many Hispanic children who don’t “look” Hispanic because only one parent in Hispanic. </p>
<p>Either way, SLO is not 99% white…not at all. We don’t know why it appeared to be. It could be that the OP toured a certain college within the univ that tends to be “more white”. There could be another college that has more students of other races. </p>
<p>As for why there were more white kids downtown, I wonder if you saw a lot of Greek kids at popular hangouts. The Greeks may more likely be white. Not sure, just a guess. </p>
<p>As for the student who “admitted” your “suspician”. That is not a verifcation. The school is not lying about its ethnic stats.</p>
<p>Op,
I’m not sure which race you are. Here are my impressions (although they are not verified by data). Cal Poly SLO will attract students thruout CA (usually from large cities and suburbs, given its high rankings) along with some of the local aggie kids. The white kids from the large cities and suburbs will have interacted and integrated with kids of Asian, Hispanic, and African American descent in HS given the diversity of CA. The local aggie kids (white and hispanic) will have likely dealt with mainly white or hispanic kids. I would think this is different from a school like Chico (many white kids per previous poster) where it mainly draws local kids and not kids from thruout the state. At a place like Chico, the white kids might not be used to having kids of other ethnicities in their previous HS classrooms.</p>
<p>I know at least 5 non-white students who were accepted to Cal Poly SLO who chose not to attend. For 2 of them, it was their safety and the other 3 wanted a more urban/diverse feel. I feel the school is doing its part in accepting students from diverse backgrounds but its ultimately up to the student to say yes. My kid is in his jr year there and has never second guessed his decision. As an asian (half) who attended a very diverse high school, he did notice the larger caucasian population at the school but it didn’t deter him. It did influence his friend’s decision and she ended up going south to San Diego.</p>