FWIW, SLO’s UG Animal Science program is well-known and recognized. We know a Vet with a very successful business and we’ve spoken to her about it.
@katliamom I partially agree with you that Cal Poly (SLO) grads make more because they work in California. But Cal Poly SLO grads also make more money, because they went to Cal Poly SLO.
For example, if you google “roi calpoly pomona payscale”, you’ll see that Cal Poly Pomona has a 20 year ROI of $506k. This is $193k less than the Cal Poly SLO ROI of $699k.
The Boulder grad would have a more difficult time getting a job in California than a California grad. Also, the Boulder degree would likely fall somewhere between the caliber of Cal Poly SLO and Cal Poly Pomona, so the pay would likely be lower in California for the Boulder grad.
I worked for a top silicon valley company, who pretty much only hired from CalTech, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, and Cal Poly. It’s tough to get a job at a California employer that doesn’t come to your school.
@sushiritto I absolutely agree that SLO’s UG Animal Science program is top-notch. It’s the #2 feeder school to the UC Davis Vet School with #1 being UC Davis. I estimated that the average applicant to the Animal Science program has an MCA of about 4600. Do you know what the Vet’s GPA was coming out of Cal Poly was?
I think this is true only in an instance similar to what I’m describing.
Clearly for a California kid the cost of Cal Poly is less (looks to be 23k a year - so 92k total). CU Boulder out of state is 58k a year making it over quarter-million dollar education. I think if my kid grew up in NorCal and the decision was between those two schools I’d be pushing for coastal California.
@Gregmacd The vet is a HS friend of my spouse. I have no clue where she went to school and it was a long time ago. 
Our conversations have been about my 2021 kid and generally about schools she (the vet) looks for in a resume and potential hire. And also, a possible volunteer job for my kid in her vet business. 
Even with the OOS Presidential scholarship, which was a total of $55,000 for 4 years when my oldest was awarded it, CU Boulder still made no sense to us other than being an OOS safety.
It’s definitely not easy. I guess it’s relative. There’s a process. When we visited last Fall and toured with a couple current students, one of whom switched from math to physics, but same school and similar MCA score needed to matriculate.
Change a major at Michigan? That’s easy. We met someone there who was a junior and had changed their major 3 times.
Sorry, over 225k. Ya know, numbers…
This is good to know. I’m honestly not certain her MCA. I only ever get through the first three calculations (she has weighted 4.3 and 1460 SAT (which I know is low for CP) and maxs out third at 750 (the rigor one w/ classes)…then a bunch of leadership/clubs. So it may be higher BUT…
She also has to get accepted. OOS so I’ve seen that does help, but no guarantee.
Also, I don’t think she plans on being such a bookworm at the college level. So what you say does have some bearing. I think she’ll be a serious student but not at the expense of the overall college experience.
CAFES middle 50% is:
GPA: 3.81-4.21
SAT: 1,200-1,370
So, I don’t think your kid’s stats are average for SLO. Overall acceptance rate is 48% for CAFES.
@sushiritto I probably confused you by talking about Animal Science. The OP mentioned his D applied for Material Science on item #14. I think she has a good shot with a 4.3 and a 1460 SAT.
OP’s D’s MCA is better than post #2273, who got rejected in materials engineering last year with a 1360 SAT and a 3.8 Unweighted 4.12 Weighted GPA:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22101466#Comment_22101466
And is closer to post #959, who was accepted in materials engineering in 2018 with a “Cal Poly GPA 3.96(9-11 W&Capped) ACT 35C (36E 35M) MCA ~4600”
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21249824#Comment_21249824
@Gregmacd Nope, I just confused myself. I have my own kid’s interest in my head, not the OP’s. My apologies. Oy! 
@Gregmacd, the added salary calc is correct. Where it gets a little mushy is in delayed contribution to 401k. You can’t make up for the lost compounding time, and that can be massive.
All that said, we aren’t comparing apples to apples. A graduate with a BS in Chemistry or Biochemistry is only employable in menial tech jobs. Those both require graduate degrees. A grad in MateE can immediately be employable at a good wage.
@katliamom, that’s IF the CU grad can get a foot in the door at the CA company they want to work at.
@cmg2024, I love the cost sharing plan you’ve put in place!
As for 20k more (assuming that’s total and not every year) for CP MateE vs. a no cost CU Chemistry degree, I think that’s a no brainer. The average starting salary for a CU Chemistry grad is $46k where as the average starting salary for a CP MateE is $65k. That’s a single year payoff.
{quote} @Gregmacd said, “Thus, it might be difficult to achieve a really high GPA at Cal Poly.”
[/quote]
Cal Poly grading is all over the map. In the CENG, BME grades the easiest, with close to 90% of all awarded grades A or B, where as ME grades the hardest. ME gives out roughly 60% A or B and astonishingly, over 10% Fs!
As for weighted GPA, CP cares only about one, the CSU calculated 9-11 GPA. The MCA caps at 4.2 even if a student comes up with a slightly higher number. You need to use the CSU calculator. They don’t care about what weighting a student’s HS uses.
I have not read the whole thread yet, but I did want to comment that CU Boulder and Mines are fine choices for engineering (especially if you qualify for in-state tuition).
Alas, for our son they seemed “too close to home” for him. He wanted to spread his wings in a new place and loves the East coast. He did end up at a very small private niche-fit school that was ideal for him, but for most students a bigger school with more course selection works better.
[quote=“eyemgh, post:31, topic:2082383”]
@Gregmacd, the added salary calc is correct. Where it gets a little mushy is in delayed contribution to 401k. You can’t make up for the lost compounding time, and that can be massive.
All that said, we aren’t comparing apples to apples. A graduate with a BS in Chemistry or Biochemistry is only employable in menial tech jobs. Those both require graduate degrees. A grad in MateE can immediately be employable at a good wage.
[quote=“Gregmacd, post:35, topic:2082383”]
@eyemgh i appeciate your insight on the 401k. I’m not a finance guy, but would OP’s daugter be better off financially at retirement age if she chose Cal Poly over CU Boulder?
That’s a great question that depends on quite a few factors, several of which just have to be educated guesses.
Let’s start with what I was originally assuming were the facts, that they were getting the same degree from both institutions (she isn’t), she would have $100,000 in leverage to choose Cal Poly (she won’t), and that she’d get the same job and same pay with either degree.
In that case, she’s certainly better off without being leveraged. Servicing that much loan would mean a delay in fully funding her retirement and that can never be made up. Let’s use a yearly contribution of $10k because it’s a round number, no fees for simplicity (moot because they’d be the same in either case) and assume 7% interest because that’s the historical norm (certainly that isn’t guaranteed, but in either scenario the interest will be the same, so speculating on the accuracy of 7% is also moot).
If a person starts at 22, contributes for 10 straight years and then let’s it sit for 30 more years with no additional contribution they will have $1,063,797.
Now, let’s assume they don’t start until 32, but due to the later start, they dedicate themselves to contributing all 30 years until 62. In that scenario they’d end up with $950,571. That’s $200,000 more contributed and $100,000 less to show for it. Compounding is hugely important.
The big payday is when the person that starts at 22 contributes all the way through until 62. They will end up with just over $2,000,000.
Here’s the rub…they aren’t the same degrees. A BS only in Chemistry doesn’t have the same earnings potential as a BS only in MateE.
From a purely financial standpoint, the sweet spot is to get an engineering degree with no leverage.
I love Cal Poly. My son earned a BS/MS there and started substantially higher than their median graduate salary. He’s clearly an outlier though. He was in the right place at the right time with the experience that a new grad normally doesn’t have and it lined up with exactly what a startup needed. That’s very atypical.
That said, between labs and senior project, CP grads come out with more experience than grads from nearly any other school. He had lab projects that were more complex and robust than many senior projects from other schools. One of his best friends has a brother that went to Georgia Tech. The brother said that the CP projects both lab and senior project were much more demanding than those at GT. That said, it doesn’t always pay off with employers and new grads eventually get those skills on the job.
I also should add that I have a very high opinion of Cal Poly. Part of that is based info from a coworker/grad years ago, and part of that is based on engineering school research I did for my kids (and other CC threads in the years since).
To be clear she’d be in some form of engineering at CU (Biochem/chem or materials).
Also, she’d have roughly 90k in savings/investment to start life. Meaning she has 150k available to her - the extra 20k at CP would be debt. The 80-90k less at CU would be savings. Does this change calculations?
Thanks also for your thorough answer above.
So if you save $100,000 by going to CU Boulder over Cal Poly, and you save $10,000 a year over the next 40 years at 7% interest rate, at retirement you would have $2,136,000.
If you pay the extra $100,000 by going to Cal Poly, but you make an extra $10,000 a year over the CU Boulder graduate, you should be able to save $20,000 a year. The first five years you would pay off the extra $100,000 off, so you could only save over 35 years, but $20,000 a year over 35 years at 7% interest rate, at retirement you would have $2,958,000.
So, Cal Poly could save you $882,000 ($2,958,000 - $2,136,000)