Service to Our Community

College of San Mateo’s service area includes the geographic region outlined in blue in the map below CSM is located between Skyline’s service area to the north, and Cañada’s to the south. Our primary service area includes Burlingame, El Granada, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Millbrae, Miramar, Montara, Moss Beach, and Princeton Landing. The College also serves Capuchino High School (San Bruno) in collaboration with Skyline College.

CSM currently serves students both within and outside of our service areas. The map below highlights CSM students (represented by blue dots) served throughout the region:

A key part of CSM’s plan is to ensure we are sufficiently serving the students from historically disinvested and under-resourced neighborhoods, and to reach out to those we are not yet serving.

A geographical analysis of CSM’s service area reveals that we have had success in most under-resourced neighborhoods, as illustrated in the following map. The purple shaded areas represent regions where greater than 50% of the population has less than an associate degree and earns a median income less than $100k. Red dots represent areas where the community is historically and currently under-resourced, and intensive outreach and support is needed to recruit students. Yellow dots represent areas that are being adequately served by CSM.

This map tells us where we’ve had success in reaching out and enrolling students from under-resourced San Mateo neighborhoods such as Los Prados, North Central, Central, North Shoreview and South Shoreview. We have had success attracting students from these areas and need to ensure that we have support services in place to retain them.

The map in the previous section also indicates where we need to do more to reach out, recruit, and serve students — specifically, the coast. The San Mateo County Coastside region is an historically and currently under-resourced area which remains underserved. Comprised of Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada, Half Moon Bay, Princeton, and Miramar, the Coastside is distinct from the rest of San Mateo County. This is due to both to its physical geography with the Coast Range Mountains separating it from the Bay region, and to its economy which is agricultural compared to the technological economy dominating the Bay Area. Extremely limited transportation options, a migrant farmworker population, and regional poverty challenge the Coastside’s recruitment and access to college.

The map in this section provides a visual display of where CSM’s 2021-2022 Coastside students reside relative to the main campus. Students from coastal communities, like Montara and Moss Beach, must travel up to 20 miles each way (40 miles round trip) to attend in-person classes at College of San Mateo.

In April of 2022, the SMCCCD Board of Trustees approved CSM’s Coast-to-College plan. The plan’s goal is to reduce the barriers facing Coastside student access to CSM in the areas of transportation, instruction, financial aid, support services, workforce development, and marketing. Highlights of the plan include the Coastside Education Center (opening in Fall 2023), door-to-door Lyft service, high school dual enrollment, and strengthening community partnerships.