So how bad of a sign is it if I haven’t received a decision yet?
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I would say that’s not true, places like Cal and UCLA review far more holistically.
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Aren’t Cal and Berkeley the same thing?
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It was for biological sciences not engineering, and I know. He does too. He applied to many more schools as well, for a variety of majors. And he is a legacy at Princeton, not that it means what it once did. I was just trying to make that point about how competitive some majors are at Cal Poly.
Typo, edited now
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Totally disagree with that assessment. While Cal and UCLA are much higher ranked schools by far, they review much more holistically and consider what Cal Poly does not. Also, I’ve noticed that in many instances, applicants that are technically more qualified are getting rejected or waitlisted while others are getting accepted. It’s somewhat random. My friend got into Cal Poly with a good GPA and really ZERO extracurriculars, work experience, leadership, etc. Good guy, but did nothing outside of school. His GPA was 4.2. Also, you’ll notice quite a few Cal Poly admits got rejected by Cal Poly Pomona and waitlisted by Long Beach. Once you have so many qualified students, things start to get very random when you only base it on numbers and algorithms.
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oh, I just saw you said “My son’s friend was not accepted last week for engineering…” so I figured he had applied for Engineering as well at the other schools.
You are saying he applied to SLO for Engineering but the others listed for Bio Sciences?
That’s a pretty wide spread.
Do you know how they accept students off the waitlist? Like do they rank them in order based off their application or is it random?
Opps. I meant Biological Sciences at Cal Poly, which is also very competitive, not Engineering. I am not sure what he applied to where but he mixed it up a bit. I was surprised when I heard he applied for Biological Sciences at Cal Poly. He has been taking coding classes at https://atdp.berkeley.edu/ since he was pretty young.
Here’s a YouTube video from Cal Poly Admissions discussing the wait list process -
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Biological sciences
What’s the point of telling them that their friend basically has no shot there? I’m sure he knows, considering engineering is a competitive major.
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Great, glad you disagree. You are also being silly, “holistic” admissions or otherwise.
While everyone has an outlier story of the kid that did “nothing” and still was admitted at some super-hard school/program, the odds of getting into Engineering at Cal, UCLA or Princeton are insanely low for everyone. They are undoubtedly harder programs to get in to OVERALL vs. SLO Engineering. Facts matter.
Not a detailed picture, but you should get the point:
Do the math, it is obvious that you are way off base on realistic chances of admission at the Engineering program at Cal, etc. vs. SLO. SLO is a great Engineering program, but please be realistic.
Ok, we’ll agree to disagree. I’m just saying that getting rejected or waitlisted from Cal Poly does not mean you won’t get accepted at Cal or UCLA or Princeton. If your stats are good, I know this to be true.
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Sure, getting waitlisted at any school under a million different scenarios and variables of course doesn’t mean you won’t get into an even better school.
However, you still have to assess your chances within the bounds of reality. Your odds of getting in to a USNWR Top 25 or so Engineering program (Nat’l schools, PhD offered) after being waitlisted at SLO are indeed pretty small.
yes son accepted for Business a week ago. In state
That’s not true at all! SLO is an algorithm not a holistic process. So to say if you get waitlisted at SLO that you won’t get into other programs is just not accurate. Don’t crush someone’s hope.
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Agreed!
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FWIW, my son was accepted REA at Stanford and just waitlisted for CS in Cal Poly. This is from the WL email: “We have received over 65,000 applications for approximately 5,900 available spaces.” 9% acceptance rate. My son is straight-A, 11 APs (6 most difficult sophomore and junior year, including Calc BC in 10th grade and Physics C 11th grade - all with 5s), etc. Sports, leadership and CA state awards. Go figure.
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FYI, the 65,000 apps and 5,900 spaces includes transfers, not just freshman enrollment spots. The enrollment target for transfers is about 1,000-1,100 of those 5,900 spots.
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