I got accepted to all these for my intended major but I am leaning towards Pomona for the lower cost. I don’t know if it’s worth attending SLO and going $16,000 in debt every year just for my undergrad (compared to Pomona’s $5,000). I don’t know if I just don’t want to pass up the opportunity to attend SLO, but I really need some advice lol. Thanks in advance!
Cal Poly is worth a pretty big premium for both quality of education and quality of life. But readers would need to better understand exactly where your numbers come from to give you useful feedback.
Sorry, I should have elaborated. Subtracting grants/work study/scholarships from the cost of attendance leaves me having to pay $16,000 in loans at SLO, $5,000 in loans at Pomona, and $7,000 in loans at UCI.
Here’s the math I did before attending Cal Poly.
Based off salaries the average Aero graduate starts with a 70k per year from Cal Poly
https://careers.calpoly.edu/search.php
They don’t show average outcome for UCI or Pomona so I can assume they make close to the median for Aerospace engineers so that’s 68k.
70-68 = 2k extra per year
16-5 = 11k extra at Cal poly.
You’ll make back the difference in 5 years assuming you’re just an “average” engineer.
Stuff you can’t calculate: Although CP has a much larger Industry interest, UCI and Pomona will be much more diverse. They will also be in urban areas so it will be a different experience.
These costs will be per year though
Wait I’m confused so I’m asking clarifying questions:
All numbers are per year correct?
so SLO is approximately
27,000-a=16,000
Pomonal about
24000-b=5000?
Does a and b represent free money from scholarships/grants?
The remaining money (16,000 vs 5,000) is covered by loans?
Or am I misunderstanding?
(Btw I got into all three of those schools plus a few others, all aerospace. I just committed to SLO, except I only got loans, no scholarships)
Based on the way you phrased your questions, am I understanding that your parents are not paying for part of college (this matters if you had some money in pocket that you could use to reduce the total amount of loans)?
Everything you said is correct. However, I totally misunderstood Pomona’s financial aid summary, as they didn’t include loans for room and board. Can’t believe I didn’t realize this earlier.
If a, b, c represent free money then
SLO: 27,000-a=16,000 (will be covered in loans)
Pomona: 24,000-b= 17,000 (5,000 of this will be covered in loans)
UCI: 33,000-c= 7,000 (will be covered in loans)
My parents will probably pay 3,000-5,000. I have some money saved up but it’s not a lot. Now I guess I’m just debating SLO and UCI, and whether the cost will be worth it
Btw, how do you like SLO, and what do you think about the major-related classes (difficulty and quality)?
SLO is much more industry oriented while UCI is stronger if you want to go to grad school. It sounds like you don’t want to keep paying for school after graduating.
SLO is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. There’s an almost excessive amount of labs but it’s what makes so industry oriented. Some classes are amazing, some I felt like were a waste of time, it varies from professor to professor.
SLO is definitely the overall better college experience as well
Thank you guys so much for your help! I finally came to the conclusion that SLO would be a better choice for me