Does anyone know what happens to admissions criteria once the Cal Poly MCA cap of 5,000 is reached? My son has an MCA of 4775 plus a 500 local adder. He is considering 2 major options in Engineering, Electrical or Software. As I have read other threads, an MCA of 4775 would make him competitive in Electrical and somewhat competitive in Software. My question is what happens when he reaches the 5,000 cap once the additional points are added in the second selection? If there are more 5,000 plus MCA applicants than spots open, what does Cal Poly use as a selection criteria? Has anyone been denied enrollment that applied with an MCA of 5,000? I would appreciate your responses.
I can’t answer your question with certainty. I don’t think anyone really can. I don’t honestly think it’ll be an issue. I have to believe that 5000+ is rare. I would suggest he choose SE or CS if he’s interested. It would be easier to move to EE from CS or SE than the other way around.
My daughter is in a similar situation. Her MCA is in the 4700s, but I am Cal State Faculty (although not at Cal Poly). If she gets the 700 point bonus for my employment, then she’ll be well over 5000. I guess we’ll know if she got it or not when she finds out if she’s accepted or not. 
Yes exactly. So if an applicant does not make it in the first round, and their parent is faculty and live local they could have as low as a 3800 MCA and still achieve a perfect 5000 in the second round. That does not seem that rare to me. Am I just over thinking?
Last it was published, the MCA gave a bonus for CP employees, but not other CSU employees. That seems like a HUGE advantage, since they are also most likely attending a HS in the service area. An MCA in the 4700s is still solid! Fingers crossed.
Yeah, that’s why we weren’t certain. It seems odd to give a bonus only for CP faculty, since they would all live in the service area. So their kids would already be getting that bonus. That’s why we’re not counting on the bonus. If it happens… it will be a bonus!