Cal Poly makes top-10 list of best-value colleges in California. Here’s where it ranked
For the seventh straight year, Cal Poly was ranked among the top-10 best-value colleges in California by SmartAsset, landing in the middle of a list filled with elite private schools and University of California campuses.
This year, the San Luis Obispo university came in at No. 6, just behind UC San Diego and UC Berkeley. The top three on the list are all private schools, with the California Institute of Technology at No. 1.
Cal Poly has made the list every since SmartAsset launched it in 2015, ranking as high as No. 4 in 2017. Last year, it ranked 6th as well, and in 2019 it came in 5th.
It’s also the only California State University campus to make the list.
SmartAsset is a financial technology company “aiming to provide the best personal finance advice on the web,” according to its website.
For its study on the best-value colleges in California and the U.S., SmartAsset looked at tuition costs, student living costs, scholarship and grant offerings, student retention rate and starting salary for new graduates.
The company compiled 2019 data from the National Center for Education Statistics, 2020 Payscale data, College Insight and The Institute for College Access & Success. Its student debt and undergraduate financial aid data were licensed from Peterson’s undergraduate financial aid databases.
Where Cal Poly ranked in the categories
That study found that Cal Poly gives out the smallest average scholarships and grants on the top-10 list — at $6,768, compared to California’s average of $7,526.
Other universities on the list gave out much more in scholarships in grants: The No. 1-ranked California Institute of Technology on average gives out about $41,062, while No. 2-ranked Stanford gives an average of $49,255, according to SmartAsset.
However, Cal Poly had the lowest tuition at $9,816 — much lower than California’s average of $16,633, and top-ranked Cal Tech at $52,362, according to the report.
Cal Poly students also pay about $18,486 in living costs while attending the university, which is slightly higher than California’s average at $17,631, but the lowest of all the top-10 ranked best-value colleges on SmartAsset’s list.
And the San Luis Obispo university has a 94% student retention rate, according to SmartAsset. That’s compared to California’s average of 77% and No. 1 Cal Tech, which has a 98% student retention rate.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 11:35 AM.
