<p>I am considering between two colleges. One is a public school in California, the other is a private school in California.</p>
<p>Cal Poly SanLuisObispo & Santa Clara (Business Major)</p>
<p>My question is, how bad is the CA public education? Is there a chance it could be completely shut down in like 3 years? Cal Poly is a great school. Are the budget cuts just meaning slighter expensiver tuitions and less class availability. </p>
<p>Could there be implications in the future where the UCs and Cal States just slowly spiral down further and further? Or is there hope for improvement? </p>
<p>I wouldn't mind spending 5 years at Cal Poly. An extra year in college (supposedly your best time of your life) with one less class each quarter or whatever doesn't sound that bad, especially with the very cheap tuition.</p>
<p>How much safer would it be to go the private route? What implications will happen in CA Public schools like Poly? And what's going to happen in the future?</p>
<p>You could spend 10 years at Cal Poly and still pay less than four years at Santa Clara. Don’t get me wrong, I think Santa Clara is a very good school, but so it Cal Poly.</p>
<p>If you are willing to take classes when you can get them (early morning, friday afternoon) you will be able to get your classes. CA public colleges are a mess, but the CSU system will be around and Cal Poly will not go anywhere soon. The state is mandating work furloughs so offices are closed more days, but the school still runs. Expect fees to go up and housing too…but still a bargain.</p>
<p>Of course it would be safer to go private and who knows what will happen in the future.
But a Cal Poly has a very good, competitive business program for the price. </p>
<p>Plus the town of SLO is way cooler than Santa Clara…</p>
<p>well 5 years at cal poly = 5 times 25k = 125 k,
while 4 years at scu = 4 times 50 = 200 k, but one year of working = -40k, so 160k.</p>
<p>SCU is ranked a bit higher too in business so job opportunities are better. 5 years at SLO is still a bit better financially, but not much, especially if they maybe rise tuition even more within the next 5 years. If it comes to 6 years at SLO, those extra 2 years I could be working at SCU could make SCU better financially then actually.</p>
<p>But I agree, CPSLO is really good and has a bomb town.</p>
<p>this is going to be a tough choice for me. If anyone has any advice haha, PLEASE share.</p>
<p>I would look at the really long picture-- 4 years of undergrad and then one year of grad ( 2 years for mba) makes much more sense than 5 years of undergrad.</p>
<p>I would also look at what your ap credits would be at each school— this could mean a quarter, even 2 or 3 are already done and that money is saved. Plus, summers at a jr college can save more money by knocking out ges. </p>
<p>Lastly, for a business major especially, I would go where I want to work after school if I could-- because the internships often turn into jobs.</p>
<p>I will probably only have 2 ap tests done: government and environmental science. so not much…</p>
<p>well SCU is in silicon valley, which is pretty sweet. and cal poly is in the middle of nowhere, but i heard they still get lots of recruiters on campus etc…</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, I think those are the numbers from an earlier year. The COA link on the Cal Poly website takes you to the 2008-2009 numbers; you need to navigate to the 2010-11 numbers using the left sidebar. Talk about bait and switch! :)</p>
<p>Oops, never mind, your number is just for fees and board. The personal expenses and books bring it up to the current number.</p>
<p>Cal Poly’s stated COA is close to $22K/year, but it’s not difficult to come in well under that.</p>
<p>Depending on where you live, the $1089 transportation allowance is very generous. My son takes the Amtrak bus, $75 round trip, $450 total for the year. Books & supplies - allowance is $1674, will be around $1000 for my son. Miscellaneous allowance is $2250, will be around $1200. Actual spent for 2009-2010 will be around $19,000, including additional food and living in Cerro Vista. Living off campus next year will save around $3000.</p>
<p>The most problematic part of going to a CSU is dealing with furloughs. It’s nearly impossible to cover the same course material with 10% less class time. The students are the ones being hurt by this as the curriculum is cut back.</p>
<p>CSUs also have a very poor 4-year graduation rate. This is being addressed specifically at Cal Poly by adding summer sections and guarenteeing that if students follow the flow chart of courses for their major in the order given, that they will have a spot in each quarter’s required major course(s). So far there’s been no issue with my son getting courses at the time of day and with the professor he wants.</p>
<p>Is this a difficult time for CSUs? Absolutely. Can one still get an excellent education? I believe so.</p>
<p>My son is carrying 17 credits this semester, and he has had no problems getting the courses he needs. He couldn’t preregister for more than 16, and so had to crash a class to get his last class, but that worked no problem.<br>
Cal Poly seems very generous with their AP credit (I think most of the state schools are), giving credit for 3s in most cases. I don’t know about Santa Clara.<br>
I agree with vballmom. Its definitely not $25K a year to go to Cal Poly. We are paying under $20K for everything. It might depend on your major, but books have been under $1000 a year (and my son resells them to the books store at the end of the semester). He catches rides to and from school with others and chips in $20 for gas, so transportation costs are minimal. I’m not sure about personal expenses – thats on my son. He lives off campus in a house he shares with 3 others, and we give him money for rent, utilities and food, and thats it. Cal Poly is definititely one of the cheaper CA schools to go to.</p>
<p>Are you stating 5 years at CalPoly because of a desire to spend 5 years in undergrad or because you’re assuming you won’t be able to get classes and will be forced into 5 years there vs 4 years at a private? I don’t think an assumption of having to spend 5 years to get classes is necessarily valid. I know it’s not at colleges like UCLA, UCSD but don’t know for CalPoly if you plan ahead and are flexible on selecting courses and don’t slack (i.e. take a minimum load). If you’re talking 5 years just because you can due to the affordability (and IMO a fair number of students who go over 4 years at some of the publics do so for this reason - i.e. ‘they can’) then it’s not a direct comparison of 5 years at one place vs 4 years at the other.</p>
<p>My D at UCLA hasn’t experienced many noticable or direct changes due to the budget issues other than one class getting cancelled for one quarter requiring her to take it another quarter instead and adjust her other courses accordingly. Of course, tuition has increased and there seem to be random fees for things so the cost has gone up but is still way lower than a full-pay private.</p>
<p>generally when a class isn’t offered or you can’t get in for the term you want, advisers are being extremely generous about allowing students to break sequences or waive pre-reqs in order to take whatever class is available and not delay students from graduating (even to the extent I’ve had some friends allowed in classes they were absolutely unprepared for).</p>