Acceptance to CalPoly SLO engineering without leadership/clubs?

We did the engineering dept tour last week and the student heading the tour commented how if you didn’t answer yes to the leadership/club question, you were automatically not accepted. Does anyone know if this is true? My son now feels like he blew his chance by not answering yes. He has had a job the last two years and school which didn’t leave much time for anything else.

No, this is not correct. EC’s are only a small percentage of the MCA points. The majority of points are based on GPA, test scores and HS course rigor. It does not sound like this tour guide got the proper training.

That’s what we thought so it really upset us to hear differently! Ok, we will remain hopeful then.

All that matters is where the MCA stacks up, no matter where those points come from. As @Gumbymom said, ECs don’t count for much, but in hypercompetitive majors, they can make a difference at the margin.