Is Cal Poly Slo or the whole SLO area generally accepting of minorites?

Question

I know that for a cal state it's a reputable school and is one of my backups just in case I don't get accepted to USC (which is way more diverse). I plan on doing a tour there but is it worth it? I just dont want to feel totally out of place there.

Answer 1

The SLO area is very nice and I believe is very accepting of minorities.

The college itself is very much blond hair, blue eyes.

Will you feel out of place?
It depends upon how comfortable you are truly being the minority in the class room.

I had no problems and found that everyone was pretty cool.

On the other hand, I had some friends that were more self-conscious and felt as if they were being judged by everyone. Personally, I think it was them being insecure and looking at every comment as a racial comment.

For example, when I was at UCSB a couple freshmen girls from LA (a Latina and an African-American) wrote a scathing editorial in the campus newspaper about a local Thai restaurant claiming that the restaurant was racist because they received poor service.

The reality was the restaurant had great food (one of my fav places), but the downside was the restaurant had poor customer service where everyone received crappy service, but these girls assumed it was because they were minorities that they got crappy service. Many people wrote rebuttals to their editorial making the same comment that everyone got crappy service irregardless of race.

I never saw a retraction in the campus newspaper so I don't if they ever wrote an apology, just let issue die down or just assumed they were correct and everyone else was racist for not believing them.

Back to your original question...
SLO is a very nice area.
You may feel out of place if you aren't used to being surronded by white folks... lol.
Also, you may feel out of place because you're homesick.
However, don't let your fears force you to shy away from what can be a great chance for a very good education.
In regards to USC, you should be accepted. USC's admission policy is less stringent than Cal Poly's. Many of Cal Poly's programs, especially engineering, are impacted which means more people apply than slot available.
Good luck!

Answer 2

I just went onto both the College Board's website for Cal Poly SLO and onto the County's website. If you were Asian or Latino, you would be okay, because there are 12% and 10% of students respectively on campus, and about 12% of local residents are Hispanic (the local Asian population is small). Your avatar, however, suggests that you are probably African-American, and I have to tell you that the African-American population on campus is only 1% and in the county it is 1.5%. That doesn't mean that people won't be accepting, and the Central Coast is relatively upscale-liberal, so I don't think you would experience a lot of overt bigotry, but you would definitely be rather isolated.

Answer 3

most cal states r 60% minorites,,And for USC it is not that diverse,, it is about 34% Minorites