After visiting both schools, my oldest picked CPP over UCD because of the more hands on teaching style and location and she is on a 4 year pledge where she is supposed to get all her required classes for a timely graduation. Also her major wasn’t one that needed a research lab and the CPP tour talked more about job placement where she felt we didn’t hear much of that during the tour from UCD. CPP is far enough she can stay on campus, but close enough a flight isn’t needed. She does say the campus is pretty much dead on the weekends, dorms are “gross and old” and feels most of her classmates commute so they run off right after class. There’s a small community that do stay on campus she hangs out with.
I think these many of the CSU and UC schools are high quality schools, and the individual student should visit to see if it’s a fit. When my daughter applied, she had no clue what “poly technical” style of teaching was, she just figured it would be one of her picks. She truly is satisfied with her choice. (And the final cost!)