Cal Poly SLO Capped GPA - calculate

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
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@Gumbymom, this is really a question directed to you. I know it is a very common question based on reading through a few years’ worth of Cal Poly SLO results threads. I decided to start a new thread since I didn’t want the answer to this to get buried in another thread and not seen by the folks who need it.

I understand Cal Poly SLO does GPA calculations differently than the other CSUs - capped at 8 semesters of AP/IB HL/CC credits. But I still have a question about how that works.

Questions:
#1 - When a student has more than 8 semesters of advanced credit, how do the remaining advanced classes get counted?
Are they calculated on a 4.0 scale? Or are they not included?
Example: my son has 5 AP/CC classes (10 semesters). If the fifth class is counted as a 4.0 then his SLO GPA is a 4.22. If the additional AP class is removed from the GPA, his SLO GPA would be 4.24.

#2 - I’ve seen references to Cal Poly SLO capping at 4.2 regardless of the stats I listed above. Is that accurate?

Thank you very much!

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  1. SLO will use 9-11th grades for the a-g course requirements. They cap at 8 semesters of UC approved Honors (in-state), AP/IB or DE courses taken 10-11th grades only. Above the 8 semesters, there is no weighting but CSU’s will look at the courses taken and note the applicants HS course rigor.

SLO uses an MCA score which MAY INCLUDE bonus points for a-g courses taken beyond the SLO stated minimums. I will post the MCA score calculation from 2013 but since test scores are no longer part of the equation, it has been modified and specific information has not been posted or disclosed.

FROM THE SLO WEBSITE: All candidates are objectively evaluated by the cognitive and non-cognitive variables under our faculty-mandated Multi-Criteria Admission (MCA) process.

  1. SLO use to cap the GPA at 4.2 however if you look at the Freshman profile GPA admit ranges for the last several years, they extend beyond the 4.2 maximum so again, the cap probably no longer exists at 4.2 but may be up to 4.4 which is the normal Capped weighted CSU GPA maximum.

OLD MCA Calculation information:
Academic MCA:

The maximum GPA they will use is 4.2, even though you can have a higher calculated CP GPA. A 4.2 is worth 2250 MCA points. Thus, multiply your CP GPA by 535.7 and you’ll get your MCA points for GPA.

THIS SECTION NO LONGER PART OF THE MCA CALCULATION: The next biggest thing is test scores. The odd thing, likely because they wanted it to total a nice round number, is that the max score is 1650, even though the max SAT score is 1600. Multiply the total of your best SAT CR and your best SAT math by 1.03125 to get your MCA test points. If you took the ACT, they convert and vice versa.

**PROBABLY STILL USED:**The third largest section is the class rigor score, worth 750 points. In this section you get zero points for meeting the minimum admission requirements and adders for more than the minimum. The bonuses in order of power are (min semesters/max total semesters/bonus per extra semester/total possible bonus): math 6/10/125/500, lab science 4/8/50/200, English 8/10/50/100, foreign language 4/8/25/100, visual performance 2/4/25/50, no bonus points for social sciences or electives. As with GPA, you can actually score higher than the maximum, but 750 is the most they will count.

Finally, work and ECs, worth 350 points. Work (hours per week/bonus): 0/0, 1-5/20, 6-10/40, 11-15/60, 16-20/80, 21+/100, add 50 points if work is major related. ECs (hours per week/bonus): 0/0, 1-5/30, 6-10/60, 11-15/90, 16-20/120, 21+/150, add 60 points for leadership role.

There are also other Non-Academic Bonus Points:

CA vet/701, Hayden Partner School/700, faculty/staff dependent/700, service area of CP/500, either parent with some or no HS, but who DIDN’T GRADUATE FROM HS/300 (per parent).

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Thank you very much for your response. Yes, I’m aware of the old MCA score and was totally prepared to do calculations based on that and then the tests went away. Thanks for confirming that there has been no information since COVID to explain the exact impact of the test removal.

So from what you posted it looks like any additional advanced courses are counted as the 4.0.

Also thank you for posting that it looks like the 4.2 cap is probably gone. That is helpful to know.

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It’s hard to know if and when this changed. They have been reporting GPAs higher than 4.2, primarily in engineering, prior to COVID. I tried to dig deeper, back to 2013, but I can only find averages, not ranges. The MCA is still used, but like I always say, use the 2013 information with a grain of salt.

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AP Stats or AP Calc BC? What would make an app look stronger?
My son applied for 2019 admissions to SLO and I remember there was an issue that he took Stats instead of BC Calc.

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Calc BC would be considered more rigorous.

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At CP, assuming the MCA is still similar, which it might not be, it shouldn’t make a difference one way or the other. That is assuming the student took AB, pre-Calc, Algebra II, Geometry, and Algebra I, sometime between middle school and HS. The MCA only counted advanced math classes, didn’t distinguish between them, and was capped. I’d still recommend a student take BC, because I think it’s a better preparatory class. I don’t know that it would make a CP app stronger, but it would for almost every other school.

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Did you know much being a veteran is factored into the admission decision via MCA?

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701 points! That’s IF it’s still in place. I don’t know any details beyond that though.

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Since you are a transfer and not a Freshman applicant, the MCA points and criteria may different than Freshman admissions.

Here is what the SLO website states under Transfer selection criteria:

All candidates are objectively evaluated by the cognitive and non-cognitive variables such as veteran status, area of residence and more under our faculty-mandated Multi-Criteria Admission (MCA) process. https://www.calpoly.edu/admissions/transfer-student/selection-criteria

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Indeed. The transfer MCA was never as clearly elucidated as the FTF was, and, as we all know, it could have changed.

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thanks!

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I’m confused - if they cap the number of weighted (honors/ap) classes at 8 semesters, how is it even possible to get anything close to a 4.4 GPA? Mathematically it will be almost impossible to go slightly over 4.2.

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It is going to depend on how many classes the student takes at their high school.

For the regular UC/CSU calculation, assuming two years (10-11th grade) with 5 classes per semester (which is pretty much the minimum number of classes to cover all core course requirements), the maximum weighted capped GPA is 4.4. However, lots of students take more classes than that, bringing down their weighted capped GPA.

If you include 9th-11th grades in the calculation (according to Cal Poly’s selection criteria here https://www.calpoly.edu/admissions/first-year-student/selection-criteria), and the student takes 5 courses per semester, the maximum weighted capped GPA would be 4.27. But again, most academically ambitious students will take more classes than 5 per semester.

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Let’s assume a student takes 5 classes per semester. Cal Poly calculates GPA from 9th-11th grade. This means 6 semesters * 5 classes = 30 semesters total. Let’s assume the student maxes out on all grades – 8/30 semesters are graded as 5.0, and the rest (22/30 semesters) are graded as 4.0. Their GPA would be 4.26.

In reality, kids are taking more than 5 classes per semester and the max is slightly above 4.2.

So my guess is that the cap is actually 4.2 and not 4.4.

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The capped weighted CSU maximum of 4.4 is for a-g 10-11th grades with the 8 semester cap. Since SLO is using 9-11th grade, the 4.4 cap is not relevant. As noted by @tamagotchi the SLO capped weighted GPA will be below 4.4. The old MCA criteria use to cap the GPA at 4.20 but the SLO Freshman profile shows a GPA of 4.25 so the 4.20 cap is no longer used.

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When I run those numbers through RogerHub, I get 4.27 as the max weighted capped GPA for 9th-11th grades. Maybe RogerHub is rounding up. I didn’t bother doing any calculation myself :slight_smile:

SLO’s profile shows the 50% range as 4.08 - 4.25, which would be consistent with 4.27 (or 4.26) being the theoretical maximum. First-Year Student Profile | Cal Poly

I don’t think there is a cap, but there is a maximum based on the requirement to take a certain number of a-g courses.

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Got it, thank you for the clarification tamagotchi and gumbymom!

That said, this seems very strange since most competitive kids take a lot of extra classes to increase rigor and their weighted GPA. But in the case of Cal Poly that may actually decrease their chances of acceptance since their GPA will get diluted, the more classes they pile on. Is this true?

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The problem with additional classes diluting GPA is a quirk of the CSU system. However, we do know that Cal Poly considers more factors than just GPA. They include a number of different factors in their Multi-Criteria Admission (MCA) process, but we don’t know exactly how these factors are weighted currently. We know that there are MCA bonuses for additional courses taken in math, English, science, etc., and it is possible that they may also consider the total number of a-g courses as a positive factor, like the UCs.

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My son has applied for CS. Haven’t got any decision yet. Does that mean its rejection/waitlist?