I love ya @10s4life, you’re a great asset to this site, but “unrivaled school spirit”? UCLA had its worst football attendance in 2019, since moving to the Rose Bowl in 1982. Now, maybe football doesn’t matter to UCLA and its students, but “unrivaled school spirit”? 
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This is of course all self-reported data, but looking at LinkedIn for the top 8 employers for AE’s in order from each school yields the following:
Cal Poly: Northrop, Lockheed, Boeing, General Atomics, ESAero, JPL, SpaceX, NASA Ames
UCLA: Northrop, Boeing, Aerospace Corp, Lockheed, JPL, Raytheon, SpaceX, General Atomics
To my eye…pretty similar.
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Ok you got me there, maybe not for actual game attendance but I was referring more to the fun activities that happens back on campus in Westwood and the overall experience. Also the tailgating crowds are typically larger than those that actually make it in the game :).
Basketball games are packed at least.
Well, if it’s any consolation, once UCLA gets rid of Chip Kelly, then fans will come back. Kelly killed the spirit of football fans of the San Francisco 49ers (me) too.
If the athletics spectator experience is important, don’t choose Cal Poly, unless soccer is your thing. They get 20,000+ crowds for soccer, when most schools are happy to have 50 fans. 
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Doesn’t sound like you should choose UCLA either, if athletics spectator experience is important. 
OTOH, maybe your UCLA stadium experience is enhanced when you can choose pretty much any seat you want at the Rose Bowl. 
Haha you really do bleed Blue 
I’m a SLO grad (1997 psychology), my brother (1992 computer science). We grew up on the Central Coast so the environment was nothing new to us, but as black students, the lack of diversity was glaring. But SLO is a phenomenal engineering school. One of the Astronauts up in the International Space Station right now (Victor Glover) is a SLO grad.
I advised my daughter to not even apply to SLO for Computer Science as I don’t think she would enjoy the environment. She’s been accepted as a CS major at UCLA, UCI, UCSD and UCR. Still waiting on UCB and Stanford
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Congrats on the wonderful acceptances. In terms of diversity, Cal Poly is making strides, since the 2019-2020 class was their most diverse yet.
That’s great to hear! I’m a proud SLO grad, as is my brother. But the lack of diversity has always bothered me.
Diversity and the drive to increase it, is interesting. Personally, I think it has a lot more to do with historical regional demographics than a particular school’s effort to increase diversity.
There was a time when the vast majority of college students were almost exclusively upper middle class and higher white kids. As things changed and more students of color started attending college, it wasn’t common for them to travel far from home. Most kids didn’t no matter their race. As a result the demographics of a school tended to reflect those of their communities.
San Luis Obispo and the surrounding area has historically been and still is pretty white. It becomes a chicken and egg, program of attraction sort of thing…black kids don’t go to Cal Poly because there are so few black kids at Cal Poly. Who can blame them. The question is…how do you change it.
I think Cal Poly has done an admirable job at increasing diversity within the confines of the affirmative action laws in the state. It would still be more challenging to be a black student there than either UCB or UCLA. It’s completely understandable why a non-white student would factor that into their decision.
That said, Commander Glover, pilot on the first Dragon flight to the ISS and Cal Poly alum (Class of 1999), is black.
UCLA, UCB and Cal Poly have each graduated 5 astronauts.
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It is not obvious, but the numbers in @goosenaround 's post are the ones specific to bachelor’s degree graduates in aerospace engineering at each school (other information: CPSLO had 98 graduates with $22,407 median debt, while UCLA had 38 graduates with $16,286 median debt). These numbers from College Scorecard are for students who received federal financial aid (College Navigator’s count of graduates in aerospace engineering at each school suggests that these represent most of the students in the major at each school).
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Demographic comparison:
CPSLO: 54% W, 18% L, 14% A, 1% B, 0% N, 0% P, 8% M, 4% U, 2% I / 14% Pell
UCB: 38% A, 24% W, 16% L, 2% B, 0% N, 0% P, 6% M, 4% U, 13% I / 23% Pell
UCLA: 28% A, 26% W, 22% L, 3% B, 0% N, 0% P, 6% M, 3% U, 11% I / 26% Pell
California public school students: 54.9% L, 22.4% W, 11.7% A*, 5.3% B, 0.5% N, 0.4% P, 3.9% M, 0.9% U (* listed by California Department of Education as 9.3% Asian and 2.4% Filipino listed separately, unlike in College Navigator)
Probably about a third of all degree seeking college students get Pell grants, though probably close to half of all traditional college age students would get Pell grants if they went to college.
Thx for participating. Can’t imagine a discussion of Slo without your input… I am not even on this thread… Lol
that is much lower than the actual median salary that the ucla career center reports.
@knowstuff, thank you! I’ve been away from CC because the format change gave me an excuse for a clean break. I miss it thought, so I’ll probably be lurking more again. 
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@eyemgh you are absolutely correct. My brother and I grew up on the Central Coast, so a lack of diversity was nothing new to us. But for a kid from say Los Angeles or the Bay Area it can be a bit of a shock. I know a couple of white kids that visited SLO but the lack of diversity played a role in them choosing not to attend.
It’s definitely a tough thing to change considering the demographics of the surrounding area. But I have seen serval articles in recent years that indicate they are making an effort.
I’m a proud SLO grad who hyped SLO to my daughter for years, but when it actually came to me for her to start applying I was like “the overall environment (including the lack of diversity) would be a complete culture shock to her and I don’t think she’d be happy there”.
It’s gonna be isolating enough being a black girl in CS on any campus.
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I noticed that but you have always been one of the most helpful people on CC especially to me also so I always appreciate your contributions. Plus Slo is so overlooked. I know a few people that got into MIT and decided on Slo. They must be doing something right…
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To be fair, endowments have nothing to do with how faculty are paid at public universities. The faculty are unionized and negotiate. I assure you that SLO faculty are paid well & have good benefits - similar & in some instances better than UCLA. As far as facilities - I know nothing of UCLA’s but SLO’s are rather nice. My sister is tenured faculty there so I’ve spent a lot time there & know many faculty.
I think both are good options. What UCLA has above SLO is greater diversity & a city location. But professors are more accessible at SLO.
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We toured A LOT of schools. Cal Poly’s engineering facilities that are used by undergrads (that’s a VERY important distinction, as many of the cool toys are reserved for upper level research at PhD granting institutions) are impressive. They have close to 80 distinct labs in the College of Engineering alone. The ME fluids lab has multiple wind tunnels and they have them in the AE department too. They have an advanced vibrations lab, a rotational dynamics lab, you name it, they probably have it. It’s one of their strengths. My son literally did multiple lab projects that were on par or superior to senior projects at many schools.
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