We’re full pay at Cal Poly SLO for D21. I think the final cost for her freshman year was $24,000-25,000. IMO, that’s a full pay “steal.” 
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That is a “steal” for sure! Both of my kids strongly considered Cal Poly SLO, but they decided to go elsewhere. It’s a great school in a great area and it’s definitely a great price!
Supposedly, at some private colleges, even those paying full list price are being subsidized by endowment earnings, because their spending per student is higher than full list price. However, that can depend on whether the high spending per student is really the case or is due to accounting quirks.
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@sushiritto - I agree that $25K is a steal for a great school like SLO. Although neither of my kids attended SLO I know a ton of kids that have gone there and every single one loved the school and San Luis Obispo.
Well, that is a common pitch of schools when they ask for donations - cost to educate > full fare fee! BUT, I have never gone through and looked to see if EVERY student paid full fare, if the cost to educate still more than total tuition collected.
Whether the high spending per student goes towards academic services, or all the administrative bloat that universities have built up is a question that I’d ask if they claim I am not paying enough.
My company loves to hire SLO grads, and I have known quite a few over the years. They’ve uniformly been good-to-great employees, and I’ve never met one who wasn’t happy they’d gone there. Great school.
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I’m sure I’ll/we’ll find an unhappy SLO student somewhere, but I certainly haven’t come across one either.
Great college environment and excellent for D’s major. And SLO really takes the “learn by doing” philosophy to another level.
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Lol, I actually did come across one unhappy SLO grad. But that was because of his unhappy, grumpy personality, not because of the school. He was still happy he went there.
The “learn by doing” is exactly why they make such good employees, right off the bat.
Back on topic…
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I do not mean to disparage people who work and live pay check to pay check. Sometimes circumstances leave people with little or no choice and they are just doing the best that they can. But this thread is about choices that kids have who are fortunate enough to be attending college and the amount of influence that parents can/should exercise in those choices. It is one thing to live paycheck to paycheck because of current circumstances, it is another to choose a career path and a lifestyle path that does not allow for savings. I would say a person who chooses to spend as much as they earn, whether it is 6 figures or 5 figures, is not being financially responsible. Your savings and your spending habits (unless mom/dad step in) are your cushion against poverty for any number of things out of your control that can happen.
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One data point…daughter earned 2 liberal arts degrees in 4 yrs plus study abroad summer before senior year. First professional job was $15/hr for 30 hrs a week in promising company, no benefits, and even that took several weeks to get. We agreed to subsidize her in studio apt in fairly expensive city for 6 mo-1 yr. to give her a chance to make it work. She also babysat extensively, and economized (No car, few lunches out, more). Eight years later and 3 companies later, she earned 10x times 1-yr college tuition per year, plus stock options and great benefits. She is a go getter and works very hard. She says her salary and lifestyle are not unusual for her peers and from what we can see we agree- more data points anecdotally.
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One can find happy and unhappy grads at any college. Hopefully there are far more of the former group than the latter. Many colleges have post grad surveys that detail what areas of the college experience students were most likely to like/dislike.
More related to the thread topic, like many publics, Cal Poly provides good information on outcomes. For a particular major, one can look up titles, employers, salary, and various other stats. It shows the same types of trends as every other college that has been listed in this thread. Some examples are below.
Cal Poly Computer Science Majors
- 100% worked in major related fields
- Most common job title = Software Engineer (distant first) and Software Developer
- Most common employers = Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft
- Most common industries = Computer SW
- Salaries vary by job title and are typically in low 6 figures
Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Majors
- 97% worked in major related fields
- Most common job title = Mechanical Engineer and Project Engineer
- Most common employers = Northrop Grumman, Apple, and ACCO Engineering
- Most common industries = Engineering: Mechanical
- Salaries vary by job title and are often low $70s k
Cal Poly Biology Majors
- 88% worked in major related fields
- Most common job title = Research Associate/Assistant and Sales Representative
- Most common employers = Genetech, Scribe America, Thermo Fisher Scientific
- Most common industries = Biological and Healthcare
- Average salary ranges from $20k for Medical Scribe to $60k for Sales Rep, Median near $40k?
Cal Poly Psychology Majors
- 77% worked in major related fields
- Most common job title = Assistant, Coordinator, Recruiter
- Most common employers = Family Care Network, Insight Global, Transitions Mental Health
- Most common industries = Counseling and Education
- Average salary = ~$40k
Cal Poly English Majors (small sample)
- 81% worked in major related fields
- Most common job title = Intern, Administrative Assistant, Recruiter
- Most common employers = Oracle, Apple, Cal Poly, Cuesta College
- Most common industries = Education
- Average salary = $32k
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This is a really interesting comment, mainly because I left a high-powered Big Law job to go into Public Interest in part due to my original desire to “pay back to the community” (as you put it).
I ended up regretting that decision, as my time in Public Interest has made me jaded to the illusion of work as “giving back to the community.” Most of my Public Interest colleagues are also jaded from the work, and many feel as if do-gooder jobs in Public Interest (and similar fields like journalism and NPO work) ultimately end up societally neutral at best (and more often than not doing more harm than good).
If you’re curious about this phenomenon, you can do some googling on the “Non-Profit Industrial Complex.” But my disillusionment with my career path has led me to push DD to more lucrative careers that don’t rely on the illusion of “giving back to the community” to underpay their workers, and many of my colleagues have done the same to their own kids.
An interesting book suggestion is “Work Won’t Love You Back” by Sarah Jaffe. Highly recommend that the people in this thread at least read a summary of the book.
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In this context there is also a concept called effective altruism that you may find interesting.
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I’ve only encouraged the pursuit of interests in general and made sure they knew that every interest doesn’t necessarily have to be job prospect. I’ve encouraged them to pursue career options that they enjoy but can also provide a comfortable lifestyle. Don’t need to make a ton of money but life is easier when you’re comfortable, not in debt or struggling. Balance. You can still pursue other interests as hobbies or in creative ways you can make them fit into jobs that pay more.
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No, my kids wouldn’t have listened to me anyways. We did guide them on their majors based on their interests. In the end, things worked out.
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I remember when my daughter was about 7 or 8 she was obsessed with baking - wanted to be a chef like every other kid watching top chef and baking competitions. I got her a macaron baking class from a professional retired chef. Several hours long. Turned out this woman was a chef in the White House during Carter administration! She made my daughter promise that when she got older if still interested in baking she’d pursue it as a hobby instead of career. (If anyone’s going to culinary school, please take with a grain of salt. Just her experience). She said it was quite an experience but she’d known too many brilliant chefs in her life who went under and had to sell at a loss because it was just that competitive and difficult to make a comfortable living in that career. After that, she decided baking was for fun only.
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I can remember going to Parents’ Weekend at my youngest son’s college and being told by the folks running the event that our children would most likely get into careers that came from their extracurricular activities. They were right. That is exactly the career he pursued with success.
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Hah! Apply that to anyone who has fantasies about the restaurant business. Though the real business-minded restauranteurs like Danny Meyer do just fine.
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Well music composition has various formats. I don’t think there’s much money in that but tweak it a little and music production pays very well. Top tier graduate from Clive Davis school of Music at NYU ( accepted 50 of 800 applicants about 10 years ago). Kids make about 50-95K coming out of school ( that was about 5 years ago). My family member made enough to live in LA and NYC. Many go directly into working for large companies after internships. These kids also study business as part of their degree. Many also take a % of the label or do deals with the artists in various ways.
Art dealer, top 5% would make a considerable sum esp in large cities. Many specialize. First they work for Sothebys, an important gallery then they go off and open their own gallery or ease into a sub specialty. Pay would amaze you. Starting salaries can be fairly low maybe 40-50K in a major cities goes very high only with specialization/ownership. Hours aren’t that long.
Other arts fields encompass film making production and works for hire. Someone who works for themselves designing sets or making films/shorts for ads can make a great living. The pay depends a lot on where they are located and what exactly they do. Painters who do portraits can also make a very good living if they get regular commissions.
People tend to diminish the pay of those in the arts. At the high end, the money is fantastic and not just for movie stars. Lots of creatives work in large creative companies which value makers/creators. So the management is also a bunch of creative types ( some with MBA’s many who just know that particular business). We have loads of creative people in my family. Some do quite well financially. It’s getting better all the time with the internet creating the ability for people to sell directly to their client and for clients to find exactly the services they need.
And of course, there’s always advertising. Very creative and pays quite a bit if you own the company ( small or large) or are a specialist in a particular niche.
And many artists, makers and producers now sell their items online at dozens if not hundreds of sites. Some do quite well esp artist who sell prints to order or who produce their artwork/photography on everything from blankets to canvas. I have a friend doing production work makes 7 figures a year. Yep.
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