We’re pretty close to you. I think there are probably differences by major, but for STEM what we saw was UCB>UCLA>UCSD>UCSB then a mixed bag with UCI getting only a few and relative numbers at CalPoly and UCSC and UCD varying by year and major, but SLO gradually improving its position. Some of the UCSC choices were people not wanting to go too far from home.
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In our circles, there is a huge preference for NorCal. We send about 20 out of 33 admits to Cal, 18 to Davis, 26 to UCSC. In contrast, just 11 out of 25 admits to UCLA and just 5 out of 36 admits to UCI.
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You have to look at the SLO Multiple Criteria Admission from 2013 that’s posted on this forum to get an idea of your odds. That and the number of students that they plan to admit
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I don’t have any cross admit data, but popularity-wise locally at our large public, it’s:
UCB>UCLA>UCSB>UCSC>UCD>UCSD>UCM>UCR>UCI.
SLO is right there with UCSB in terms of popularity.
Well, I just calculated my S22 MCA using the 2013 criteria (excluding SAT/ACT) and get 2985.656. Is that good, bad, or ugly? 
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3,000 is a good score!! 3,350 or so is better. It really depends a lot on the major, Computer Science is about 10%, others around 90%. It also depends if they are still using that 2013 formula minus the SAT scores and haven’t weighted anything more than the others.
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Cal Poly Slo touts it’s hands on approach that is real appealing to me as a dad and also an engineer. Everyone I know, young and old and in-between that graduated from Cal Poly Slo loved the experience and the education immensely. Everyone I know that graduated from UCD and UCSB loved it their too!! UC schools are more theoretical and that’s fine. Some of the UC schools like UCLA and UCB have enormous name recognition!!! Cal Poly SLO is well known in California and Western states. My daughter is going to visit UCLA, because I think she should, I once considered it and was glad to have visited it. Bill
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There are no historical MCA scores available since SLO went test blind plus no one knows if they are still using the 2013 MCA calculations. I would not make any assumptions regarding the calculation at this point.
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@Meemom - yeah… I hadn’t known about the recommended extra English class or MCA scoring when S22 was a freshman. He does well on most of the extra credit recommendations except for English and Art. But as as computer- and engineer-focused kid, that’s not a surprise. He scored well everywhere else, so we’ve got our fingers crossed. But D24 wants the option to go there if S22 does. She wants to major in English. She’ll get the extra English class because she’s already starting to take the extra credits. Now that I know about how SLO does their math, I’m finding ways to get her the extra math credits without having to do Calculus. She’ll get some extra science credits, but won’t max out that category. Basically, both my kids will max most categories but won’t max them all and that will be based on their own interests. So no regrets. But I’m definitely using what I learned this time to help D24 as much as reasonably possible.
@Twoin18 - my son applied CS to UCB, UCSB, UCSD, SLO, CPP, SDSU (he’s been accepted), and a few others. If he gets into all of them, he’ll go SLO #1 and CPP #2. So not only would he choose SLO over Berkeley, he’ll also choose CPP over Berkeley. For him it comes down to environment, types of classes, ability to get to know his professors, and other criteria. It doesn’t matter that Cal is a higher ranked school than CPP or SLO. That ranking comes in part (largely?) from their graduate programs and research. At Cal, lower division classes are taught by grad students and there is little personal attention. SLO & CPP are much less focused on grad school, class sizes are smaller, kids report feeling like their professors really care about them. The Polys’ hands-on focus is exactly what he wants and needs. Berkeley isn’t the right environment for him. And I say that as someone who consideres Cal my “Family School”. I love Berkeley.
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My son is in scholars class of 2025. Great program. He’s so happy there. Lmk if u have any questions.
hey just messaged you
Absolutely. Good luck!
Yikes, my daughter applied for psychology, only 66 spots?! SLO is probably her first choice of schools I thought were a match. 2% acceptance rate, can that be right?
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You forgot to include yield (24% for CLA). So acceptance rate will be around 4 times higher, perhaps 8-10% for psychology.
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Hi we are out of state (Washington) and my daughter loves SLO. It’s her first pick. She applied to the GRAPHICS COMMUNICATIONS program. Does anyone have any insight into that programs accepted rate? Thanks.
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So, their Fall 2021 planning estimates were 375 apps and a target enrollment of 72 spots. If you use a yield of about 26% (2019 yield) for CLA (College of Liberal Arts, since no one truly knows for individual majors), then I’d use for planning purposes 3x or 4x the 72 target spots or roughly 216-288 acceptances.
So, the estimated acceptance rate would be 58-77% for both in-state and OOS. Then, according to the CDS, 22% of the freshman class is/was from OOS, which complicates matters more. 
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My daughter applied for psychology a few years ago at SLO, but only got accepted for her second choice major. She was able to add psychology as a second major and loves her double major with Theatre Arts.
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Interesting combination of majors!
Just curious my daughter applied to the same program. Was yours ever contacted to submit a portfolio? Mine was not despite being a very high stat student so we are wondering if she didn’t even make the first cut… We are in state a couple of hours away from SLO.
I was wondering the same thing. My son also applied for Graphic Communications and has not had an email requesting a portfolio.
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