No hints.
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Oh ok, thank you!
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Or maybe SLO is receiving a record amount of applications (55,000 for FTF). Competition for certain majors is extremely fierce.
FYI, this list was published 4/9/2021 in the local SLO Tribune:
TOP-10 HARDEST MAJORS TO GET INTO FOR FIRST-TIME FRESHMEN
- Psychology: 3,222 applicants, 66 spaces available,
- Computer science: 5,838 applicants, 205 spaces available,
- Biological sciences: 4,298 applicants, 160 spaces available,
- Kinesiology: 1,419 applicants, 60 spaces available,
- Marine sciences: 587 applicants, 25 spaces available,
- Aerospace engineering: 1,818 applicants, 80 spaces available,
- Software engineering: 531 applicants, 25 spaces available,
- Political science: 1,572 applicants, 77 spaces available,
- Biomedical engineering: 1,802 applicants, 96 spaces available,
- Biochemistry: 1,169 applicants, 65 spaces available,
TOP-10 HARDEST MAJORS TO GET INTO FOR NEW TRANSFER STUDENTS
- Music: 18 applicants, 0 spaces available,
- Statistics: 56 applicants, 1 space available,
- Communications studies: 496 applicants, 15 spaces available,
- Biological sciences: 421 applicants, 13 spaces available,
- Art & design: 171 applicants, 6 spaces available,
- Marine sciences: 56 applicants, 2 spaces available,
- Computer science: 1,007 applicants, 37 spaces available,
- Software engineering: 114 applicants, 5 spaces available,
- Biochemistry: 90 applicants, 4 spaces available,
- Architectural engineering: 22 applicants, 1 space available,
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Interesting. Any chance for # of admits for each major. The aggregate yield is around 30% but wonder if there are huge disparities even among these high demand majors.
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SLO does not publish admits by major so that is why many posters use the default of 33% yield or 3X the spots available for the admit numbers.
The 30% is accurate for CENG FTF as of 2019, but as @Gumbymom says, no idea about acceptances by major. But I bet the yield will be much higher for the higher demand majors.
The yield rate for CAFES FTF as of 2019 is 43.5%.
The yield rate for CSM FTF as of 2019 is 19.3%.
The yield rate for OCOB as of 2019 is 30.7%.
Others:
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Interesting that the GPA for these colleges have stayed more or less the same in the past 3 years. If admission is unpredictable and competitive then other factors play a more prominent role?
Thanks, these are really helpful. Astonishing how low the yield is in math and science, especially given the hugely competitive biology and kinesiology majors which account for most of these applications.
Looks to me like applying for math or physics is the way to go, those majors probably have about a 50% acceptance rate, which seems to correlate with what was reported in the surveys of MCA scores on Reddit. Helpfully S23 has just said heās more interested in astrophysics than engineering.
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If math is the way to go, why does the Statistics major have only one spot for transfer students? I recall reading that math & science was harder to get into than engineering at SLO. I hope Iām wrong because my S22 is applying for Statistics and Data Science there.
Have you already talked about the 5 years of English recommended for CPSLO? I just became aware of this yesterday - a couple of years too late! This may account for some of the random appearance in admissions. My friend heard about it on a tour.
From High School Course Requirements | Cal Poly
English (Area B)
Four years of English are required and five years are recommended. Five years can be achieved by taking two eligible classes during one academic year or taking a college course. Eligible classes include courses in language, composition and literature; they must integrate extensive reading, frequent writing, and practice listening and speaking with different audiences. Students may only use one year of ESL/ELD English.
I was focusing on freshmen applications. 55 spots for an expected 302 applicants looks pretty good odds to me, given the CSM yield. That probably means at least 50% admit rate.
I wonder whether they are limiting transfer spots due to lack of success with new students in their higher level courses? It seems that math/physics/stats all have quite a few students drop out, since the ratio of continuing to new freshmen is little more than 2:1 when it would be closer to 3:1 if no one dropped out (which is the figure for bio and kinesiology)
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Ya, I would expect CS, SE, AE, and ME to have better than average yields. However, these majors collectively account for about 50% of the CENG seats. So if the yield for these are say 40% instead of 30%, then the other majors need to have only 20% yield to hit the aggregate 30%. In general, it looks like some of the other majors will need to have >40% admit rates, which seems surprisingly high.
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I can see a better argument for it to be the other way round. In a common and highly remunerative major that is super selective at CalPoly but no more selective than normal at many privates (or even at Berkeley if you do L&S CS), many of the successful candidates will have lots of offers that might be considered ābetterā in some peopleās eyes. For example I doubt SLO wins a cross-admit battle with UCSB, let alone UCB/UCLA. It certainly doesnāt at our high school (it only wins against UCR/UCM and is about equal with UCSC).
For a lower paying major like kinesiology thatās not typically a UC subject, thereās a much better argument for successful instate applicants to take a SLO offer and Iād imagine the yield will be higher. Similarly for obscure majors like packaging where youād really have to be interested to apply for something like that.
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Hmmmā¦I donāt have a data driven way to disagree with your view. But, if you compare outcomes and ROI, the only UC that may have better #s for CS is Berkeley. And a lot of the UCB L&S CS admits might choose CalPoly over Berkeley due to the uncertainty and high threshold required for major declaration.
IMO, UCSC doesnāt come close to CalPolys reputation and other than UCLA/UCB it would be hard to place other UCs over CalPoly in general although there may be some major specific nuances.
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My S chose CalPoly over UCB for CS. My daughter has a good friend who also chose CalPoly over UCLA. CalPoly provides a much better experience for a student looking for small class sizes with a very practical curriculum and great job placement with very high starting salaries, not to mention the fact that it is located in SLO. I think itās important to remember that students are looking for different things. All extremely high stat students are not blinded by rankings charts.
ETA - I am not trying to provoke a conversation about rankings. I am simply saying that CalPoly is a highly desired school for CS for many students. Mine could be a lot of places, but he is there now, working hard and loving life.
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I donāt doubt that some do pick CalPoly over higher ranking schools. But itās hard to imagine a low yield for something as specific as packaging that you canāt get elsewhere. The implication would be that the more popular/common majors have lower than average yield within the CoE. And the overall yield at UCB/UCLA is higher than at SLO. All else being equal, that would point to them winning the cross-admit battle.
But Iām sure that attitudes differ by high school. In a high income community where paying more for the UCs isnāt a factor and parents have typically come from outside CA and may have gone to a prestigious school a generation ago, attitudes may be less favorable towards CalPoly than in other places where people know it better and more parents have attended.
And none of this is a knock on CalPoly. Iād love S23 to attend. Iām just trying to work out if he has a chance of getting accepted.
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Thatās a pretty brutal assessment by that particular HS. 
At our local HS located in Silicon Valley, in terms of cross admits, choices begin to get āfuzzy,ā after Cal. And that may be a NorCal versus SoCal thing. UCSB is as popular as SLO, but otherwise itās 
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This might be the Fall 2021 yield by Cal Poly SLO college (not major). https://content-calpoly-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/ir/1/images/admissions-2021_56787574%20(12).pdf - See bottom left information.
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