I am an out of state student looking into Cal State Monterrey Bay. I know that a lot of the cal state campuses have the reputation of being commuter schools, however I saw a blog post on prep scholar that mentioned that 46% of students live on campus. The location of the school seems ideal, however my fear is that there won’t be a traditional campus vibe, any insight on this topic would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
You know that the fees are $40K per year with no financial aid for OOS students?
The campus is on the old Fort Ord site, so it’s kind of isolated.
It is also a less popular campus than the other CSU’s. There are about 7K students.
Not sure why this post is in the “University of San Francisco” forum.
@katelynkey The Monterey area is an affluent, scenic, and historical community that draws lots of tourists. However, the CSUMB campus itself is not in a particularly cool part of town and is not particularly attractive. It’s in the middle of a former military base, much of which remains abandoned and not yet redeveloped.
CSUMB does have a relatively high percentage of students in campus housing (by CSU standards). However, note that the campus is small, so there are still only a few thousand residential students, and they consist largely of freshmen. Upperclass housing is not guaranteed. There are no real student neighborhoods off-campus; the upperclassmen are probably scattered throughout the Monterey area, including Salinas, which is a less attractive but also less expensive city located away from the coast. The school is not noted for a traditional campus vibe, probably because so many upperclassmen live away from the campus.
It looks like CSUMB may have recently withdrawn from the WUE program, which offers discounted tuition to residents of other Western states. They were listed on the WUE website earlier this year, but are now gone. So all out-of-staters may have to pay full out-of-state tuition.
your fear is well founded. It is a new school and has yet to grow into it’s site. The old Ft. Ord buildings are decaying everywhere. In the words of my kids and their friends, it is like a set from a Zombie Apocalypse movie. There is lots of ongoing development and I think 5-10 years out, it will look very different.
If you want a highly residential WUE school in CA, UCM, Chico and Humboldt are your best bet.
Okay, I can’t really argue with anything anyone has said, but it’s not ALL bad. It is definitely NOT Chico or CP SLO. A bit more “UC Merced by the Ocean.”
However, many of the school’s programs can be tailored to student interest within the major field. Human Communications is one example. It can encompass a traditional English degree or be stretched out in to many different pathways. They have geographical advantages for some majors like Marine Biology, and have an integrated Agri-Business degree with a variety of farms and vineyards in the general area.
There is a lot of new development on campus. Much (not all) of the military base in the immediate area is gone and many of the actual university buildings are less than 15 years old (founded in 1994). The library is already very nice and a new student union is in the works. Like NCalRent said, it is 5-10 years from being more fully developed.
It is definitely not for everyone. Don’t be misled by the beach location (closest CSU to the ocean). Monterey Bay is all Nor Cal. It is beautiful, but it is not San Diego warm. And you WILL be surfing with sharks. The counselors at the high school where I work often encourage students to use Google Maps street views to do cyber tours of campuses and the surrounding areas before scheduling a tour. Check it out completely before committing.
(Full disclosure: CSUMB is my daughter’s #1 school right now. She is only a sophomore in HS, but she visited 20+ campuses with her brother during his application process. I love the school, as well, but my son and wife wanted nothing to do with it. That’s CSUMB–love it or leave it.)
CSUMB is a must visit. It was my top choice sophomore year of high school (college junior) but visited my senior year and it was a huge bust for me, even though Monterey is my favorite part of California.
Late to this thread but thought it might help someone. We’re in Southern CA (San Diego) and my daughter was admitted in December for biology. We visited in early April. We’ve been to the Monterey area many times and absolutely love it, but she did not like the school. There are some nice newer buildings, but we visited in the middle of the day when school was in session and we hardly saw anyone around. It’s not the prettiest campus, though being close to Monterey is a plus.