Cal Poly SLO Highest Acceptance Rate Major

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
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Hello everyone :slight_smile:
I hope you all are doing well. I have a younger brother who is applying to colleges next fall and his top school is Cal Poly SLO which is where my sister goes and she loves it! I am wondering what is the easiest major to be accepted into Cal Poly. I know the College of Ag has around a 50% acceptance rate so we might start there. He really wants to go here so I want to make sure he has the best chance he has to make it in. Everyone on College Confidential is so helpful as I know from my college application process last year! You guys are the best!

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How about the major he actually wants?

If the major he actually wants is more competitive for admission, it likely has restrictions on changing into (e.g. requiring a high college GPA).

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So major does not matter? As stated by @ucbalmunus, being accepted into a major that is less competitive and then wanting to switch later will be problematic. Any student wanting to change majors at SLO, will be reviewed to determine if they were qualified at time of admission for the new major. This prevents “backdooring”. Change of Major - Academic Advising - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

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Major doesn’t matter

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Why study a subject of no interest for 4 years just to attend a specific college? Waste of time and money.

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because changing majors isnt as difficult as they make it seem.

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Cal Poly SLO is an impacted campus so all majors are competitive and there are no easy admit majors. That said, Agricultural Communications, Dairy Science, Food Science, Plant Sciences, Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering, Industrial Tech and Packaging might be options if there is an interest.

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And take a spot from someone who really wants to be in that particular major…

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I’m a big fan of the school. My son is an alum. I can’t however think of a worse plan. Switching majors is difficult, and not guaranteed. It will potentially end up wasting over $100K for a useless degree.

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Here are my guesses:

Recreation, Parks & Tourism
BioResource & Agricultural Engineering
Agricultural Communication
Agricultural Business
Dairy Science
Materials Engineering
Industrial Engineering
Industrial Technology & Packaging

**@Gumbymom beat me to a list. :smile:

BTW, CS and Software Engineering are closed to transfers.

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It depends on origin major and destination major. Yes, about 30% of students change. Swimming upstream is virtually impossible though. He will certainly be locked out of many options if he doesn’t have strong admission stats.

Give us some general idea of interests and maybe we can pick best fits that are a high probability of admission.

If he has any interest, there’s no doubt which major I’d pick…Industrial Technology and Packaging. It’s not competitive, and packaging VERY interesting, and in high demand. They have great job placement and earn close to what the engineers do. Gotta be interested though.

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Packaging Science and Engineering is an excellent field!

But agree, please don’t pick a major based on acceptance rates—ESPECIALLY for a school like SLO.

Heck, I’m from the East Coast and I’m telling you this—it’s pretty well known that SLO is pretty tight about enrollment. Best of luck to your younger sibling!

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I asked a question. If you dont want to help answer it you can feel free to go to another thread.

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and a student getting in takes away a spot for another student no matter what major.

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Just out of curiosity, what is your sisters major and stats when she was admitted to SLO? How about your younger brother’s current stats? Would he competitive for any of the Colleges based on the 2021 Freshman profile? How about HS course rigor?

Remember GPA posted is the SLO GPA which is 9-11th grades for the a-g courses and a cap of 8 semesters of UC approved Honors/AP/IB or DE courses taken 10-11th only.

College of Agriculture, Food and Env. Science:
GPA 3.83 - 4.21

College of Engineering:
GPA 4.12 - 4.25

College of Business:
GPA 4.00 - 4.25

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Good luck.

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I recently watched some of their videos on that major (Industrial packaging) and found them fascinating. If I hadn’t watched the videos I might have been looking at that title thinking, “not so sure about that one…” but I’d have been wrong. Looks extremely interesting, and clearly employable.

I was actually checking out the acceptance rates for English at SLO since that’s now what DD24 is interested in majoring in. Seems the English Department also has a higher acceptance rate with a first-class program. But I love that a lot of their College landing pages have videos talking about their classes and programs.

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“BTW, CS and Software Engineering are closed to transfers”… ehhm, WHAT ???

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@sushiritto meant that an in-coming Freshman or transfer cannot change into the following majors:
The following majors are closed to new change of major inquires:

  • Nutrition
  • Software Engineering
  • Computer Science (will consider applications from current CENG Majors)
  • Public Health and Kinesiology only accept inquires during Fall and Winter Quarter
  • Graphic Communication

Check back Fall 2022 for updates to this list

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Oh ok, I see, thank you for clearing that up!

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