So I live 15 minutes away from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and it really would be nice to go to a school that’s so near by. Because I come from a low income family, I don’t know how I’m suppose to pay for everything if I go to a different state school. But anyways, I want to know everything about Cal Poly, because I know they are unique in the way that they calculate GPA and that they are the only state school in ca that consider EC. Admissions. Since I live so near by (and really the whole county is this way) I have noticed something. The school is mostly made up of white males (No I’m not hating on them or any race I am just curious as to why this could be). I don’t get it, and it really seems unfair to me, there are some people that go to my school who just cost through high school and got accepted (who were white). While these other students who I know worked what appeared to be twice as hard (and were asian) didn’t get accepted? Once again for those of you special snowflakes, no I am NOT hating on any race or gender…I am simply cuirous as to why this could be. Anywas, I want to know all of the ways Cal Poly addmits its freshmen applicants. Furthermore, which majors are considered impacted as of 2019. In what ways is the Cal Poly application process similar to the rest of the cal states? In what ways does it differ? Please give me information it would be much appreciated! 
Like all Cal States, SLO will give local priority to local students. SLO uses MCA points vs. Eligibility index in ranking applicants by major. As a local applicant, you are given 500 bonus points in the MCA point calculation. Explanation and a calculator is listed below. First you need to calculate your SLO GPA which uses 9-11th grades for the a-g courses and will cap the extra honors points at 8 semesters of UC approved Honors,AP/IB or DE classes taken 10-11th grades only. You can use the Rogerhub calculator and input all 9-11th a-g courses to get the capped weighted SLO GPA.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
MCA information: https://mca.netlify.com/
Academic MCA:
The maximum GPA they will use is 4.2, even though you can have a higher calculated CP GPA. A 4.2 is worth 2250 MCA points. Thus, multiply your CP GPA by 535.7 and you’ll get your MCA points for GPA.
The next biggest thing is test scores. The odd thing, likely because they wanted it to total a nice round number, is that the max score is 1650, even though the max SAT score is 1600. Multiply the total of your best SAT CR and your best SAT math by 1.03125 to get your MCA test points. If you took the ACT, they convert and vice versa.
The third largest section is the class rigor score, worth 750 points. In this section you get zero points for meeting the minimum admission requirements and adders for more than the minimum. The bonuses in order of power are (min semesters/max total semesters/bonus per extra semester/total possible bonus): math 6/10/125/500, lab science 4/8/50/200, English 8/10/50/100, foreign language 4/8/25/100, visual performance 2/4/25/50, no bonus points for social sciences or electives. As with GPA, you can actually score higher than the maximum, but 750 is the most they will count.
Finally, work and ECs, worth 350 points. Work (hours per week/bonus): 0/0, 1-5/20, 6-10/40, 11-15/60, 16-20/80, 21+/100, add 50 points if work is major related. ECs (hours per week/bonus): 0/0, 1-5/30, 6-10/60, 11-15/90, 16-20/120, 21+/150, add 60 points for leadership role.
There are also other Non-Academic Bonus Points:
CA vet/701, Hayden Partner School/700, faculty/staff dependent/700, service area of CP/500, either parent with some or no HS, but who DIDN’T GRADUATE FROM HS/300 (per parent).
Regarding financial aid and paying for college:
All schools have a NPC (Net Price Calculator) where you can input your family income and you will get an estimate of your college costs. Being low income can make you eligible for Federal aid (Pell Grant/Work study) along with Cal Grants (State aid). If you are able to commute to your local CSU, then between Federal and State FA, it will usually cover the costs of tuition and possibly books. Definitely run the NPC for any school of interest.
California Public universities cannot use Race/Ethnicity in their admission decisions so no ethnic group is being unfairly targeted. Much depends upon the majors that students are applying and STEM majors are highly competitive.
SLO has made some changes to help in their diversity but as a STEM focused campus and with over 25% of the student population majoring in Engineering/STEM programs, the male to female ratio remains slightly in favor of males. There is plenty of diversity on campus and I would not consider it to be too much of an issue. Since you live nearby, definitely visit the campus to see of yourself.
All majors are impacted but some majors are easier admits than others. Majors like Engineering, CS, Biology, Kinesiology and Psychology are some of the more competitive majors while some Agricultural majors are not nearly as competitive. It really depends upon what you want to study.
CPSLO and all of the CSUs have very objective admissions thresholds. None of the CA publics can consider race/ethnicity. It may look like people are coasting but, they have a high GPA and test scores. I’m afraid anyone who got into SLO, or any other CSU earned their way in (unless they had someone sit for their SAT)
Hello! I am kinda freaking out because I am conditionally admitted to Cal Poly Slo and one of the terms and conditions was to have above a C in all your classes. Unfortunately there is a possibility I might get a D+ in one of my classes, would they revoke my admission? Does anyone have any information on this? Or know if I could retake the class over the summer?
The MCA calculation is still used but do the categories reflect the freshman admission classes that are listed on the application page? If so, there is an elective category which they want 2 semesters. No points for that? Also, would it be more beneficial to take the 4 year of Spanish to max out that category or would the VAPA category be just as good to max out what Cal Poly desires. Please help!
@joey88: please start your own discussion with your questions since all posts on this discussion should be directed to the OP.
@“Classiest2002@me” Once again for those of you special snowflakes, no I am NOT hating on any race or gender…“
One piece of advice, if you post rationally and respectfully you will get more people to reply to your posts.