Can anyone tell me about the freshman housing options? Does anyone recommend the apartments? How is the on-campus food/meal plans?
Assuming you’ve gone out on the Cal Poly website for freshman housing, you can’t go wrong with your choice. They are replacing one of their main parking lots with additional student housing (to address the increased student population and theoretical continued requirement that incoming freshmen live on campus) - not sure on the completion date for this new housing.). Key is submitting your housing application as soon as possible after admittance to increase their chances of getting into the place they want to live. Think you’ll find that most students were happy with where they ended up.
As to the food/meal plan, our experience was go for the lightest/cheapest meal plan unless you know your kid is going to be heading down for every meal at the cafeteria or elsewhere. Our kid even had a hard time spending their Cal Poly bucks (or whatever they are called…) on the most reduced plan.
The food quality is certainly one of Poly’s weaknesses.
As for dorms, I’d look at the living learning option for your student’s major. PCV always looks attractive, because it’s new. There won’t be many freshmen though and it’s a hike to class.
Thanks @swimdogmom and @eyemgh for your advice! While my daughter likes the idea of apartment living, I think she’d like to live in the dorms so that she has the opportunity to meet new people…although it would be GREAT to have a kitchen and PCV looked incredible when we visited…it even has a pool!
My daughter plans to apply Early Decision, so does that mean that she will be able to submit her housing application early. if accepted ED, so that she will have a higher chance of getting the housing of her choice? Most importantly, she’d like to live in a double vs. a triple. We’ve read that a lot of the students really like Sierra Madre. Any opinions on that housing option? That would be great if there was brand new student housing available. @swimdogmom…Do you know if they have started construction of the new housing yet?
The new housing won’t be completed until at least Fall of 2018:
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/education/article39465813.html
Thanks, @ocgolfdad 
I’m a big fan of working around WHO you’ll be living with as opposed to WHERE you’ll be living. The transition to college for some is difficult. Living with students who know EXACTLY what you’re going through is immensely helpful. The living learning communities accomplish that in a great way. It’s really difficult to be an engineer living with, say, business students. The work loads are vastly different. If you choose living learning community though, you have to live in the dorm that houses your major. For engineering/computer science that’s Santa Lucia in the red bricks. Not sure about the rest. Good luck!
Thanks, @eyemgh. Do you know if there are a fair number of female engineering majors who live in Santa Lucia?
Roughly half. My son was in a triple too, not by choice. In retrospect, it was great for him. He is very close with both his roommates still.
@eyemgh - That’s interesting since the % of women in engineering is so much lower than men. Thanks for all your help
No, I wasn’t clear, roughly half of the students in Santa Lucia are female. It’s split 50/50, give or take.
My daughter lived in Santa Lucia despite being an architecture major (she wouldn’t recommend living in a different dorm than your major but that was her experience). She seemed to imply that the girls floor was wedged between the guys floors so greater percentage of guys? Maybe the guys were triples and the girls were doubles??? Anyway pretty classic dorm living with common shower areas. Really - it all ends up working out and part of the “learn by doing” experience.
Thanks @eyemgh and @swimdogmom. I really appreciate all of the useful information you are providing us! @swimdogmom…I read on a thread from last spring that Santa Lucia was turning to all the rooms being triples. Do you, by chance, know if that is the case for this year? Did your daughter find the dorm to be fairly social? My daughter likes the idea of the the living learning community from an academic standpoint but is also interested in meeting a variety of people.
My son was in Santa Lucia also. They get to know people in their wing of their floor very well, people on the the rest of the floor pretty well, and the students on the other floors here and there. They don’t party in the hallways, but they tend to do lots of non-academic things together (go to the beach, town, etc.).
@Mumstheword2 I have 2 students admitted through ED and attend Cal Poly. You can submit housing app in January – they did it the first day possible and both got their first choice housing and a double. They wanted to meet kids outside their majors (Business and Engineering) and went with the tower theme community option one was in Sierra Madre and one now in Yosemite. Depends on what environment your student wants – no bad options just different.
Thanks @eyemgh and @Dadfan! Great information! We are probably getting ahead of ourselves since we don’t even know if she will be admitted, but keeping fingers crossed!
My son applied ED for fall 2015 and is currently living in Yosemite, his first choice. He loves dorm life, and one of his friends was placed in CV. At first, he was sorry for his buddy not having the dorm life, but now 6 weeks in, and having crappy food options, he thinks having a kitchen would be a great thing to have! SM and Y are known as the party dorms, but you can party anywhere, and some of his friends in the red bricks are fed up of the noise there. Even though he’s right in the heart of the dorms, he’s busy with his studies, so he doesn’t party much at all. That’s engineering for you!
I had a student in Santa Lucia last year. While it was mostly engineering majors, there were students with other majors (math, chem, liberal studies, psychology to name a few I personally know of). Regarding the question of how many females live there, last year, 2 of the 6 wings were female while the other 4 were male. First and second floor were each 1/2 and 1/2, third floor was all guys. There were a few doubles last year, but the vast majority of rooms were triples. Smallest rooms on campus by the way. Those triples are really crowded.
Thanks @cscalpolymom and @caligirl13! Your information is very helpful. If Santa Lucia is almost all triples, I don’t know if that would be my daughter’s first choice. She’d really like a double. @cscalpolymom…Where does your son do most of his studying then? Does he go to the library? How does he like the facilities and the size of the room in Yosemite? My daughter wants to live somewhere that is easy to meet people, but studying will also be a priority for her.
@Mumstheword2, I’d strongly encourage her NOT to study in her room. It’s far better to find a good, quiet spot on campus, be it the library or squirreled away in one of the many nooks and crannies on campus. There’s too many distractions in the dorms. It’s also important to study during the day, between classes rather than saving it like we learned to do in HS. That was by necessity because there were no breaks during the day.