@Alprogrammer, are you saying neither of your parents finished high school? If that is the case, your chances should be pretty good.
@eyemgh Yes, neither of my parents went past 11th grade.
@Aloprogrammer, the way to think about that is that it’s like raising your CR/M SAT from 970 to 1570. 
No matter where you end up, congratulations. I’m sure your parents are proud of you.
Thank you very much!
Our daughter’s MCA is 4866.12. She is considering an ED for Computer Science. Our calculations put an RD acceptance rate for Computer Science at about 3.9%. Any thoughts about how competitive her MCA will be if she EDs? Thank you.
Based on my review of last year’s ED thread, that MCA should be very competitive for ED, and likely for RD as well. The acceptance rate for CS is about 10-11 percent. I think you forgot to account for the yield rate, which for the engineering school is about 37%. That means that they have to accept about 2.7 students (1 divided by 0.37) to get one new freshman on campus next fall.
Major: Biomedical Engineering
CSU GPA: 4.25
ACT: 33 composite, 35 math, 35 english
Lab science: 8 semesters (bio, chem, AP phys 1 and 2, AP phys C)
math: 8 semesters
2 years of Project Lead the Way
Applying regular decision OOS
It might just be something I’m doing wrong, but every time I select “yes I would like to apply early decision”, it appears as No, on the review your application page. Is anyone else having this problem?
Major: Aerospace engineering
CSU gpa (10-11): 3.7
Unweighted GPA: 3.33
Semesters of Math: 8 (precalc, ap Calc ab, ap Calc bc, ap stats)
Semesters of Lab Science: 8 (AP: bio, chem)
Semesters of English: 8
Semesters of Foreign Language: 6 (2 semesters ap chinese)
Semesters of Visual Performing Arts: 2
Hours per Week of ECs: 21+ (have a leadership role)
Hours of Work per Week: 16-20 (major related: no)
8 AP classes
1 parent finished highschool 1 had some hs
Asian male
chance me?
@Gjjfcmkfb, if your application reflects these exact stats, you need to amend it. You have more semesters of math than 8 and that is important in the Cal Poly admissions algorithm. They will count math back into middle school, so it’s important that your application reflects that you took algebra, geometry and algebra II. They don’t count stats as a math. The same is true for Mandarin. If you made it to AP Mandarin, you likely started in middle school. CP used your Freshman grades, so you need to include those if you want to be chanced, along with your SAT or ACT scores.
Major: Architecture
SAT/ACT: ACT (35 Math, 35 English)
Cal Poly Calculated GPA: 4.29 (per calculator with 23 As, 1 B, and 8 “Honors” points for 10th and 11th grade semesters)
Semesters of Math/Highest Math (do not include finite or stats): 12 (Algebra I in 8th grade, Accelerated Algebra II, Geometry, Accelerated Precalculus/Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, Multivariable Calculus)
Semesters of Lab Science: 8 (2 in biological science, 6 in Chem, AP Chem, and AP Physics)
Semesters of English: 8
Semesters of Foreign Language: 8
Semesters of Visual Performing Arts: 10
Hours per Week of ECs entered on CP application: 11-15
Leadership y/n: Y
Hours of Work per Week entered on CP application: 0
Work was Major Related y/n: n/a
California Vet (701) y/n: No
Partner School (700) y/n: No
Dependent of CP Faculty/Staff (700) y/n: No
high School in Cal Poly Service Area (500) y/n: No
1 parent did not finish HS (300) y/n: No
both parents did not finish HS (600) y/n: No
Instate Male (son), fingers crossed!
@eetrojan Did you include your freshman grades in your GPA calc? You mention 24 grades, but then you list 44 semesters of HS work.
@ocgolfdad - We’ve been debating this very issue. He hasn’t submitted the application yet, so we may change it up.
The CSU Mentor application specifically says to enter your high school GPA for courses taken in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades and the linked “GPA Calculator” similarly says “enter the count of each grade you have earned in … courses completed after 9th grade.”
http://www.csumentor.edu/planning/high_school/gpa_calculator.asp#calculator
On the other hand, the Cal Poly SLO website says that academic performance is considered based on “College prep GPA Calculated by Cal Poly for 9th -11th grade coursework designated on the application.”
http://admissions.calpoly.edu/applicants/freshman/criteria.html
I’ve seen some conclude that you should enter the GPA on the CSU Mentor application based on 10th and 11th grades only (as instructed), and that the folks at Cal Poly SLO will later calculate a 9-11 GPA based on the courses and corresponding grades that were entered in the detailed class-by-class part of the application. Seems like a lot of busy work if true.
My son’s two options are:
Grades 10 and 11 (current plan)
23 As, 1B, and 8 Honors = 4.29 GPA
Grades 9, 10, and 11 (12 additional semester grades)
35 As, 1B and 8 Honors = 4.19 GPA
In my son’s specific circumstance, he’ll cap out at 4.2 in either case, but it’s really odd that this is so ambiguous.
Do you know which is correct for sure?
@eetrojan I believe that you should follow the directions given on the CSU Mentor application. As others have said, Cal Poly will recalculate your GPA to include freshman grades. But for the purposes of this thread, I think most people want to know your Cal Poly GPA, which includes freshman grades.
BTW, congratulations to your son. Those are some awesome stats. Where else is he applying?
@ocgolfdad - Thanks. I’m proud of him.
He’s also applying to Carnegie Mellon , Cornell, Rice, RPI, RSDI, Syracuse, USC, and UT Austin.
He visited Cornell (brother attends), USC, and Cal Poly SLO. SLO is his current #1 and he wants to try to get in ED. It’s such a dramatically different application (no essays, no portfolio, no detailed list of ECs, etc.).
Hopefully it works out for him.
@eetrojan I called the admissions office a while back on this question. On the application put your 10th and 11th grades based of the CSU GPA calculator. They recalculate the GPA with 9th, 10th, and 11th, once they receive the application
@Reef2Reefuser Thanks! You’d think they’d make that REALLY clear on the application given that it’s pretty well known that Cal Poly does consider 9th grade.
I don’t know if it matters, but quite a few kids probably do include 9th grade and water down their self-reported CSU GPA in the sense that it might be higher if based only on 10th and 11th grade and the 8 additional points for honors classes.
@eetrojan ya I wish they did too haha.
Mechanical Engineering
ACT 33, English 36, Math 33
Cal Poly Calculated GPA 4.03 (9-11)
Maxed out class bonus points so 750
Hours per Week of ECs entered on CP application 16+
Leadership yes
Hours of Work per Week entered on CP application 21+
Work was Major Related yes, bike mechanic
I calculated my MCA to be 4820 but I’m not a hundred percent certain how to convert ACT to SAT scores.
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Instate female
ACT: 32 Math 36 English
Cal Poly Calculated GPA: 4.33
Semesters of Math/Highest Math: 10 (Algebra 1 in 8th grade, Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, Honors Pre Calculus, AP Calculus AB)
Semesters of Lab Science: 8 (Physical Science, Honors Biology, Honors Chemistry, AP Biology)
Semesters of English: 8 (AP English Language)
Semesters of Foreign Language: 8 (AP Spanish Language)
Semesters of Visual Performing Arts: 2
Hours per week of ECs: 21+
Leadership: Yes
Hours of work per week in the last 12 months: 21+ (busy summer job)
Work was major related: Yes
Applying Early Decision
Fingers crossed!!