Chance my son (Rising Senior) to CalTech/Stanford/UCs/Cal Poly SLO [CS or ME] [attending UCB as EECS major]

i just compared tution_+housing for both schools , that is fixed amount.
rest can vary.
thanks for sharing info.

1 Like

could you share about the bus service that cal poly offers?
thankyou

I donā€™t personally know anything about it, but my friendā€™s son takes it on holidays to return back to the Bay Area. It costs, I want to say, around $70. Itā€™s just for CalPoly and similar to the Google bus that you may have seen. I just thought it was neat to have this service. But I donā€™t think itā€™s for parents to visit their kids; otherwise it will be a bus load every weekend lol.

Take a look at Flixbus.com. It looks like they have routes from SLO to San Jose.

(My older kid has used them between UCI and UCSD - Iā€™d never heard of them previously.)

2 Likes

Well, D21 attends Cal Poly and I paid $3,440 per quarter for tuition and fees or $10.320. PCV housing is $12,733. Total = $23,053 for the year plus food, but she goes to Krogers or whatever and cooks at PCV.

Freshman year, we paid $24,000-$25,000 all in. Cal Poly is a tremendous deal!

ETA: I donā€™t believe sheā€™s purchased any books.

2 Likes

Mustang Express is for Thanksgiving and December holidays. They are for students only. There are 4 or so routes and are a great service. No Mustang Express for Spring Break.

1 Like

D21 sometimes offers rides in her car to and from SLO for $25/each way. There are rideshare apps, I believe.

1 Like

yes i agree .
with inflation and increase. its approx 34k for freshman(housing+ tution fees) for 2023.

1 Like

What I see for next year is as follows:

1st year dining plan limited = $6,185
Housing = $10,476
Tuition = $12,204

Total = $28,865

ETA: No books have been purchased, daughter is covered by parentā€™s health coverage and transportation is probably $50-60 with a ride share, maybe 1x per month at most. Likely much less.

2 Likes

Iā€™ll have to look at the details, but when we looked at it last night it seemed to me it was going to be around 32K all in at SLO. I guess we could take out the health insurance cost. But it wasnā€™t substantially less than what we have been paying for UCLA which has cost a little less than expected and has maybe been about 35K? Davis quoted us COA of 41K in the portal, but thatā€™s before we take out health insurance. Santa Cruz still hasnā€™t put up the FA info for my daughter. And I agree that books have just not been a cost factor thus far. Weā€™ve spent less than $200 total for books over the course of 6 quarters at UCLA.

1 Like

thankyou
we just checked that they offer different housing and dining plans .
2-3-4 shared room plans and dining limited , average and max dining plans(ranging from 6185-7500)
thanks again

Housing/dining costs will vary and the cost estimates are somewhere in middle (not the highest or lowest).

2 Likes

We followed the recommendations of the SLO Parent FB page, which was to buy the ā€œlimitedā€ plan. First, itā€™s more than enough food for most freshman and then theyā€™ll go into SLO (downtown) for the Thursday Farmerā€™s Market or to get a pizza, burrito or whatever.

I would not buy the max food plan. If your students runs out of funds on their account, you can always add to it. D21 was close, but didnā€™t run out of funds with the limited dining plan.

For us, when were comparing with the UCā€™s, we were saving $10,000 +/-.

2 Likes

And, from what Iā€™ve read, SLOā€™s food isnā€™t their strongest attribute. :wink:

3 Likes

Iā€™m thinking that his completion of an Intro Poli Sci course would help to steer his ship ā€“ heā€™ll know, after that, whether he wants to minor in it.

D21 LOVES the acai bowls from Shake Smart on campus.

And this Fall, theyā€™ll be re-opening a fully remodeled and expanded 2nd food pavillion with various choices such as The Habit, Panda Express, Chick-A-Fil, etc. Scout Coffee opened on campus this year and the Starbucks is crazy busy.

Thereā€™s always Firestone Grill downtown, which is supremely popular. D21 also loves a ramen place within a mile of campus.

Food may not be its strongest attribute, but its getting better.

Son is a Vegeterian(Egg ok) and reading about the food on FB parent page is not giving me much hope. I hope he can survive for 9 months, and can move to a different building for year 2 and can cook something on weekends(heā€™s a decent cook).

I am reading on this topic and if he wants to minor in Poli Science, it will take away time from his core CS. I would like him to focus more on CS, DS and if possible think about combined BS/MS.

3 Likes

Imagine being vegan! Iā€™m not though we kind of grew up vegetarian due to my dadā€™s religion, but Dā€™s friend is at a college in NY and the fake meat is really horrible. Iā€™m not sure if tofu is popular thing in upper state NY. I would think given the low cost of tofu colleges in CA ought to use it more.

Son got accepted to UC San Diego as Undeclared major in Eighth College. He applied for Computer Engineering.

Waiting for UCLA decision.

8 Likes