The article is pretty light on facts. I wish there was some real analysis here. There's no shame in going to CSU traditionally; lots of great schools in the system and certainly fine alumni.
Cal Poly SLO, SJSU Engineering, and SDSU Engineering have similar admission statistics to upper mid tier UCs like UCI and UCSB.
I'm still a bit salty that I got into an Ivy Tier but got rejected from UCD and SLO.
SLO and SJSU are honestly amazing programs and along with UTD, UW Bothell, and UIC should be a model for high quality affordable education.
[Stanford is not UC or CSU, just located in CA]
The top ranked, best known Cal State schools saw enrollment grow. The lesser known and lower ranked Cal State schools saw enrollment fall. There are more lesser known Cal State schools than top ranked Cal State schools, so on average the system saw a decline.
The California Community College system (lower ranked than Cal State) saw enrollment fall more than the lower ranked Cal State Schools, and the University of California system (higher ranked than Cal State) saw enrollment grow more than the upper ranked Cal State schools.
Nonsense. Everyone knows that CSU grads are viewed as strictly second tier to UC grads in this industry, even though CSU standards are higher than just about any other state university. It's the most pathetic and meaningless form of credentialism I've ever seen, but don't pretend like it isn't the case. Even Merced is seen as above Cal Poly.
Thanks for proving the point.
It is all about the individuals!
I've worked with so many people who grew up poor or had other disadvantages, went to community college or their local city or state school, and then turned into fabulously productive and insightful people.
Conversely, I've worked with so many people who graduated from elite institutions who have not turned out so well.
I'm the first to admit that the elite institutions generate a higher hit rate, but not nearly high enough for me to discount people coming out of lesser schools.
One of the smartest (and richest!) guys I know graduated from San Jose State.
City College of New York has graduated more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution in the world!
Seen by who, exactly?
See how many of the lists below UC Merced appears in, how many Cal Poly SLO appears in:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-colleges-high-paying-jobs-t...
https://gizmodo.com/artificial-intelligence-college-program-...
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/still-want-job-tech-top-12000...
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/best-schools-...
https://qz.com/967985/silicon-valley-companies-like-apple-aa...
https://www.businessinsider.com/top-colleges-for-working-in-...
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/20-schools-most-grads-apple-153...
https://www.businessinsider.com/schools-with-the-most-alumni...
This is about feelings and bias, not facts. Of course Cal Poly is a top notch school. But do you think the hiring manager isn't going to pick the identical applicant who went to Riverside instead?
Yes. The SLO grad will always get the leg up Dallas westwards.
Cal Poly SLO is one of the oldest universities in California (older than UCLA and CalTech) and the Western US and has a massive alumni network (C-Suite at Apple, Raytheon, Yahoo, etc back in the day as well as most of the Central California Republican Congressional contingent).
UCR and UCM are both amazing schools, but are brand new and don't have as strong an alumni network yet.
Completely fair, this is indeed a California/SV problem in particular.
SLO has a strong alumni network across the West, as all western state residents pay in-state residency at state universities.