I’m a high-school junior, who is searching for colleges. I’m mainly interested in colleges that have high percentages of students living on campus, like Cal Poly SLO and Santa Clara University; I live in California, and I plan to stay here for college.
This seems very low, in comparison to SLO’s 37% of all students living on campus, and Santa Clara’s 52% of all students living on campus. Is there anyone on this forum that goes to CSU Chico, and do you feel like it’s a residential campus or a commuter campus?
Also, for the general public, can you recommend any relatively low-cost non-commuter colleges in the California area? I have around a 3.9 GPA, in case that will affect your recommendations.
The 1% of all undergraduate students is probably a mistake. About 25% of CSUC students are frosh, so even if no non-frosh lived in the dorms, the percentage of all undergraduate students living in the dorms would be about 16% if the percentage of frosh living in the dorms is 62%.
Percentage of frosh living on campus is probably a better proxy for non-commuter students, since many non-commuter students live nearby off-campus after frosh year.
The CSUs with a higher percentage of frosh on campus include CPSLO (98%), SSU (90%), HSU (88%), CSUMB (81%), SDSU (69%), CSUC (62%), CSUCI (61%). The UCs are generally more residential than the CSUs, with over 70% of frosh living in the dorms. For California residents with financial need, UCs may have a net price lower than a CSU that you live at, but probably not compared to a CSU that you commute to (try the net price calculator at each school to get an idea of financial aid for your situation).
Chico has a reputation as a big-time party school, which suggests that most of the students live on or very near campus. Additionally, the population of the area around Chico isn’t big enough to support a commuter school the size of Chico State.
Chico is one of the less commuter CSU’s, as was noted above.
For a 3.9 GPA looking for a residential campus, look into the Claremont consortium or Occidental, perhaps Chapman?
The OP stated a criteria was low cost…don’t think that includes the Claremont colleges. My son is planning on attending Chico; my impression is that it is pretty residential for a CSU, although most of students living on campus are freshmen. It’s a lovely campus, have you been to visit?
The Claremonts are very low-cost for families that make less than 125K a year.
OP, what’s your EFC and what’s your parents’budget since (most likely) they can’t afford their EFC?