@Tssteier, sure no extra seats set aside. I think if doesn’t help, it won’t hurt.
Major: Computer Engineering
Local: No
GPA: 3.9 UW, 4.1 W
SAT: 1200
ACT: 25
do they send the survey to your cal poly email or the email you provided on csu mentor?
When you fill out the survey to indicate that you want to be placed on the waitlist, did your portal change? DS portal still says “waitlisted, survey will be sent, etc” even though he completed the survey last week.
@ChemistMom I took the survey, however my portal still the same stating "waitlisted, survey will be sent.
@ChemistMom me too, I took the survey yet my portal is not changed and still saying like yours.
My kid’s stats:
Computer science
GPA 3.83 UW/~4.3 capped/weighted, tons of APs
ACT 36
SAT 2320
not local
Getting waitlisted with these stats seems bogus to me. CP’s algorithm predicts that he’ll go to a UC school, so they don’t admit him to boost their yield numbers. It’s a crime to have a selective program with no way to express individual interest, goals, or intent, like doing surgery with a butter knife.
@rocket88 I understand your frustration. My sons scores are similar, and he has also been waitlisted. Keep in mind that both Cal Polys, and the entire CSU system, intentionally serve local communities before the state as a whole, precisely because the UC system exists. The stated aim of the CSUs is to bolster educational opportunity within their specific regions, particularly for communities who have had a harder time breaking into higher education (families without a history of going to college, families in which students had to work while in high school, etc.).
Transfer Applicant, Major Business Admin - Focus in Accounting
Edit: Waitlisted Yesterday
GPA: 3.1
Local: No (Bay Area)
Major Requirements: Complete
GEs: Went for CSU GE Breadth, Complete
Extra-Curriculars: I work a full-time job related to my major.
@ProfessorD:
I have no problem with the mission to serve local and local/underrepresented communities. But presumably not all slots in the engineering school are filled by such applicants. There must therefore be a rational, informed process for selecting students to fill the remaining slots. CSU simply does not collect enough information on the application form to make such a decision. It would be entirely rational for a high-achieving/high-stat prospective Computer Science student to have Cal Poly as his or her first choice, over any UC school, even though of course such students will apply to all of the UC programs as well. Yet these students seem to be actively culled from the applicant pool.
The solution to this is easy: CSU needs to set up a supplemental application for the more selective programs. They don’t even have to do any IT work for this: just use the existing UC application for these programs, with a supplemental 250 word statement on why the student wants to attend a particular impacted CSU program.
How would adding a subjective element, like an essay, make the process more transparent than it is? Currently, Cal Poly’s admissions process is entirely objective. It already is what you claim you want: rational and informed. Your suggestion would replace that with subjective evaluation.
Gpa 3.53
Major: construction management
SAT:1200
Status:waitlisted
Local: no, nor call
Major: Physics
Local: No (from Sac area)
GPA that you applied with: 3.8 UW, 4.1081 W
SAT/ACT: 1960/30/33
6 AP classes and 4 years of science and math
I was really disappointed about getting waitlisted but I’ve already been accepted to another school with a pretty good financial aid package so I said to take me off the waitlist.
My daughter was waitlisted. Do you think it would help her chances to go on an “official” tour. Her grandparents live locally and we have toured the campus for her older brother (denied) and twin brother (accepted) so we know and love the campus but do you think they track the visit?
@mostlymom: SLO does not consider an applicants level of interest. The waitlist is ranked by MCA and major so nothing can be done to improve chances except hope that many accepted applicants go else where.
@ProfessorD: 1) I’m not sure it’s transparent 2) Even if it is actually transparent, algorithms can be gamed in a way that humans can’t be 3) Making extracurriculars, leadership, work experience, etc check-box items, no documentation required, is a total joke 4) Not sampling a person’s ability to write and put together thoughts is a great way to miss the truly talented 5) I could go on.
I’ve always been a great student and I wouldn’t say that I have no talent but I’ve always struggled with writing so I actually prefer the CSU applications which didn’t require me to write an entire essay and was solely based on my stats. The personal statements of the UC applications also doesn’t require documentation so someone could write an impressive essay about a fictitious experience/challenge they had. The way that CSUs and UCs set up applications both have pros and cons and I can definitely see both sides of the argument.
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“Even if it is actually transparent, algorithms can be gamed in a way that humans can’t be”
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Humans can be “Gamed” just like algorithms. It is just as easy to lie about an extracurricular activity, or leadership position, on an essay as it is to lie about it in a numeric application. Both systems rely on candidates honestly and accurately reporting their records.
And if you are convinced that everyone who got into Cal poly lied on their applications, then aren’t you glad that you and your family members are not going there?
As for whether or not essays accurately represent students abilities to write, given the frequency with which parents and commercial editing services are rewriting students essays, I am not convinced that that would actually be a terribly accurate measure of their abilities. Frankly, their English grades in high school, and SAT scores, or more likely to be an accurate measure.
Just to update, my son has now been accepted to UCI CS (honors) and UCSD CS. Still waiting to hear from UCLA, UC Berkeley and a couple of others. Waitlisted at Cal Poly. What a joke. I’m appalled that the State of California would allocate a scarce resource (i.e. a spot at Cal Poly) in such an unsophisticated manner. Fortunately s does not want to go to CP and has good options.
@ProfessorD: I understand your arguments, and don’t completely disagree. In theory I like the idea of a totally impartial process. But I would never want to select a candidate for a job based solely on an algorithm, and I think selecting students for a competitive college should be approached similarly. Also, I do suspect that Cal Poly deliberately rejects some students that their algorithms predict will choose to go to other schools, especially UCs, though at this point I’m not willing to spend the time to do the research to prove or disprove this hypothesis-I know this is controversial. If this last point is true, then it is a crime, because it is highly possible for a kid to work his ass off so that he can go to the college of his choice, and if that college is Cal Poly, then he is punished for his achievements. There is no way for him to say that Cal Poly is his first choice, no way for him to say, for example, that he’s been visiting SLO since he was a baby, that he already knows the back way into Poly Canyon from the horse unit, that his grandfather was a professor there who co-founded a department—just saying. Not to play the “legacy” card, but to indicate a true interest in the college. Trust me, I’ve encountered a lot of Poly engineering students over the years, and to say that my son, with his record and his achievements, didn’t deserve to be among them, is just crap, and it’s because of a flawed admissions process. My son, of course, would be horrified to know that I’m posting this, but I need to say it. Moving on now.
Has anyone who was waitlisted seen a change to their status for SLO?