<p>D’s three friends rejected yesterday…all different majors but all with ACT scores higher than my D’s. My D is waitlisted for Arch.</p>
<p>My S had 5 years of math, 5 years of lab science, 4 years of foreign language, only one performing art, 4.4 CP GPA. Only low thing was the 1300 for CR plus M. Leadership, work experience in the engineering field, volunteer hours, varsity captain, etc. This leads me to believe they really do not follow the formula and hand pick by which numbers they like on any given day, especially for mechanical engineering. It’s really ok because these kids do have other options and based on the the poor handling of the whole process, we would not want him at a state school. My only thing is that they should be required to be more transparent because they are a state funded program with a completely nonobjective application. Also, these kids will end up at the dream school they truly belong at. We may have to pay a few more dollars, maybe a giant chunk of change, but they will get a great education and job at the end of the day!</p>
<p>Just a thought…my D applied ED…all of her friends applied RD and none really wanted to go to CP anyway…as I mentioned above she is waitlisted…</p>
<p>^^Dau you answered one of my questions…whether or not deferred ED kids got an automatic admit. I see now the answer is NO.</p>
<p>As I’ve mentioned previously, we have a D at SLO who is in her junior year in the school of business. This years process is absolutely different than 3 years ago and S’ Naviance account attest to this in a graphic and objective way. These kids got caught in the perfect storm (however CP has defined those conditions). Next year college counselors will be much more aware of the change and I suspect will route more high stat kids into ED and fewer of any into RD. </p>
<p>Seeing the stats of some of these rejections is just beyond mind boggling.</p>
<p>And…if I were to speculate…CP is just not diversified enough. D had a roomie who was absolutely unprepared to handle the rigors of CP-SLO and wound up dropping out mid sophomore year. This roomie was from an underserved - partner school area. And…even though CSU’s are officially banned from AA…let’s all check out the demographic info published in a few months and see if there is a noticeable change from previous years.</p>
<p>We visited the school two years ago as part of a school study trip. The admissions counselor addressed our entire grade, and made it really clear that CP was ultra-competitive (especially certain majors). They also stressed that they weighted ACT more than SAT. I think the poster who noted that certain engineering majors had 25 times the number of applicants as spots really should make people aware of how competitive those spots are - and they do some form of holistic evaluation, as they consider ECs. So, if you realize you are applying for a major which has a 4.5% acceptance rate - you should be prepared to be rejected. My son was accepted (high ACT, reasonable but not stellar GPA, very high quality courseload, great ECs). But, he was accepted into Math, not engineering. I warned him that the one risk to attending was the difficulty of changing majors. (Which is fair because otherwise, you would provoke a flood of people applying to perceived “easier to get into” majors, and the class offerings would be inbalanced). We shall see.</p>
<p>One other item - regarding the housing applications, which for RD opened today - I believe you have to do 2 things - one, accept the offer to attend and two, pay a $2k deposit. For us, we might be able to afford to put a couple hundred dollars at risk to try to hold housing and dining plans while we wait to see other acceptances which aren’t released until the end of March - but I can’t risk $2k (I don’t know what the refund policy is). I’m hoping there are many other future Mustangs thinking the same way! (I am basing this on the published information for Early Decision Cal Poly Students).</p>
<p>Good point, KD94025. “So, if you realize you are applying for a major which has a 4.5% acceptance rate - you should be prepared to be rejected.”</p>
<p>Although the acceptance rate is higher than would by indicated by the number of open spots in a major, because yield is not 100 percent. Still, I think many people weren’t aware that the acceptance rate to certain high demand majors (like ME, AERO, and BMED) was SO LOW!!! I have been reading Cal Poly’s CC page for years, so I too steered my kids away from the most competitive majors. It they want into those they will have to take their chances with change of major. </p>
<p>From Housing FAQ’s:</p>
<p>"Can I get a refund if I change my mind about attending Cal Poly?</p>
<p>Students must cancel in writing 30 days prior to the move-in date to receive a full refund. Charges per day will apply thereafter. For last day to cancel without financial penalty please refer to the Housing Calendar for dates to cancel. The Cancel Form must be faxed or postmarked by the last date to cancel."</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.housing.calpoly.edu/content/_frequently_asked_questions#refund]Frequently”>http://www.housing.calpoly.edu/content/_frequently_asked_questions#refund]Frequently</a> Asked Questions - University Housing - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo<a href=“scroll%20down%20to%20the%20section%20on%20payments”>/url</a></p>
<p>Does anyone know how long it typically takes for financial aid to be posted? I see the EFC listed, so obviously they got the FAFSA, but it is hard to make any decisions without knowing what kind of financial aid they offer.</p>
<p>ooh, Ralph, thanks! Good that you can get your housing and meal plan deposit back. (But, they still have custody of your money for awhile…).</p>
<p>And, yes - I definitely should have said 4.5% “fill” rate, as opposed to admissions, which depending on yield, would be higher, perhaps significantly (but I doubt it’s hugely higher since it’s in such demand). But, people should look at those and think “Ivy” admissions rates…</p>
<p>Rejected from Business at SLO as a transfer.</p>
<p>GPA mid 3.6, had everything completed with A’s in most of the prereqs except one.</p>
<p>Called up admissions, told me they had 1421 applicants with room for 81 -> 5.7%.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t tell me the average GPA, but told me my GPA was “competitive.”</p>
<p>Fall 2012: AVG GPA 3.49</p>
<p>1361
135
9.91%</p>
<p>My son was accept into EE major about 2 weeks ago. But we are still waiting for UCs decisions.
Wonder if he will have a good chance at mid to high rank UCs base on previous data?</p>
<p>Same boat as you derekdad, EE major in at CP. So if yours get in UCB or UCLA, is he going for one of those? My S was thinking for sure UCB if lucky enough to get in, but now he has been to CP to look at housing (second or third time there) and he may have CP above UCB in his mind (we have been to UCB as well for general tour, not housing or engineering tour). I think it is just comfortable there and he likes the hands on. I think it seems more collaborative at CP versus cut-throat at UCB. Academically he can handle either one and I want decision to be his, but I am haunted by people that say no one turns down the opportunity to go to UCB if given the choice. And UCLA is UCLA. Are you struggling with this at all or are you more definitive if choices come through?</p>
<p>We are in the same boat as others -my son is waiting to hear from UC’s before deciding. We are hoping housing doesn’t go too quickly in the next couple of weeks, but have a feeling he’d better make a decision quickly once UC admissions are released. CP is is very much in the running for him but not a definite yet. It will be a stressful week waiting to hear.</p>
<p>First rejection!
“You have not been selected for admission to Cal Poly.”
Major: Psychology
GPA: 3.45 uw/3.95 w
SAT: 2110
Oh, and I am a URM, so the talk about Cal Poly rejecting qualified applicants so that they can admit more URMs is probably not true.
I was completely fine when I seen the decision because I did not particularly like that Cal Poly is not very diverse; I applied because I liked the decision.
Good luck to all awaiting decisions, congrats to those accepted, and to those rejected it will all turn out okay! :)</p>
<p>It seems that the acceptances all went out weeks ago and most of the students who posted here within the past few days were not accepted. I’m assuming at this point that my S didn’t get in, he hasn’t heard yet. Anybody know from past years if there is another wave of acceptances, or only rejections at this point?</p>
<p>Word of advice to all those choosing between the UC’s and Cal Poly SLO. Our kid was accepted to 5 UC’s as well as Cal Poly SLO and Cal Poly Pomona. We toured all the schools of serious interest and dug deep into each program as well as attended most of the school’s admitted student events. Bring loads of questions and feel free to politely but firmly grill the administrators and professors on their programs. We did our H.W. thoroughly and decided on Cal Poly SLO for various reasons including gut feeling with regards to fit.</p>
<p>For the all the schools ask loads of questions about the following subjects: (a) Who will actually teach your student? Professors or TA’s? Ask them to give you specific examples of how committed the professors are to undergraduate education. (b) Are the TA’s majority foreign graduate students and if so from which countries are they from? What is their level of teaching experience and English communication skills? (c) Ask them about lab time and how important a role it has in undergraduate education. (d) What is their undergrad program designed to accomplish? A job after graduation? Admittance to grad school? (e) What about co-ops and internships? Who runs the program and how is it supported by the university? Do kids run the program? Is it an official fully funded part of university services? (f) What about the career services center? Ask them to describe it to you in detail and how involved professors get with it. (g) What about corporate relationships with the school? How many projects is the school involved with to assist industry accomplish certain goals? (h) Also, and very, very important, at what point will the students actually be able to take classes in his or her major? For example, are there two years of general requirements before the first engineering class? Is acceptance into the desired department guaranteed or does the student have to qualify based on their records in the general requirements? Etc. etc. You have once chance to make a good decision – do not hold back on your questions. Remember, YOU employ THEM with your tuition payments and other financial support. Once your student is admitted the tables are turned. They deserve respect for being accomplished academics, however, they now have to prove their value to you.</p>
<p>In the end he turned down UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, and a couple of other UC’s, and Cal Poly Pomona for SLO. Zero regrets.</p>
<p>Wow OsakaDad…that is a fantastic list. We are off to a UC Chancellors reception this morning and I had a whole list of questions I will encourage my son to ask. I’m going to add all of yours!</p>
<p>One interesting thing that we noticed was that at each of the top campuses we went to we kept running into the same families and kids. We struck up friendships with two other families at the UCSD admitted student’s day and we saw them again at UCLA and Cal Poly. We saw numerous other families on the same circuit but did not approach them other than nods of recognition. All three families chose Cal Poly over the UC’s. Birds of a feather seem to flock together. We all had the same mindset.</p>
<p>Bottom line, we spend months obsessing over getting accepted to the “right” schools and then when the acceptances come in the schools seem to be fighting over the same pool of students that everyone wants. So, the tables are turned and now they try to recruit you. It feels quite odd at first, but get used to it because now it is all about what they can offer you and your kid from money to teaching methodology. </p>
<p>For those of you freaking out, here is a chronological account of acceptances when we were in the same boat:</p>
<p>Cal Poly Pomona - December 2010! Literally, 4 weeks after application submission. Acceptance to the Honors College came a few weeks after that.
UCI - Second week of February 2011 with automatic acceptance into the Honors College.
Cal Poly SLO - Third week of February 2011.
UCLA - Second week of March 2011.
UCSD -Third week of March 2011.
UCSB -Third week of March 2011.
The other UC’s were all in March as well.</p>
<p>OsakaDad - Which schools were your son’s #2 and #3 choices?</p>
<p>^^coquimom:</p>
<h1>1 Cal Poly SLO – The program was the perfect fit for our kid.</h1>
<h1>2 UCSD – The best of the UC’s. Our kid would have succeeded there.</h1>
<h1>3 Cal Poly Pomona – Still had the hands on learn by doing teaching methodology. A very good up and coming school, but not quite at the same level of SLO and UCSD. Our son did say that he could see himself going there.</h1>
<p>After that it would have been UCSB and none of the others really appealed to us.</p>
<p>UCLA was actually very disappointing. I was shocked by this as I taught a class at UCLA (Anderson School - Doing Business in the Pacific Rim) and loved the experience. As soon as we got in the car to go home after the admitted student’s event our son said, “Now that school is off the list!” They at least had the honestly to tell us that our son would be thrown into a sink or swim environment with virtually no interaction with professors until late in his junior or senior year. If he was a stand out then maybe, just maybe, he might get assigned to a professor’s research project. Yes, it was that bad. The prof’s were pompous and stuffy. We were able to interact with only a handful of students and the projects that they showed us were kindergarten level compared to what we saw at Cal Poly. Nearly all of the TA’s were foreign with little background in Western teaching culture. Restricted lab time, huge classes, and two years of general requirements. At the end of the day we realized that at UCLA our son would basically have to teach himself from text books and hands on learning opportunities would have to be self-generated via clubs. Few 18 year-old HS grads I know have that kind of discipline. I apologize to those out there that support UCLA. But that school was the only one that we walked away truly offended by the engineering department. Why would I ever throw my kid into that kind of an environment and blow $30K a year on it? Forget it. I still get angry just thinking about it.</p>
<p>Thanks Oskakadad. My older son is at UCSD and loves it (started poli sci, now switched to comp sci). My twins, who are both applying this year (and didn’t get into Cal Poly…) have UCSD and Davis high on their lists. (son, engineering - daughter, pre-physical therapy/physiology/kinesiology) I went to UC Davis for grad school and loved it. I’m interested to hear your take on UCLA - my kids got supplemental apps for UCLA and Berkeley.<br>
Did your family consider Berkeley at all?
I’m so bummed for my son that he didn’t make it into Cal Poly – it was at the top of his list! Oh well. :/</p>