My D got into cal Poly and SCU so far in Electrical engineering. SCU is offering 6K scholarship. However, its still expensive for us (need to take a lot of loan,draw money from retirement savings). My daughter does not want to go to SCU just for the fees.
I am interested in hearing from Parents as to what they did in similar situation.
I personally let my kid choose what they wanted, but we aren’t withdrawing our retirements savings or getting loans. Cal Poly is a top engineering school. The reasons to pick Santa Clara would be things like ‘closer to home’, ‘smaller class sizes’, ‘better food’, etc. You need to decide if those things are worth loans, drawing out of retirement savings, etc. For some students, it would be and others not. The only real negative I’ve heard about Cal Poly is that they have the worst food of any college! Even the tour guide admitted it.
Jbourne: Thanks for the insight. Really Helpful.
Are you CA resident? If so, definitely choose Cal Poly.
SCU will be at least $30K/yr more costly. In fact, I don’t think a degree from SCU is worth more than one from Cal Poly, let alone $120K more.
Yes. I am NorCal resident. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Cal Poly is a highly respected engineering school and I would say has better name recognition for engineering than SCU. Given the huge price difference, I would encourage her to look closely at Cal Poly- it is a personal choice but we would never draw from a retirement account or take out huge loans for college.
Have D that got into both and not sure where they place on her list or if she is even considering them, but I can at least discuss it somewhat knowing both schools very well. Have toured both a couple times in engineering and general tours. Spent a lot of time at each campus. SCU actually has a highly regarded engineering program in Norcal and Silicon Valley and I will say, I was surprised at how it impressed us on the tour, didn’t expect it really. (Also had fabulous tour guide that made it great.) Cal Poly obviously highly regarded as well. I don’t think one or the other is so much better to use that criteria to make a decision. Cost obviously is huge difference, but the biggest difference for me personally is public versus private. SCU is Jesuit so you are getting the well rounded science and liberal arts curriculum with engineering which employers like to see these days with their motto being “men/women for others” so taking a world view to solutions, another plus for employers. For us personally, we are not sure D will want to be 100% engineering (CS) and at a minimum wants to be at a school where there is room to double major (hard with engineering) so probably minor in something totally unrelated to engineering. Or be able to change majors with ease. Neither of those can happen at CP. Also don’t want to struggle to get classes, no matter what people say, it can be tough to get classes at CP, I personally know several kids in only 12 units in a term because they couldn’t get into classes, thus delaying graduation. I also tire of the struggle for resources in CA - fighting to get in line early to get a ticket to a show or whatever, and don’t want my kid to have to do that in college - there is enough of that in adulthood in CA. I also feel like she would outgrow the smallness of CP and the area, but it seems kids are happy there. Mine is very mature, so I wonder if she needs more challenge that an urban area would provide.
Now having said all this, it sounds like I am pro SCU, I am really more just pro private. But at what sacrifice a private education is worth it, is a decision each family has to make. Many Californians are cash poor and house rich, some are just rich, some are just poor - everyone has to decide what is best for them - good luck!
Congrats! Both are great schools. However, I think cal poly is a great choice - stellar department, no student ever seems to dislike it, great school spirit, and an easy drive from the Bay Area. I just don’t think it’s worth dipping into savings for SCU.
SCU Is VERY expensive compared to Cal Poly (even with $6K/year merit award). I"d go down and tour it and find reasons with D to love it, including the extra money available to have her graduate with minimal debt! There’s a LOT of good in graduating with little or no debt, including allowing the student to do a variety of internships and shadowing to get a better idea of where she might be interested in working after graduation. If there are huge loans to repay, the priority would be earning a lot of money over the summer.
Not everyone likes very small schools like SCU (we did general SCU tour and I liked it but S was more lukewarm & ended up at USC with good merit instead). S was not attracted by Jesuit affiliation.
Thanks all for your inputs. Based on our situation, its going to be CP unless we hit a jackpot in next 2 months.
I am surprised that no one mentioned Cal Poly’s big difference from most other colleges! It gives a “practical” education. “Practical” meaning with lots of practice. The engineering is very hands on, project oriented. Very tough curriculum just from the hours projects takes. Somewhat hard to get the classes you need to graduate.
Someone mentioned SCU and the well rounded education. That is true.
And both have deep connections in Silicon Valley for sure. Both graduate engineering kids who get hired.
Cal Poly is a small town, and sadly sort of run down campus. SCU has been on a building and upgrade binge that makes the campus beautiful and the location is significantly different.
When asking your daughter, it isn’t “just” the classes/coursework/outcome that matters. Four years of your life in a small town when you are more city oriented is tough. The types of people you will have to do projects with will be different. Which is more your D’s TRIBE?
Finally, better check that the $$ may need to include 5 years at CP. or at least some summer work.
Full disclosure, my DS got into Cal Poly and we researched it pretty hard. And I went to SCU for masters, but that was a looooong time ago. However, it did keep me on the alumni list so I see the engineering program from that standpoint.
Both schools are great, there may be no wrong choice, but they are very different places to compare.
Congratulations to your DD on the dilemma!
I’d just like to echo the comment that there is no wrong choice in this situation. With the financial consideration, it appears that Cal Ploy SLO would be an easy choice. Congratulations and good luck to your daughter.
The hands on pitch from CP gets old, that is used to persuade people from the UCs but every engineering tour we took was very hands on, I don’t think CP has the exclusive on that like they pretend they do, but it’s the marketing thing they have done for years. It can come off as a trade school approach versus a thinking approach at times. If it makes someone feel good about their state school, great. Don’t think USC was part of this discussion but yet another opportunity to bring up the good merit.
Over the many years of living in the bay area in a very affluent top school district…I have seen many kids have to decide between those two schools. Cal Poly seems to be the preferred school for engineering over SCU regardless of the price. Very few choose SCU over Poly when it comes to engineering/CS fields. The few that do choose SCU were the ones who received a large merit scholarship (full tuition/Presidential or higher Johnson’s full scholarship) or those planning to major in humanities or liberal arts. Many even choose Poly over some of the UCs that are not Berkeley or UCLA. It has a better overall reputation in the engineering fields throughout California not just in Silicon Valley. I have seen many friends’ kids go on to get great jobs right out of college with a degree from Poly. And since you will be saving a great amount of money…it would be a win win situation for your kid/family.