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Cal Poly has announced a new partnership with College Track that will fully cover on-campus housing, tuition, meal plans and campus fees for a small cohort of students identified as first-generation scholars, beginning in the 2026–27 academic year. The agreement aims to remove immediate cost barriers while linking participants to campus supports designed to improve retention and career readiness.
The pilot will fund housing and core expenses for roughly 10 to 15 enrolled Cal Poly students who come through the College Track pipeline. In addition to covering direct costs, the program offers individualized coaching, career-preparation services, financial literacy instruction and structured opportunities for community engagement.
How the program will be funded and delivered
University officials say the package draws on a mix of federal and state aid, institutional financial aid and existing Cal Poly scholarship funds rather than a single new endowment. That blended approach is intended to make the offer immediately available when scholars matriculate at Cal Poly.
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Keegan Koberl, a university spokesperson, described plans to weave College Track participants into the campus’s established supports, including counseling, career advising and introductory courses aimed at first-year success. Scholars will also be able to tap into material resources such as laptops, printing and testing supplies.
Who College Track serves — and how students become eligible
College Track operates primarily as a long-term preparatory program: it recruits students as early as ninth grade from under-resourced communities and requires consistent participation in on-site programming. Eligible applicants are typically first-generation college students or those from households facing economic barriers, and they must demonstrate a sustained commitment to earning a bachelor’s degree.
For the Cal Poly arrangement, eligible College Track students who are admitted and enroll at the university during the partnership’s initial three-year window will qualify for the offer.
- Core financial coverage: on-campus housing, tuition, food plan, campus fees.
- Wraparound supports: one-on-one coaching, career readiness, financial education, peer mentorship.
- Campus integration: access to Promise Scholars services such as counseling, UNIV 1000 participation and academic resources.
- Eligibility: students emerging from College Track who enroll at Cal Poly during the program’s three-year term, starting 2026–27.
Cal Poly becomes the 23rd university in College Track’s network and is the second campus in the California State University system to forge this partnership. College Track presently operates across a network spanning 13 communities nationwide; the new tie-up extends the nonprofit’s reach into both Cal Poly’s San Luis Obispo and Solano campuses, university officials said.
Students already connected to campus scholars programs say the coordinated supports matter beyond finances. Santiago Rodriguez, a sophomore studying civil engineering who identifies as a first-generation student, noted that scholars programs helped him find community and practical help after transferring to a predominantly white institution.
“Being part of a scholars community made it easier to settle in and access resources that I might not have known about otherwise,” Rodriguez said, adding that mentorship and peer networks were crucial to staying engaged academically.
Why this matters now
Higher education institutions are increasingly experimenting with targeted financial and support packages to reduce attrition among first-generation students. By combining direct cost coverage with on-campus services, Cal Poly’s pilot seeks to address both the economic and academic factors that can derail degree completion.
Over the three-year initial commitment, the university will likely evaluate outcomes such as retention, academic performance and post-graduation placement to determine whether to expand the model. If successful, the program could offer a playbook for other campuses looking to tighten the link between pre-college pipelines and sustained support on campus.
