How to convince parents that cal poly slo is a good school?

[ucbalumnus]

@Mom2Engineers

Did anyone ever consider it might be the more rural location of SLO? Cal Poly Pomona has a large Hispanic and Asian population. Whites are third,at about 20%. Many immigrants come from urban centers, and don’t want to attend school in a remote or rural location. As such, they tend to apply to the universities in more urban locations.

CPP also has about half local commuter students, while CPSLO has very few (presumably since there are not that many people who live within commuting distance of CPSLO).

@AMCdad

Whenever I tell any of my teacher friends/co-workers that my son attends Cal Poly, they almost all say a variation of the same thing; “That’s great. A UC education at a CSU price.”

However, for lower income families, CSU financial aid policy strongly encourages attending a local CSU, since there is no adjustment for living on/near campus versus commuting from home, unlike at UC. For many lower income families, the cost comparison can end up CSU commuter < UC < CSU resident. Since nearly all CPSLO students have to live on/near campus, CPSLO often ends up being disadvantageous in costs compared to UCs and commuter CSUs for lower income families. CPSLO is by far the lowest in Pell grant percentage among frosh (13.2%) and all undergraduates (20.1%) among all California public universities.