Just want to get clarity on something, are these the same schools:
CS-Fresno/Fresno St
CS-Long Beach/Long Beach St.
Yes.
It can CSULB= Cal State Long Beach or Long Beach State
CSUF can be Cal State Fresno or more commonly called Fresno State.
CSUF could also be Cal State Fullerton.
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That was quick! Thanks @Gumbymom! In what contexts is the Cal State construction used?
Cal state stands for California State University, then location.
For some California locations, it is important to distinguish between Cal States vs. UC’s (University of California) vs. Private universities.
Here is an example.
SDSU= San Diego State, Cal State University, San Diego
UCSD= UC San Diego or University of California, San Diego
USD= University of San Diego (Private Catholic University)
Different nomenclature which means the same school.
Locals to San Diego offer refer to it as State.
I am sure local students in Fresno probably refer to Fresno state as State also.
The Cal state system was setup specifically allow access for local area HS and community college students and many have nicknames for the local schools.
Long Beach is known as the “Beach”.
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An example of differentiating between a CS and UC:
CS-LA v UCLA, 2 VERY different schools.
They also do not use CS-LA but CSULA vs. UCLA
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This is helpful and I can see how it’s totally confusing if you’re not from CA, too.
CSUS = Cal State University Sacramento but we just call it Sac State in the area.
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I think Fresno State, Long Beach State, San Francisco State, Chico State, etc are what they used to be known as before they rebranded them all as Cal State Fresno, Cal State Long Beach etc.
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Most of the California State University campuses are named “California State University (location)” or CSU(location-abbreviation).
So the one in Long Beach is “California State University Long Beach” or CSULB.
The exceptions:
- Humboldt, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Sonoma: “(location) State University”. For example, “San Francisco State University” or SFSU.
- San Luis Obispo: “California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo” or CPSLO.
- Pomona: “California State Polytechnic University Pomona” or CPP.
- Vallejo: “California State University Maritime Academy” or CSUMA.
Note: CSUS and CSUF are ambiguous due to Sacramento / Stanislaus and Fresno / Fullerton.
@MommaLue that was my EXACT theory!
Californians: Cal State Long Beach
Outsiders: Long Beach State Univerdity
@barbthewarrior DH who graduated from CSU-LB a million years ago just told me they called their school Long Beach State. 
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They intentionally rebranded the names some years back so that most of them are now officially called CSU place name.
https://www2.calstate.edu/csu-system/csu-branding-standards/Pages/brand-identity.aspx
I just googled for more info. There seems like there has been a lot of back and forth on the names. From Wikipedia:
" On May 23, 1972, fourteen of the nineteen CSU campuses were renamed to “California State University,” followed by a comma and then their geographic designation. The five campuses exempted from renaming were the five newest state colleges created during the 1960s. The new names were very unpopular at certain campuses, and in 1974, all CSU campuses were given the option to revert to an older name: e.g., San Jose State, San Diego State, San Francisco State, etc."
Then again some time in the last 20 years, I remember them making a push to use the CSU-place name moniker again.
Then why isn’t SDSU called CSUSD? Too hard to say haha?
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@keslee88: Probably. As shown by @jntwinmama there is still confusion regarding how the schools should be named and many reverted back to the old names. San Diego State, San Francisco State etc…
Hard to teach an old dog new tricks…
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I appreciate this thread and some of the backstory! I’ve lived in SD county for 8 years, but it’s only been in the last couple (when S21’s college journey started) that I even realized SDSU and CP SLO were part of the CSU system. The things you learn when you have a high schooler!
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Ha, never realized I graduated from the Beach!
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@Seabass927 For years and years I thought Cal Poly (let alone know the diff between Pomona and SLO since I thought they were the same) was a private school. . When I see “Polytech…” I think of Cal Tech, MIT…
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SAME! I confused Cal Tech and Cal Poly forever!!!
I didn’t confuse them, BUT I too assumed Poly SLO was private.