Wins on cost, food and housing. Has no tennis program at all.
| Sticker (tuition, fees, room, board) | $55,766 |
|---|---|
| Automatic merit at 4.0 | $18,000 Trustees Confirmed |
| Need-based aid at $300k | $0 |
| Net per year | ~$37,800 |
| Four years | ~$151k |
Confirmed top tier. CBU's freshman grid is GPA-only and the top band is literally "4.0 and above", which you are in.
| Scholarship | Amount | GPA |
|---|---|---|
| Trustees | $18,000 | 4.0 and above |
| Presidents | $17,000 | 3.9 to 3.99 |
| Deans | $16,000 | 3.3 to 3.89 |
| Directors | $14,000 | 2.95 to 3.29 |
Guaranteed if academic requirements are met, and renewable at a 2.0 GPA, the most forgiving renewal terms of the three. CBU also guarantees every incoming fall student at least $10,000 in gift aid, though your $18,000 supersedes that.
What this covers: tuition, mandatory fees, housing and the meal plan. It does not cover books, transportation or personal spending, which add roughly $5,000 to $8,000 a year. Full breakdown.
CBU gives you $6,000 less than Biola or Point Loma, and is still the cheapest school by $3,000 to $4,000 a year, because its sticker price is about $10,000 lower. Scholarship size is a bad way to compare schools. Only the net matters.
These are CBU's 2025-26 figures. They have not published 2026-27 yet, so this number is one cycle staler than the other two. Unverified for 2026-27
A CBU admissions counselor emailed you personally on 2025-12-11 offering to answer questions. That is the only warm contact on your entire target list, and it should not go stale.
CBU does not sponsor tennis, men's or women's. Verified three independent ways:
There are no tennis courts on campus. The Recreation Center is 80,000 square feet of basketball, racquetball, an open-air futsal field, track, cardio and free weights, with no tennis.
A page titled "The Tennis Club" exists on CBU's old InsideCBU portal and looks like it contradicts all of this. It is a dead legacy page reading "There is no content in this portlet."
The live club roster on CBU Connect lists 82+ active clubs including pickleball, snow sports, lacrosse, spikeball and CBU Ultimate, with no tennis club. So the finding is now stronger, not weaker: no varsity tennis, no campus courts, and no active club. Flagged here because anyone else searching this will hit the same false lead.
Roughly 15 minutes from campus. 10 championship courts including a stadium court and a clay court, plus a pro shop with racquet stringing. 5051 Chicago Ave, Riverside
A membership runs about $785 the first year and about $660 a year after. CBU is already roughly $3,000 to $4,000 a year cheaper than Biola, so the tennis membership is comfortably absorbed and the cost case does not break.
What you lose is not court access or coaching. It is a team, teammates, a coach, and collegiate match play. That is the actual trade, and no membership buys it back.
Tennis at CBU means a car, a paid membership, and no team. For a competitive player that is close to disqualifying. For someone who plays a few times a week for enjoyment, it is perfectly workable and the cost is absorbed.
CBU Ultimate is an established club (portal at connect.calbaptist.edu/frisbee). Its stated mission is a welcoming, encouraging, faith-centered community "for anyone who loves to play or wants to learn the game of Ultimate", so it takes beginners as readily as experienced players.
Ultimate also runs in CBU's one-day tournament intramurals alongside pickleball, sand volleyball and wiffleball. Intramurals are split into two tiers: a non-competitive league for fun and limited experience, and a championship league for players who have competed at the high school or club level. CBU hosts championship events like the Fortuna Bowl and the Lancer Cup.
Better ultimate than Biola, not as strong as Point Loma's traveling team.
USA Ultimate registration, college series division (D-I or D-III), and conference and region placement could not be verified for any of the three schools from public sources. Unverified Everything here comes from school and club sources, so treat it as descriptive rather than as verified USAU standing.
An earlier read of this page flagged 44 events held but none upcoming as possibly meaning a dormant club. That reading is now ruled out. The CBU Connect roster shows CBU Ultimate registered with a membership term running through May 31 2027 and 220 accumulated points, so it is a live registered club.
Nothing is currently on the calendar, which is most likely just the August off-season.
They are different sports serving different needs. You are a competitive tennis player with a UTR rating, an All-League doubles title and a district finish. Ultimate is something you do for fun.
A good ultimate club is a genuine quality-of-life plus here, but it does not substitute for a campus having no tennis program, no courts, and a paid off-campus club as the only option. It softens the blow, it does not remove it.
The question here is not whether the food is good. It is whether someone who eats only whole quality foods can actually eat well for four years.
CBU is ranked #4 in the nation for Best College Food by Niche, but that is not the reason it wins here and the ranking should not be the evidence you lean on. Niche measures student opinion about food being enjoyable, which is a different question. Part of that score is driven by an on-campus Chick-fil-A (closed Sundays) and a Habit Grill doing chargrilled burgers, neither of which you would eat.
The strong claim is much simpler: this is the one school where you can cook your own food, and there is a scratch kitchen on campus.
CBU describes it as a modern approach to farm-fresh ingredients, prepared simply, with as little processing as possible, explicitly framed around health and wellness. Everything including marinades, sauces, dressings and spreads is made in house.
The menu is handcrafted salads with homemade dressings, homemade chips, artisan sandwiches and burgers, and all-day breakfast (eggs benedict, pancakes, breakfast bowls).
Students independently confirm it. Foodology is described as a campus favorite and the go-to option for healthy food, praised for a large salad selection and salad bar, plenty of vegetables, and food that "tastes incredibly fresh".
Other locations: Alumni Dining Commons, the all-you-care-to-eat residential cafeteria, El Monte Grill for made-to-order Mexican (burritos, tacos, sopes), Wanda's Place, a coffee house with sandwiches, salads and burgers, and Lancers Landing, a mobile coffee shop.
Meal plans run 35 to 270 swipes per semester, and both swipes and Dining Dollars work at every location on campus. The low end of that range is notable: a 35-swipe plan is genuinely light, which suits someone who would rather cook or shop for himself than eat institutional food three times a day.
Main complaint in reviews: limited food availability at off-peak hours.
1. Meal plans run as low as 35 swipes per semester. You are not forced to prepay for institutional food you will not eat. Neither Biola nor Point Loma offers anything that light.
2. Some CBU dorms have full kitchens (some also have fireplaces). CBU is the only school of the three confirmed to have this. For someone who eats as particularly as you do, cooking your own food is worth more than any dining program.
3. Trader Joe's at 6225 Riverside Plaza on Magnolia, about two miles out.
A realistic week: Foodology as the daily anchor, the ADC salad bar as backup, and cooking in the dorm from Trader Joe's for anything the dining program does not cover. Between the scratch venue, the lightest meal plan, in-dorm kitchens and a nearby Trader Joe's, CBU gives you the most control over your own food of any school on this list.
Ranked #13 nationally for Best College Dorms and #3 for Best College Campuses. 97 percent of students say they feel extremely safe and secure on campus. The campus is repeatedly praised for beauty and modern facilities.
Five freshmen-only residences:
Some CBU dorms have full kitchens and fireplaces, which matters more here than it would for most students.
CBU is also the biggest of the three at 11,000+ students, with D1 athletics, which fits your stated liking for big-sports atmosphere. That D1 energy just does not extend to tennis.
The most forgiving application of the three. Rolling admission with a December 5 priority date. Full timeline on the apply page.
CBU asks homeschoolers to "contact your admissions counselor regarding proper formatting standards for your official transcript."
You already have one. A counselor emailed you personally on 2025-12-11 offering to answer questions, so this is one reply to a warm thread. admissions@calbaptist.edu, (951) 343-4212.
On paper CBU wins almost everything: cheapest by $3,000 to $4,000 a year, the best dorms, the most forgiving scholarship renewal, the best control over how you eat, D1 atmosphere, and the only warm admissions contact you have. It even has a solid ultimate club.
Then there is no tennis. No team, no courts, nothing but a paid club ten minutes down the road.
That single fact is the whole decision. If tennis is recreational, CBU is arguably the strongest overall choice on your list. If tennis is competitive, no amount of winning everywhere else makes up for a school that does not offer your sport.