Thank you all for your support. It helps to hear that others can appreciate what he accomplished! He has an exceptional paid job in CS since he was 14. Working with many very large companies. We are so very proud of him and were just bummed that it didn’t bump him over the hump for admission at UCLA(waitlisted) or UCB. But he will do amazing things at SLO that I know for sure! Thankful for the kind CC community!
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Exactly. I’m befuddled that there seems to be a perception such as the one expressed above that CSUs, Poly or otherwise, are some sort of inferior educational experience. There are many states whose flagship schools don’t offer the level of excellent education that students can receive at some of the schools within our CSU system. We’ve got a plethora of incredible higher ed options in California, and while UC is a part of that, it’s definitely not the beginning and end!
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In terms of SCU MERIT scholarships, there are several. D21 was accepted to SCU with a Bronco Scholarship, and ultimately got much more than the $10,000 mentioned above, but there were many others in her admissions cycle who received both the Dean’s and Bronco Scholarships and they were fairly big $$$.
https://www.scu.edu/financialaid/types-of-aid/scholarships-and-grants/merit-scholarships/
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I think SLO is an amazing school! Was just venting my experience with the UC’s, which in no way was to diminish the greatness of our CSU system.
From @sharmaJi:
A). Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 75 Percentile Salary Ranking
A1. UCLA Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 75 Percentile salary
A2. UCB Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 75 Percentile salary
A3. Cal Poly SLO Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 75 Percentile salary
A4. UCSD Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 75 Percentile salary
A5. UCD Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 75 Percentile salary
A6. UCSB Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 75 Percentile salary
A7. UCI Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 75 Percentile salary
A8. UCSC Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 75 Percentile salary
B). Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Mean(Average) Salary Ranking
B1. UCB Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Mean(Average) salary
B2. UCLA Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Mean(Average) salary
B3. Cal Poly SLO Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Mean(Average) salary
B4. UCSD Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Mean(Average) salary
B5. UCD Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Mean(Average) salary
B6. UCSB Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Mean(Average) salary
B7. UCI Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Mean(Average) salary
B8. UCSC Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Mean(Average) salary
C). Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Median Salary Ranking
C1. UCLA Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Median salary
C2. UCB Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Median salary
C3. Cal Poly SLO Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Median salary
C4. UCSD Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Median salary
C5. UCSB Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Median salary
C6. UCD Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Median salary
C7. UCI Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Median salary
C8. UCSC Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni Median salary
D). Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 25 Percentile Salary Ranking
D1. UCB Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 25 Percentile salary
D2. UCLA Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 25 Percentile salary
D3. Cal Poly SLO Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 25 Percentile salary
D4. UCSD Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 25 Percentile salary
D5. UCSB Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 25 Percentile salary
D6. UCD Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 25 Percentile salary
D7. UCSC Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 25 Percentile salary
D8. UCI Freshman Alumni 2 years CS Alumni 25 Percentile salary
https://www.reddit.com/r/CalPoly/comments/125bny1/nyt_cal_poly_4_in_value_for_money/
I posted this within the past day or two on the SLO forum…
| Rank | University |
|---|---|
| 1 | CalTech |
| 2 | MIT |
| 6 | CMU |
| 8 | Stanford |
| 10 | Princeton |
| 22 | Columbia |
| 25 | Yale |
| 32 | Harvard |
| 34 | USC |
| 40 | Cal Poly |
| 42 | UC Berkeley |
| 46 | Vanderbilt |
| 48 | Brown |
| 68 | UC San Diego |
| 72 | UCLA |
| 88 | UC Irvine |
| 104 | UC Davis |
| 115 | UW Seattle |
| 127 | UT Austin |
| 151 | UC Santa Barbara |
r/CalPoly - NYT: Cal Poly #4 in value for money
69 votes and 9 comments so far on Reddit
ETA: The Reddit post has a NYT link, which I can’t view, because I don’t have a subscription.
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Totally! And I should clarify, my comment on that was not at all directed towards you but rather towards a different comment that suggested that you couldn’t go on to get higher degrees from CSUs. If it were up to me, your kiddo would have had admission everywhere he applied haha.
Lol! Thanks!! 
If they merge all the UCs and CSUs and call them all UC, suddenly there are a lot of “acceptable” options!
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The students I know of received full merit to SCU were very low income, first gen students. The rest were partial merit where the family is on the hook for at least 30-35k a year. Comparable to UC (with R&B) but still expensive for many families.
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I personally know several CSU students that participated in Research at SDSU, CSU Fullerton and Cal Poly Pomona. There are research opportunities at the CSU’s.
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Yes, that was the case for D21. SCU was just a bit higher than the UC’s (after merit aid) she was considering, but SCU is a private institution with small class sizes and a finely manicured campus in the middle of Silicon Valley with a whole lot of local internship opportunities, which was very attractive to our family. Ultimately, D21 chose SLO.
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This is what I know too.
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Cal Poly SLO EE alum here. I would beg to differ with your opinion.
Post Cal Poly, I did my graduate studies at Harvard and Stanford (AI-focused).
You were correct about the career preparation part. Because of Cal Poly, I was able to join 2 startups (sequentially, both as a design engineer) that went IPO. I subsequently went on to work for Fortune 50s at a senior executive leadership level.
I owed a lot of my career success to Cal Poly. For 4 years, they pounded into me not just how to be a good engineer, but also how to apply the scientific method to all aspects of life. My rigorous Cal Poly education enabled me to successfully pursue my graduate studies and a career well beyond engineering.
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Let me clarify: it wasn’t my intention to ‘imply’ UC is better than CSU. They are not. The two systems are quite different on their approach to education students. Maybe research/master/phd are no longer good proxies to evaluate their differences. Bottom line is, if one want their careers in academia, research institute and theory skills (basic science etc), they should attend UCs. If one is more into practical skills, they should choose CSU.
There is a reason why CSUs rarely have PHD programs in basic science.
SLO is a great school. It is the best example how a CSU should run.
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But we are discussing a child’s choice of undergraduate degree and how the CSU’s can be a good alternative.
Once they have obtained that degree, they can choose to apply elsewhere for graduate studies if they wish.
Also, SDSU is another example of a CSU with some decent PhD options.
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I noticed a common theme here. Everybody wants to get into computer science at Berkeley and UCLA.
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Yes, I know the $17k/tuition for UC is tuition only. I don’t find it “misleading” at all–I’m well aware that room and board costs will be more than double that (my current high school senior will be my 4th in college and thankfully my last!).
It’s funny because I happen to know from direct experience that a student with a dismal 2.4 HS GPA (but As and two 5s in AP CS Principles and AP CS A) can be easily admitted to the Computer Science major at Chico State (at least in 2021). It’s a nice college town too. But I certainly “get” the prestige of UCLA and Cal. . .
Does he hope to major in CS or Engineering? All bets are off in those cases and yes then nothing seems to matter. Very impressive stats he has. Maybe he’ll get off the UCSD waitlist (looks like maybe a 1 in 3 chance?). And if not, I think he might really like Georgia Tech. It’s a truly amazing school and Atlanta is a great city (and the weather is very similar to CA’s except in the summer and he’ll be home then anyway). Congrats to him on that acceptance.
My DD is also sort of grumbling that “all her hard work is for nothing” simply because she wasn’t admitted to UCLA or Cal. Supposedly “all her friends” (she is in a sharp friend group!) have been admitted to schools like Duke, Rice, Notre Dame, Case Western, NYU and yes Cal and UCLA and she’s feeling left out of the “prestige.” I see kids on Reddit with the same feelings. She did work hard; she hardly slept during her soph/junior year of high school. I’ll let her mope around for a while of course but I’m expecting she’ll come around very soon and have the gratitude that I have for the admissions she does have rather than the admissions she didn’t get. . .she doesn’t see the UC “bloodbath” that I’ve seen here and on Facebook and Reddit. . .