Aurora Olmos Olmos 1

Block 5

November 20, 2018

Comparative Analysis Essay

I didn’t realize how unprepared I was for college and doing this research helped me get a

clear understanding and idea of what college life would be like. I conducted research on my 2 top

college choices to see which one would be a better option for me. My top 2 choices were

California State University of Los Angeles and California Lutheran University. In comparing

both colleges and based on all the research and data I collected, I decided to make Cal State LA

my first choice because of the tuition, demographics, and logistics.

Cal State LA is a public university as opposed to Cal Lutheran University which is

private, so Cal State LA’s yearly tuition is abundantly lower at around $6,700. Room and board

is at $5,400 and books and supplies at around $1,900. Cal Lutheran’s tuition is almost $43,000.

In addition to that, room and board is about $13,400 and books and supplies are almost $2,000.

Due to being a private school, it does have a lot of benefits such as: small classes of 15 students

and small population of 4,400 students, but it’s not a realistic or affordable school for me to

choose. Tuition, room and board, supplies, books, and transportation altogether is at almost

$60,000 per year. Even if I qualified for financial aid and cal grants, it would cover a certain

portion of it which would lead to me to take out loans. Cal State is much more affordable for me.

Cal State LA and Cal Lutheran both have a higher percentage of females attending their

universities than males so there’s no difference there. I honestly don’t really mind whether it’s

more
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males or females so either way it would’ve been okay for me. Cal State LA has a 61% of

hispanics attending there as opposed to Cal Lutheran which only has 29%. They have a higher

percentage of whites attending which is 48%. I prefer Cal State’s LA demographic since there’s

more hispanics/latinos attending there which I would be able to feel more sociable and

comfortable with.

Cal State LA is about 30 min from my house so gas money wouldn’t be a big expense. It

would roughly be $300 a month. I can even take one bus to get there instead of wasting gas in a

car. Cal Lutheran is 1 hr and 10 min away from my house. It’s double the distance and time to

get there. To get there in bus I would have to take three of them and it would take up to 4 ½

hours. The climate around Cal State LA changes a lot; it’s cold, hot, windy, and humid and I’m

already used to that weather which I don’t mind. Cal Lutheran has similar weather, mostly sunny

and I can work with both. Cal State is more convenient for me due to a bigger amount of money

that I save and it’s a lot closer to me.

Cal State is a lot more than convenient and affordable for me to go to. Although Cal

Lutheran is a private and has its benefits, I’m completely sure of my decisions to go to Cal State

LA.