I am split: Occidental College or Cal Poly SLO?

How much of that 10K per year will be debt? If your parents are willing to pay more - and they’re even preferring the more expensive option - and it’s not debt for you, I wouldn’t think about cost, but rather the other factors being discussed here.

And for it’s worth, my son did not prefer Oxy when we visited because of it’s size; it’s like the size of his high school., maybe smaller. As a parent I see the benefits of that, but for his purposes - social - it felt too small.