The percentage at Berkeley isn’t that different. In fact, according to your reference all UCs are ranked the same as CP, below average.
You can beat the drum that there’s a problem at Cal Poly, but the reality is that there’s a lack of diversity at a LOT of schools.
There are 900 black students at ucla…out of 44k. All of the upper tier California publics have near the same abysmal stats of urms, which was my point. That is not a particular reflection on cal poly.
If we are just referring to Black students, note that Black students make up about 4.4% of UC undergraduates and 4.5% of all UC students ( Fall enrollment at a glance | University of California ) and about 4.0% of all CSU students ( Fall 2022 Enrollment Demographics | CSU ) versus about 0.73% of all CPSLO students ( https://content-calpoly-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/ir/1/images/POLYVIEW_2022%20Combined.PDF ).
That by itself does not necessarily mean the presence or absence of a problem, but it means that it should not be too surprising not to see many Black people at CPSLO compared to other schools in California.
According to College Factual, UCB is 1.4% AA. The percentage of African Americans in The Bay is close to 7%.
I agree it doesn’t signal the presence or absence of a problem.
Fall enrollment at a glance | University of California says that Black enrollment at UCB is 3.8% undergraduate, 5.3% graduate, 4.2% overall.
Blacks make up 6.5% of the CA population. Less than 1% at SLO indicates a real problem.
SLO and SLO county have a far fewer blacks on a percentage basis than the CA average. The school, like many public schools, reflects the regional demographic.
Then the question becomes, will that be a problem for minorities that choose to attend?
No one is debating that. The issue is why.
California schools are not allowed to use race in admissions decisions. Even so, CP gives recognition to outstanding minority scholars.
There was a time that nearly all college students everywhere were white. As minority students started attending college, they attended the same schools that white students did for the most part…the ones closest to home.
Since SLO county had so few black residents, few black students attended Cal Poly. That created a self perpetuating situation. Black students don’t go to Cal Poly because there aren’t many black students at Cal Poly.
An AA student will distinctly be in the minority at Cal Poly. On a percentage basis they will be in a distinct minority at Berkeley though too.
My public alma mater has 31,000 undergrads and 1600 black students, besting every single public in CA. Missouri has a higher percentage of black people though. As I’ve said previously, schools can’t recruit by race, represent the demographics of their communities.
Then it gets back to the OPs original question, what will a minority student’s experience be like at Cal Poly. By most accounts students enjoy their time there. Like is seen at all schools, there are isolated racial incidents.
Now a question for you…what specifically that Cal Poly isn’t already doing, would you do to attract more minority minority students. Remember, they are forbidden to use race in their admission decisions.
And please, don’t take this as in any way trivializing the experience of minority students. This is America though. The sad truth is that it is difficult to be a minority in FAR too many places, not just Cal Poly. All one need do is google racism on college campuses to see the sad state we’re in.
I think that’s a good plan! I did the same for my D21 from the Bay Area. Even though she knew about the demographics, actually seeing the relative lack of diversity on campus and around town was a bit of a shock and it led her to drop SLO from her list.
She’s now at a UC where the number of Black students is also pretty low, but it felt to her like it would be a more comfortable environment because of the diversity in the surrounding community, and the perception that the administration would be more supportive/ responsive in the face of racist incidents.
Students’ comfort level will vary so they really should see things first hand and not rely on others’ experiences.
Actually OP’s issue isn’t why, it is will their daughter feel potentially underrepresented or uncomfortable based on the school’s demographic makeup and atmosphere. All responses seem to suggest it is a legitimate concern that should be addressed in part by a campus visit.
Why only matters in theory but once it is your kid reality is all that matters.
My D21 is a current sophomore at Cal Poly SLO. I’ll speculate as to the why regarding the demographics there.
SLO has a well-known College of Agricultural and thus attracts not only the typical business, engineering and liberal arts majors, but also the Ag majors, which may tend to be overrepresented by Caucasian students. And many of them, more conservative than the typical CA college student.
And it’s located “in the middle of nowhere.” Hours from LA and the Bay Area. I’m sure potential students look at SLO as one of those “nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there” type college locations.
My D21 is studying in CAFES, the Ag College at SLO. She has a roommate and friends who are Asian, not surprisingly the same major as D21, but overwhelming majority in the overall Ag college are Caucasian.
Most CA colleges don’t have an Ag college (UC Davis and CP Pomona being the other large well-known CA Ag colleges), so you won’t find too many Ag-type majors at other CA universities.
@sisyphus2005 I had read this article as well when it first came out. Cal Poly SLO, as an impacted CSU campus, has a local area preference, while UCs do not, so comparing Cal Poly SLO demographics against UCs do not make sense. @ucbalumnus post with SLO County demographics (vs. California state wide demographics) is very relevant to this dicussion.
The local admission area is a good point. For less impacted SLO majors this might not make a big difference, but for the most impacted majors, the admission bonus to being in the local area would seem to be a significant boost to local area applicants and might have an effect on campus demographics.
@tamagotchi - All of Cal Poly SLO’s majors are impacted per the 2023 Impacted Programs matrix.
Building on @sushiritto’s comment re: Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences, @calimom2024 - Besides, visiting Cal Poly SLO, I would look at demographic trends by college with respect to your daughter by selecting FTF for First Time Freshman and by college here as there are separate dashboards for Admissions, Enrollment and Retention & Graduation. (There are details by ethnicity, gender, residency. Admissions and Enrollment has Underrepresented Minority and First Generation data as well.)
While this is technically true, the admission bonus for local students may not be a major factor in demographics for those majors which are less impacted, receiving relatively few applications and admitting most of their applicants.
I agree 100%! I’d also agree that a visit is in order to see what it feels like.
The data you linked shows very clearly the self-selection pattern touched on a few times up-thread. Assuming I did the math right, the YIELD (#enrolled / #admitted) on the FTF Admissions data is noticeably different by race.
Overall Yield is ~27%-30%
White ~34%-37%
Hispanic ~24%-28%
Black ~18%-21%
Asian ~16%-18%
Note that I’ve ignored 2020 yield due to pandemic skew.
One conclusion: Admitted Asian and Black students are roughly half as likely to accept their spot at SLO as White students.
I’m sure one factor is that the local population (largely White and agriculture based) is more likely to choose their local college with a very good Ag program. That is the CSU model doing what it is supposed to do.
eta: this was supposed to be a reply to @pathandpurpose post 35
For what it’s worth, I just visited the campus and struck up a conversation with a very confident woman of color who is a senior. She mentioned how happy she is at SLO and that she believes the school (students, faculty and staff) are more diverse when she started 4 years ago.
Definitely, go visit Cal Poly SLO in person if your student is accepted to get firsthand experience and see if it’s the right fit/vibe for a successful college experience. The SLO community in general is not very diverse but the student population is more diverse than the town which might work. Locals have been very welcoming but we are Caucasian OOS so can’t speak for others from diverse backgrounds. My 1st year is an engineering major and the roommate she chose to live with and best friends with is Asian and she hasn’t had any issues with racism or feeling like she doesn’t belong so far. I will say College of Engineering feels like there is a more diverse student population compared to other colleges at Cal Poly so that is another factor to look at. Also, if you can make it to SLO during Thursday night Farmer’s Market or one of the local beaches on a warm Saturday or Sunday you will see more local diversity and get a better feel of the SLO community. Cal Poly is trying really hard to bring in students from diverse backgrounds and offering more financial aid but the inability to use ethnicity or sex or chance to list out ECs/awards/scholarships/jobs and submit essay there is no way for AOs to know if an applicant is from a diverse background. On top of that CSU’s make their admission decisions based on a total of calculated points run thru some algorithm so nothing is holistic…just based off of gpa, classes taken A-G, leadership (with no explanation), job experience to major (with no explanation) and how many hours you work or volunteer. Until, CSUs change their admission process this lack of diversity will always be a problem. UCs can’t see race or sex either when making admission decisions but their admission process is more holistic with the requirement of essays and ability to list off accomplishments, community involvement and work experience which they are able to gain more insight on who the applicant is, where they are from and what road blocks they had to overcome to succeed. A more holistic CSU application process won’t completely fix diversity issues or racists mindsets but it’s definitely a starting place and would bring around some positive changes.