Our son graduated from CSU Monterey Bay in 2015. He chose it because it was close to home (Capitola), although he lived on campus for two years, then rented a house for the third, lived at home the last two while he worked FT. The campus is the old Fort Ord, which is beautiful in parts, on the water at south end of Monterey Bay, but had some freaky areas of boarded up and abandoned barracks. Hopefully those have been demolished by now. The good news is much of the campus is newly constructed, meaning within the last 20 years.
He was a business major and enjoyed small class sizes, between 20-40 students, with no TAs, meaning all his classes were taught by the professors. He was able to establish a relationship with most of his professors, which worked well with him. (Our son is bright but with a processing disorder; he learns best in lectures and discussion (vs reading and comprehending text books.)
Most of the buddies he met and remains friends with were from southern California. Many were there because they couldn't get in elsewhere, or they got a full ride academically (because "lesser" schools want the high achievers, too, and will pay). He did say that most of the females from southern California didn't stay; it was too windy (it is, cold winds whip straight off the ocean and up the Salinas Valley), not hip, and is in Marina/Seaside, not actually in Monterey, which isn't a great location for teens on their own for the first time. Our son enjoyed surfing the coast there (vs Santa Cruz), and took up spear fishing. He had a vehicle his sophomore year on. Disc golf is fabulous, mountain biking is top notch, and the hiking is great.
I volunteered for years at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and they hired a lot of CSUMB students, interns, and graduates. It was a great place to volunteer, and the employees I met seemed really happy. Also, Stanford U's graduate program for Marine Biology is next door to the aquarium, Hopkins Marine Station.
There are a lot of options for students, but for a young freshman wanting a "traditional college experience" in things like football games and rah rah, they won't find it at CSUMB. There is no college town to it.