Cal Poly Regular Decision Thread 2016-2017

The Cal Poly app should have a drop down box like the uc application for 7/8 grade math in the beginning of the application when entering grades. The uc app also lets the applicant know of a-g courses that are missing. Seems crazy that there is a small section at the end of the cal poly application after you’ve entered all courses as a reminder. The placement is way off…maybe some of the computer science brains might be able to change these FLAWS.

@eyemgh she wasn’t even wait listed. FYI quick search provided a bio admit this year with a mca of 4469.

So my son has a MCA of 4,634 and forgot to put in 8th grade Algebra. He applied environmental engineering and has not heard anything yet probably because of this oversight on the application.

@eyemgh post #446 states “admitted with low mca”, though didn’t list. Just a moment of searching limited data on this site further reinforces the opinion that the mca is not absolute and at best a guideline.

Well that’s a bummer. I only searched the Final Status thread and for instate applicants. If that is indeed the case, and everyone else’s calculations are correct, which they might not be (like I said, there was an accepted ME last year with a 4400 that turned out to be an error…it was 4900), then either there’s more to the MCA than we know, or she made an application error (leaving out middle school math would seem the most probable). Hard to know for sure. Sorry. She will thrive where ever she lands.

I’m looking for a screenshot of the application where it asks for junior high grades. The best I can find is this CSU tutorial. Go to: http://www.csumentor.edu/admissionapp/ and click on “click here to view help tutorial for the online application.”

View the video entitled “High School Preparation 1” Towards the end of the video, it shows that at the top of the Mathematics section it says, “Courses taken in 7th and 8th grade may be considered (list 7th grade math courses as 8th grade).”

In “High School Preparation 2” it shows in the Language Other Than English section it states, “Courses taken in 7th and 8th grade may be considered. (List 7th grade LOTE courses as 8th grade).” Later, there is a big red box that states, “To receive full credit for Languages other than English courses completed in 7th and/or 8th grade, you must list these courses in Area E. Verify your entry before continuing with the application.”

I don’t think the MCA, or whatever similar algorithm they’re using, is just a guideline… I think they have a computer spit out scores and people aren’t actually looking at the apps at all. Stupid things like not listing junior high classes shouldn’t be make or break, obviously a student had to have taken those classes if they start high school at a higher math level… but it doesn’t get caught because a human isn’t actually looking at the apps. My daughter was accepted, some of her friends with significantly higher stats weren’t, I think it’s just a score spit out and you’re either in range for your major or you’re not.

@socalmom007, every major is ranked separately. There isn’t a range per se in that higher scores get rejected too, but simply a cutoff where everyone above gets accepted. The cutoffs vary dramatically by major.

@talguy I’m not actually, sorry. I’m shocked to see people with such high stats compared to my get waitlisted or rejected… SLO isn’t even my first choice but whatever happens I’m sure everyone will be successful wherever they attend. Good luck everyone!

Yes, that’s what I mean. I think a computer spits out a score and you’re either in or our for your major. I don’t think a person is looking at the apps. My daughter’s friend thought he had a 4800 mca, take out 4 semesters of junior high math and he probably had a 4300… big difference.

@talguy, I’m certain the poster in #466 didn’t have a LOW MCA. They had the max GPA, a high SAT, and ECs. All they lacked was work experience. My guess is that they were comparing to the very high MCAs 4700+ and feeling they didn’t stack up.

@eyemgh kmde307 has responded, post 1489, not in slo district or Hayden connection. The confusion and frustration continues.

@kmde307 thank you for responding and adding a piece to this mca puzzle. Good luck to you.

People keep discussing visual arts but performing arts count also, right? Instrumental music or chorus classes count toward that requirement?

@talguy, she didn’t list her MCA. She did have a GPA that would garner maximum points. She could easily be above 4500 with the SAT she reported. We also only know her composite ACT. If either her math or English was a higher individual score, it could have pushed her test scores higher. We don’t know her rigor. We don’t know her ECs. Lastly, most don’t know if they go to a Partner School. It’s not something easy to find.

Edit: from her previous posts, she’s taking Calculus now (which would max rigor) and has maxed ECs with leadership. This is why simply comparing “stats” is inadequate.

@eyemgh you’re right no mca, that’s about where this dcussion started. In post 1492 they were responding to my inquiry, no Hayden & no slo district.
Our daughter had max rigor but she was not selected or wait listed. Just too many indicators making holes in the absolute mca compliance even in this sites limited sampling. Once again, would really appreciate it if it was a completely objective algorithm but not seeing it.

Okay so I saw ppl talking about post #466 and was surprised to see what that post said (yeah, it was actually me). I didn’t actually calculate an MCA but can shed some light I think on this … first of all, being a varsity captain for both jr. and senior HS years gives/gave some bonus MCA points from what I’ve read here, and second, I entered BOTH of my middle school math courses (algebra 1 in 7th grade, and geometry in 8th grade, but entered both as 8th grade courses since that’s what the instructions said I should do when I was filling out the app.) And I had only put 4.2 down in that post as my GPA because ppl on this thread had said to cap it there at 4.2. But my UC GPA is around 4.35 (or higher, if my current senior year grades were to be looked at as I have 5 AP classes this year. Though I know the CP SLO MCA doesn’t consider senior grades, but maybe that added some rigor points or s.thing.) Hopefully this makes it a bit less confusing? I really had never heard of MCA calculations before this thread so I’m new to this method.

@socalmom007 Hopefully someone from admissions reads this thread. I think this issue with junior high math being left off the app inadvertently is a real issue and one that would be quite easy to fix. And if their are really adders given to the children of Cal Poly faculty/staff I would eliminate them entirely. This is a state sponsored institution. That sort of nepotism is illegal in state hiring- why that exists in admissions is beyond me. The other adders given to students who parents did not attend college or go to a Hayden partner school are controversial, but they make more sense to me than strict race base admission without regard to socioeconomic status.

With all that being said do not assume that the UC admissions process is any “fairer” than Cal Poly’s admission by algorithm. In a few weeks UCLA and Cal will release their decisions and you will see many very upset parents and students shocked at their rejections and perplexed that the mystical “holistic” admissions process resulted in students with dramatically lower stats/ECs being accepted over them.

I know that admissions was called about the junior high math omission and their response was, sorry, if you didn’t put it in the app it doesn’t count. Again, it’s common sense if a student started 9th grade in trigonometry that they took Algebra and Geometry in junior high. It seems like an easy fix to make the junior high math more obvious to input. Maybe those 500 bonus points are really for following ambiguous directions and not actually for math rigor. It’s just sad if students aren’t getting in to their first choice school over a technicality. I’m glad I did my daughter’s CSU app for her.

The MCA “project” started several years ago when several parents were claiming that Cal Poly rejected highly qualified students to protect yield. Two things stood out immediately. CP has a poor yoked and they accept lots of students with the very highest stats. As a result, several people, myself included, started sharing the information we could find about Poly admissions. It’s a pretty clear picture of what goes on. The distillation of that discussion can be found in post #52 of the thread pinned at the top of the forum. Is it fair? It depends on the objectives of the institution. Is it better than “holistic” admission? Probably…who knows. One thing is certain.