Cal Poly Class of 2026 Freshman Waitlist Discussion

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
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2021:
Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list: 9829
Number accepting a place on the waiting list:
Number of wait-listed students admitted: 978

2020:
Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list: 8816
Number accepting a place on the waiting list:
Number of wait-listed students admitted: 4032

2019:
Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list: 4976
Number accepting a place on the waiting list
Number of wait-listed students admitted: 67

Waitlist admits usually start after the May 1 SIR deadline, but if spots open up early, SLO will start pulling from the waitlist.

More information: Waitlist | Cal Poly

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Other than initial wave of acceptances have not heard a word since then from anyone.

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Do they breakdown the waitlists by major?

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Yes, the waitlist admissions will be based on the students intended major. As spots open up in a specific major, then they will pull from the waitlist based on that major.

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My son was waitlisted today for computer engineering.
WGPA 4.2
Several AP
Handful of EC on and off of campus

Accepted at:
UCSC
CPP
CSULB
ASU with partial scholarship

Somewhat of a bummer. This was his #1. Good luck to all the applicants out there.

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S22 waitlisted for Aerospace engineering.

Accepted to Caltech and received USC merit so this was a but surprising for us.

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D waitlisted for kinesiology. 3.9 UW, 4 APs, 1 DE, part-time job, paid internship in field related to major, a few other ECs, in state.

Accepted at SDSU, Sonoma with scholarship, Chico. Waitlisted at Santa Cruz and Davis.

Has several OOS acceptances.

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Congratulations on USC merit and Cal Tech. Great options!

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Sounds like a classic case of yield protection, but who knows? Congratulations on your acceptances. I am sure you are proud.

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Not yield protection. CSU admissions are a numbers game while UCs, USC and Cal Tech are holistic. USC and Cal Tech are able to read personal statements and details about what a student does outside of school. SLO can not.

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Do we have to do anything to accept our spot on the waitlist?

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D22 waitlisted
Environmental management and protection

CSU GPA 4.06
UW GPA about 3.87
5 APs and 1-2 honors (math) classes

She works 6-10 hours/week and has ECs 6-10 hours/week (but not directly related to her major)

Accepted at OSU (with WUE scholarship), CPP, CSU Sonoma and Monterey Bay
She was also waitlisted at UCSC
Not accepted by UCDavis

She is pretty bummed because Cal Poly was her first choice and we thought she had a pretty good chance looking at last years grade range in her Cal Poly college. It’s definitely been a bit rougher this year than with D20

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I have twins 4.5 wgpa, asb officers, AP/Honors classes, awards from the school, hours of community services and waitlisted for computer science

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With or without SLO, your twins have a bright future!! Awesome job!

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@Gumbymom does Cal Poly accept appeals for waitlisted students?

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No you cannot appeal while on the waitlist. Only denials can appeal.

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Thank you! Was pretty sure you couldn’t but was being told something else. Have a great day!

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Hello, My S22 was WL for Construction Mgmt for Cal Poly (at the last WL release date)
GPA 4.25
3 Jobs during year, two pertain to major
CA resident, non-local
4 Year athlete
8 semesters AP’s etc…

WL question…
I had read somewhere we do not need to do anything if we are “opting in” to the waitlist. Only if you do not want to stay on the list. But I did see a recent You tube video Titled Waitlist by Cal Poly Admissions…
and in the comments it said the comment below… I do not see any button like this on my son’s portal. I’m wondering if anyone knows what this is for? is this what to look for should you happen to get pulled off the waitlist? or is this something my son should contact admissions about at this point since he doesn’t have this on his portal?

Comment:
My son clicked on “Accept Your Waitlist Offer” and the Status is “Waitlist, Pending Available”. However, the link “Accept Your Waitlist Offer” still there. Does it go through or he need to accept the offer again?
SLO Response:
Cal Poly Admissions
][13 days ago]

Hi! Thank you for your question. Your student only needed to accept the waitlist offer once. The Application Status in the MyCalPoly portal will display the current student status.

Does this “button” show up for anyone else? Any advice on this is greatly appreciated!

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My daughter doesn’t have any sort of button and we weren’t required to opt-in to the waitlist. She was placed on the waitlist automatically. Her status just changed to say “You have been placed on the waitlist at Cal Poly for fall. If you would no longer like to be considered for admission, please complete the survey in your email.”

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i got waitlisted about a week & a half ago for poli-sci and i have a couple questions about how cal poly slo handles their waitlist. i know that all waitlists decisions will come out by mid-july but when do they generally start letting people off of waitlist? and in the past couple years, was there a point that waitlist acceptances generally slowed down/stopped? or is there still a good amount of waitlists acceptances all the way until july? and if i am denied, will they let me know before july 15th, or will i have to wait until then for sure? i know that was a lot of questions but i’m the first kid in my family to go to college and i’m a little confused about the process