@Lynn121936 Re. ‘4 semesters’ of art, My S was accepted (biology major) and didn’t yet have any high school arts (for grades 9-11) and is taking the recommended two semesters now, senior year. But for the math, I guess he did have 10 semesters of HS math, since he got high school credit for middle school algebra 1. I’d have to agree with the above post that doubted “4 semesters of art” was required or recommended. Maybe what you saw was for select majors like art? Or only for OOS? (We’re in-state).
@Lynn121936 It is here: https://admissions.calpoly.edu/applicants/freshman/criteria.html
In our case (accepted in Bio Sci), only took one year (2 semesters) of VAPA and 8 semesters of English. On the positive side: 10 semesters of math, 10 semesters of science (all lab science), 8 semesters of foreign language and 8 semesters of social studies. Lots of EC, work experience and work experience related to major. No additional points (ie. not in local area, not Hayden school, not military, not first generation). GPA was about average for major but ACT was very high in English (not reading) and math.
There are lots of areas where some may gain points over others with the same or higher GPAs. Also posting ACT composite scores can be misleading as SLO only looks at ACT math and English.
@maeroop I posted it several pages back but I know of in-state non-athletes who were accepted for kinesiology. There are also several people on the 2021 FB page who are in-state kinesiology majors.
@maeroop I don’t think we have seen any Kinesiology on this thread but there were a few waitlisted. We also toured last Friday and did meet a Kinesiology major that had been accepted. I do not know if they were in state or not though. It seems that even though we have not seen a representation of all majors here, we can assume they are not holding back on any. This thread is just a small sampling of people that have applied to Cal Poly.
It’s possible MCA has been changed, and now weights certain ‘course rigor’ classes more heavily. I personally could have maxed out that category with my extra math alone, so if they wanted to encourage kids to have 10 semesters of math, and 4 of art, it’s possible they upped (or removed) the max. I’d be interested to see the MCAs of those admitted (and not) if we pretend course rigor points aren’t capped.
Or, they may do two screens: one for just course rigor, and a second screen comparing the MCAs only of students with enough rigor points.
The 4 semesters of art is strongly recommended, I think progressive is required, and they prefer progressive classes to be consecutive. They consider graphic design, digital media, and photography to be art.
I’m sure the consecutive component can’t be weighted strongly against oos kids because that isn’t common anywhere else so schools won’t prioritize you getting art 2 first semester if you had art 1 second semester of the previous year.
Question for s.one in the know: If I’m a bit afraid of taking both intro. biology and intro chemistry freshman year (given the high-stats OOS biolody/pre-med. acceptances I’ve seen through this thread – and that I didn’t take AP bio. nor AP chem. but only regular biol. and chem. in HS) and with the average undergraduate course grade at Cal Poly being a C (since its a public school using typical curve that limits no. of high grades per course) … does anyone agree with me that taking a Sociology (freshm. year) in place of (either) intro. chem or biol. wouldn’t have as tough a competition / grade curve, as intro. biol. and chem.? I just don’t want to ruin my GPA right from the get go. (Yeah my gpa/sat were good enough to get in, in-state, but not nearly as high (SAT) as the OOS biol. majors that will be in my classes, and only 17 or 20% of each course/class can get an A seeing as this is a public uni.) Yeah I can study hard but still, i have to plan my schedule wisely when others (who took AP biol, etc. and who will be in my classes) will be already ahead of me first quarter next fall (due to their AP bio. experience from HS). Sociology 110 or 111 will at least have some non-science majors (and non-pre-meds) in the class. (And pre-meds are now recommended to have some – 1 semester–Sociol/psychol. anyhow) … So you see, future social workers (sociology majors, etc.) can get B’s and occasional C’s yet still get their career goals in the end, and this is different wrt pre-meds, where GPA less than 3.7 would be a career-plan changer.
Simpler version of my question: What are some easier classes (at CP SLO) for one wanting to start off first quarter without excessively harsh grading curves? Okay so I might take one hard-ish (grade curve-wise) course right away but not 3 (first quarter) and so just wondering if Sociology 110/111 would have less-steep grade competition. Thanks in advance if anyone has an answer/opinion or advice! I’m not looking for the crystal ball off answers/predictions (which doesn’t exist) but just guesses and opinion(s).
@Lynn121936 1k per year
Regarding the arts requirement for admissions it seems that 4 semesters of performing arts will gives you bonus points for the admissions process. at here is what I found:
English (10 Semesters; 100 Bonus Points)
Algebra (4 ; 0 Bonus Points)
Geometry (2 ; 0 Bonus Points)
Foreign Language (8 ; 100 Bonus Points)
Lab Science (8 ; 200 Bonus Points)
History (4 ; 0 Bonus Points)
Performing Arts (4 ; 50 Bonus Points)
Advanced Math (4 ; 500 Bonus Points)
As seen above, this student has received a maximum of 950 admission bonus points for their
high school curriculum. Notice that extra semesters of Lab Sciences and Advanced Mathematics
have a higher weight than the rest of the subjects with respect to the allotment of Bonus points. A
student taking 4 extra semesters of Advanced Math results in 52% of the maximum possible
bonus points by itself. For each semester that a student is under the minimum required number of
courses, a 500 point deduction of admission score is applied for each of the semesters under the
required 30 semesters.
source:
http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=statsp
I have never seen the words “strongly recommended” by Cal Poly or any other CSU or UC in regards to 4 semesters of art. I have had two kids apply and get accepted there over the last two admissions cycle so I have paid very close attention to the details of the admissions process. The word recommended has been used by Cal Poly, but it is worth pointing out that they also recommend 10 semesters of English which very few California high school students complete. The vast majority of California public high school students and Cal Poly applicants take 2 semesters of art as that is the requirement for the UC/CSU system and it is what their counselers tell them to take.
The only time I think having 4 semesters of art would be valuable are for those few students that did not max out the MCA though some combination of math/science/English and foreign language. Again this is somewhat speculative because none of us knows what goes into the black box (aka the MCA algorithm).
@Lynn121936 - the wording that is used is ‘desired’ 4 semesters and ‘required’ 2 semesters for Art
@Lynn121936 yes our daughter hit all the marks in the desired criteria list, exceeded in some. These are exactly the points that make it confusing and frustrating that she was not selected or wait listed. I thought that the algorithmic selection process was a method that would not disenfranchise the applicants that worked hard and achieved higher goals. As we have seen in this thread, applicants have been admitted with lesser stats. Sadly, we believe that the algorithmic process, at best, is only a guideline.
You can only get up to 750 points from any combination of the rigor points. My kid got the math, science and language max for 800, so even with just 2 semesters of art, so no art bonus points, she got the 750
English (10 Semesters; 100 Bonus Points)
Foreign Language (8 ; 100 Bonus Points)
Lab Science (8 ; 200 Bonus Points)
Performing Arts (4 ; 50 Bonus Points)
Advanced Math (4 ; 500 Bonus Points)
The MCA rigor score maxes at 750. If one were to take all the bonus classes, they’d have well over 750. The only time performing arts beyond two semesters matters is if a student didn’t max out other higher point categories, specifically math. Not having calculus is a huge disadvantage, basically a loss of 250 points, or 5% of the MCA.
@eyemgh has there been any confirmation of the MCA formula in the past few years? I think it’s likely they have increased the total possible for rigor. That may explain some of the high stats denials.
I’d be very surprised if the same kids maxing out the rigoir points also max out extracurricular and work hours. Out of around a hundred kids in the IB program at her school my daughter was one of only two with a paying job for the last two years.
@soccerslueth, I don’t know. The last I had was 2013. It’s at least changed a bit since the SAT changed.
Lower stats students being accepted is easily explained by non-academic adders. Living in the service area or going to a Hayden Partner School is like scoring 500 more points on the SAT. It’s a big boost. Those aren’t the only ones.
Higher stats students being rejected is a little more of a mystery. It can be explained many ways. Missing ANY required classes is an automatic rejection. Application errors can also result in an unintended omission of critical data, and Poly is brutal regarding errors and won’t let a student appeal on that basis. At the margins ECs make a difference. Lastly, a high GPA and test scores without lots of lab sciences and Calculus will result in a lower MCA.
It could be that there’s more to it than just MCA. I think it’s safe to say though that it isn’t rejection of high stats students for yield protection or any other reason, because most of the high stats students have gotten in. The rejections over the last three years of said students have been extremely confined.
Lastly, admissions rollout is VERY different this year with the elimination of ED. It’s not done yet.
I think things are going to change a lot once the UCs start admission notifications.
@eyemgh your last comment, its not done yet, do you have additional info regarding additional admits (beyond potential admissions from wait list) or just that its not 4/1? Please post if you have any additional info.
Also, as an example, have seen a biology admit w/ act 21, sat 1130 & GPA 4.35 and doubt if you included the “non academic adders” that it would result in the necessary mca of other admits. I would like to believe in the mca but can’t believe its more than a guideline, given this evidence.
@Goolia66 Great find! Thank you for posting the link to the paper “Assessment of Present Cal Poly Admission Requirements” written by a student for his senior project. His remark that high school GPA and SAT Math seemed to be the more significant predictors of success at Cal Poly was very interesting. I wonder if this is why UCSD seems to value the math score more than the reading score in its admissions, judging from the Common Data Set for 2015-2016.
My son forgot to put in 8th grade algebra grades in application for cal poly. Could this be a reason we have not heard anything from admissions yet? Yikes!
@talguy, the only info I have on admissions is what others have posted here, that they called admissions and acceptances would be rolling out for weeks. That and, posters here keep getting accepted.
As for your question about the MCA, non-academic adders could EASILY explain an admission with those stats. An MCA point is an MCA point, no matter where it comes from. If that poster was from the Service Area or a Hayden Partner school, it would have the EXACT SAME effect as an SAT of 1600 PLUS 30 more MCA points somewhere else.