Residential Colleges vs Commuter Colleges?

Student Lounge College Life
1

Hi everyone, I am currently an Oregon resident but plan to go to California for college because my family lives in California, specifically SoCal. Although I would like to go to college in SoCal, I would also like to live on dorm to meet new people considering im getting a “fresh start” in California, so i’m pretty set on going to a residential school. Is there anyway for me to check if my schools are considered residential dorms? Thank you, and incase anyone wants to help, here is my current list of colleges, in California. Nothing against commuter schools, it’s just I have a hard time meeting new people and so a residential college would be the best considering I would be completely new to the state:) thanks

California State Northridge
California State Dominguez Hills
California State Long Beach
California State Fullerton
California State Pomona
California State San Marcos
San Diego State University
UC San Diego
UC Irvine
UC Los Angeles
UC Santa Barbara
University of Southern California

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In general, the Cal States are considered more “commuter” colleges while USC and the UC’s will be more Residential.

If you are outside the local service area, usually outside a 30-50 mile radius from a Cal State, they will have a Freshman on-campus housing requirement.

San Diego State although a Cal State, now has a 2 year housing requirement for all students outside the local service area. Also many students continue to live within a few miles of the campus so can be considered more residential than the rest of the Cal States on your list.

Of the UC’s listed, only UCSB guarantees on-campus housing if you live the first 2 years in their dorms. The rest of the UC’s guarantee Freshman housings and Sophomore housing is usually available on a first come basis.

USC seems to have a housing guarantee up to Sophomore year and then a lottery for the Junior/Senior year.

If you want more Residential Cal States, consider Cal Poly SLO, Humbdolt and Chico.

Just remember that usually on-campus housing costs are more than off-campus housing costs so that may be another factor you should consider.

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Sonoma State is another CSU that is more residential. They now have a housing guarantee for all first year students and it is a much more residential than CSU San Marcos, Dominguez Hills, and Northridge at least.

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I noticed the residential cal states were all in norcal which unfortunately is a deal breaker for me because I’m moving to california for family, Although most of the cal states in SoCal are commuter, is there some that are more residential? Like SDSU wouldn’t be considered a residential college but it is still pretty residential compared to the average commuter college?

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Yes, SDSU is considered more residential than the other CSU’s you listed since many students live within a few miles of campus when they move off after 2nd year. My younger son went there and he lived within 2 blocks of SDSU for the 4 years he attended.

SDSU is expanding their own campus housing and like I stated in the above post, they require that you live 2 years on campus. 2nd year options include either dorms or campus owned apartments. There are plenty of apartment options within a few blocks of campus after 2nd year. Housing is not cheap in San Diego however, but splitting with several roommates can make it manageable. SDSU just completed a bunch of new housing for this year’s in-coming class and are currently building more housing for next year’s class. Depending upon how much space is available, they may have options for Juniors and Seniors eventually.

All the CSU’s offer Freshman housing if you live outside the local service area so dorms are available and many students find living off campus can be much more affordable.

All the UC’s guarantee Freshman housing, but very few guarantee 4 years of housing on-campus and most are not considered commuter campuses.

If you really want a residential college experience and have 4 years on-campus, then private universities is where you would want to focus.

I know you stated you are living in Oregon, but the best way to determine if any of the schools will meet your requirements is to visit.

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I have a question for you. Why are you limiting yourself to Southern California, especially if you do not want a commuter type school and I assume you do not want to commute? UCSB is really not considered Southern California. Are you looking at a particular mile radius for the schools you plan to apply? Where in California is your family?

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Look at each college’s Common Data Set, section F1, to see the percentage of frosh living in campus housing. For example, this is 14% at CSUDH ( https://www.csudh.edu/Assets/csudh-sites/irap/docs/cds/cds_2016-2017_f.pdf ), 62% at SDSU ( https://asir.sdsu.edu/Documents/CommonDataSets/CDS_2017-2018.pdf ), and 98% at UCLA ( https://www.apb.ucla.edu/campus-statistics/common-data-set ). This suggests that CSUDH is mainly a commuter campus, while SDSU has a substantial resident population but still has a significant commuter population, and UCLA is a very residential campus. Note that it is common for resident students to live in nearby off-campus housing after frosh year, so that percentage of all students living in campus housing is a less accurate proxy of how residential or commuter the campus is.

If you are an Oregon resident, California public universities will not offer any need-based financial aid, so you should expect to pay out-of-state list price. Large merit scholarships are rare. Some schools like CSUN, CSUSB, CSUSM, and (for the top 15% of students from WUE states) CPP do offer WUE discount, which means tuition of 1.5 times in-state tuition.

USC is a private university, so you could be eligible for need-based financial aid there.

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Hi Gumbymom, thanks for replying to so many of my questions. To be honest, I am really only focusing on schools in Southern California because i have family spread out from LA to San Diego. If I were to pay out of state tuition, I would only do it for schools in SoCal, otherwise I would just rather save the money and stay instate!

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Thank you for the answer. Are your parents willing to pay $65K/year for you to attend a UC or $40K/year to attend a Cal State even with good options in Oregon?

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stats and budget?

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To be honest with you guys, I have been applying for a lot of scholarships, already have done 6 this month with a goal of doing about 25 by the end of this month, if I do go to california I would probably work part time, do a work study, and rely on a lot of scholarship.

Stats:
UNWEIGHTED GPA: 3.92 ← I know most California schools don’t include freshman year so it would be lower.

Freshman year: 4.0 (both semesters)
Only advanced class was Honors English 1

Sophomore year 4.0 (both semesters)
One AP Class (Ap Human Geography)

Junior year 3.75 (both semesters)
First semester I had 2 B’s and 6 A’s, and Junior year I had 1 C and 7 A’s
Junior year I had 2 AP Classes, 2 College Dual credit classes, and 1 normal advanced classes.
AP’s = Psychology and Stats
Dual Credits = College Chemistry, and College US History
Advanced class = Advanced English 3

2 years of spanish, doing a 3rd year my senior year, I also did one year of french for fun and speak 2 other languages at home somewhat fluently, Vietnamese and Chinese.

SAT: Currently waiting for my score as the October 6th date was my first

Extracurriculars:

Key Club (volunteer club)
LEGACY Health Club

Youth Advisors Committee
Rocket Club
Vietnamese Student Union
Track and Field
National Honors Society
Spanish Honors Society
Science Bowl
Model UN Club

Sports:
I’ve never been good at sports, have tried out for tennis and basketball but didn’t make it. Only sport i’ve done is Track and Field (JV).

Budget wise: My family and I don’t really have a budget as they have been planning to take on loans, but with the scholarships I have been applying for and the money I have saved I am hoping to pay at max around 30k a year (my #1 choice currently is a Cal State, SDSU)

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Parent loans are typically a bad idea. What would the budget be without parent loans and with student loans limited to the federal direct loans ($5,500 first year)?

SDSU 2018-2019 estimated cost for out-of-state students is $41,042, according to https://admissions.sdsu.edu/about_sdsu/costs_of_attendance .

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Hey @ucbalumnus thanks for the quick answer!

I have not done very much budgeting yet because I am really banking on scholarships, but I plan to start working a part time job and if my math is correct, by the time I go to college I will have ~10,000 saved (this is including my current savings). I have been spending hours daily on scholarships and even if I only win 10% of them that would be about $20,000 which is what I am hoping for. All of these scholarships are also outside of schools, so if I do attend a certain school I would hope to be eligible for their own individual scholarships as well. Along with a maximum of 5,500 in student loans, I think that I will be able to afford it. I dont know if its crazy, but I’ve seen many students who earn over 100,000 in scholarships by staying on top of scholarships and stuff, so I hope to do that. Currently, with the way the due dates are set up I should have about 25-35 scholarships done for various institutions( THAT ARE NOT ALL SWEEPSTAKES, most of them i have had to do an actual essay for, with high school transcript, personal statement, etc).

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Your college list needs to include safeties which are affordable even if you do not get the scholarships.

Be careful to note whether the outside scholarships are one year only or renewable for four years, and what the renewal conditions are (e.g. GPA).

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UC’s and CSU’s give little merit (scholarships) and little to no need-based aid for OOS applicants. I would not bank on any of the outside scholarships for 4 years either. You might be able to make it through your first year, but working part-time and attending some demanding/competitive schools can make your subsequent year earnings not as high as you think. You also have to be low income to qualify for work study.

Definitely try to figure out a budget, since you do not want to start school in California and find out you cannot afford to complete your degree.

Not trying to discourage you, but I think you need to be realistic about the money situation. California will always be here either for Graduate school or work. Nothing worse than seeing students graduate in a large amount of debt then unable to find a decent paying job to pay off that debt.

16

Thank you both for your advice, I have decided that I am probably not going to apply to the UC’s because even if I could get in, I couldn’t afford it. Will still be trying for some cal states (specifically SDSU) thank you! and sorry for the late reply :smiley: