My Cal Poly gpa(including freshmen year is 4 and my unweighted is 3.67. I’m applying for microbiology. My sat score is 1410 (CR:630, M:780) and 6/6/5 for essays, but 7/7/6 for another SAT score. I have over 500 hours of community service, and plenty of work experience. I took two honors courses during my freshmen year(H/Bio. and H/ English), but they were not weighted according to CSUs and UCs. Same goes for my sophmore year; i took two honors (H/algebra 2 and H/English 2), but UCs and CSUs dont consider it to be weighted. I took 5 weighted classes for my junior year, and 4 for my senior year, all of which are weighted. And no, I did count the honors courses that CSUs/UCs don’t consider weighted into my gpa.
If you plan to be accepted to SLO, you should be able to calculate your MCA score points since I gave the information on your other thread.
How many years of Math including Middle school (Algebra/Geometry)?, years of English? Foreign Language? Year of VPA? Years of lab science?
Are you local? Are you first generation?
MCA information:
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).
I’m not gonna lie, the directions confused me a bit. 5 years of math.4 yrs of english. 4 yrs biological science.1 yr physical science. 3 yrs of language other than english. 3 yrs of V&A. 2.5 for college prep. class. I’d like to also thank you a lot @Gumbymom bc u answered all my questions despite how dumb some of them were. U helped me a lot so far in the application process.
5 years of math would be Algebra, Geometry, Alg 2, Pre-Calc, Calc or AP Calc AB and/or BC (math from middle school counts toward the 5 years)
4 years of Lab Science would be Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Science, Anatomy/Physiology
5 years of English would be HS English 1-4 plus taking an additional English class in HS or community college
2 years of VPA would 2 years of art courses
4 years Foreign Language would include taking 1 or 2 levels in Middle school including HS to get to level 4.
This would be for the max points in each category.
If you would not like to list your classes and grades on this site for everyone to view, you can PM me and I can help with your calculation.
8th grade:
Algrebra 1 sem 1: A sem 2 :A
9th grade:
English 1 (Honors) sem 1: B sem 2 :A
Geometry sem 1: B sem 2 :A
African American Issues sem 2 :A (Only took for sec. sem.)
Biology (Honors) sem 1: B sem 2 :B
Spanish 1 sem 1: B sem 2 :A
10th:
Spanish II sem 1: A sem 2 :B
English 2 (Honors) sem 1: A sem 2 :A
Chemistry I sem 1: B sem 2 :A
Dramatic Interpretation(VPA) sem 1: A sem 2 :A
World Studies sem 1: A sem 2 :A
Algebra 2 (Honors) sem 1: B sem 2 :B
11th:
AP English Language and Composition (AP) sem 1: A sem 2 :A
Anatomy and Physiology (Honors) sem 1: A sem 2 :A
Spanish III (Honors) sem 1: A sem 2 :A
Pre-Calculus (Honors) sem 1: B sem 2 :A
U.S. History, 1865 to Present sem 1: A sem 2 :A
AP Environmental Science (AP) sem 1: B sem 2 :B
Dramatic Interpretation(VPA) sem 1: A sem 2 :A
12th:
AP Calculus AB (AP) In Progress
Dramatic Interpretation(VPA) In Progress
AP Computer Science A (AP) In Progress
AP English Literature and Composition (AP) In Progress
AP Biology (AP) In Progress
US Government(1st sem only.) In Progress
AP Economics (2nd. sem only) In Progress
Some of my honors courses are only weighted for my high school and are not weighted according to a-g list: Honors English 1 & 2, Honors Biology, and Honors Algebra 2
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Plugged in your grades into the RogerHub calculator. With 25 A’s and 10 B’s with 8 (max cap) semesters of Honors points for 10-11th courses that qualify, I get a CP GPA of 3.94.
Multiply that by 535.7= 2111 -
SAT of 1410 x 1.03125= 1454
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Course rigor:
Math you get 500 points for 10 semesters of Math (including Algebra middle school)
Lab Science you get 200 points for the 8 semesters (Bio Honors/AP Bio/Chem/Environ Sci)
English you get 50 points for 8 semesters
Foreign Language you get 50 points for 6 semesters
VPA you get 50 points for 4 semesters.
Total is 850 but the maximum you can earn is 750. -
For work, you have to tell me how many hours/week and is it major related?
5)You get 150 points for your volunteering/EC’s. Do you have a leadership role in any of the EC’s which would give you another 60 points.
So far your total MCA points are 4465. You could add another 210 points depending upon the answer to the above questions. Either parent not graduate from HS, more points? Work for the school or in the local area, more points?
I do have multiple leadership roles. And i had an internship over the summer at a health clinic in a foreign country where I worked 21+ hours per week and i do have over five hundred hours of community service.
The job was for how many weeks? You have to divide the hours/week by 52 to get the average for the year.
So job related to major gives you + 50 points and what ever your hours/week for the year end up +20-100 points.
I already added your volunteering/EC’s for a max 150 points. You get an additional 60 points for leadership so you are up to 4575. That puts in a good position for SLO but definitely not a guarantee. With around a 12% acceptance rate and over 4000 applicants for this major, it should be still considered a tough admit.
also i dont know if this helps, but James logan, the school i go to, is one of the partner schools of cal poly.
If your HS is a Hayden partner school you get an additional +700 points which puts over the 5000 max so you are sitting pretty now.
@Gumbymom
Do they ask for proof of our community service? How can we show proof of the major-related activities or leadership roles or volunteer work we have done? What would I need to provide them with?
@SoCalGal2017. I have never heard of SLO asking for EC verification unlike the UC’s. Since you do not list the type of EC’s but only submit the # of hours/week, how would they verify? Unless you submit an unreasonable # of hours, there would be no reason to question the EC’s.
@SoCalGal2017, my son did not have to provide any proof of his EC’s last year when he was accepted. We thought he might have to, so we got all the paperwork in order, but there was no request sent by the university.
@Gumbymom Can you explain how the ACT score is calculated into the MCA score?
@ccrider5: Convert your ACT Math and Reading to the SAT scores and then calculate based on this formula.
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.
Cal Poly ACT/SAT Concordance Chart in case you took ACT (use only Math and English and figure out the two equivalent SAT scores)
ACT CR M
36 800 800
35 770 790
34 760 780
33 750 760
32 720 730
31 700 700
30 680 680
29 650 660
28 630 640
27 610 620
26 590 600
25 570 580
24 550 560
23 540 540
22 520 520
21 500 500
20 490 480
19 470 460
18 450 440
17 440 410
16 420 390
15 400 360
14 380 330
13 360 300
12 330 280
11 300 260
@Gumbymom Thanks, very helpful! One more question for you, is an internship that is unpaid considered under work experience?
@ccrider5: I would consider an unpaid internship still work experience.
@Gumbymom as I keep reading, I seem to have more questions! For the middle school courses, Algebra 1 (8th grade) and Spanish 1 and 2 (7th and 8th grade) I know those are reported to show the courses were taken but are they considered in the CP GPA calculation? When I asked the admissions counselor she said you don’t have to report the grade but when I look on their website under Application tips, it shows the 8th grade course listed with grades as an example. I am confused!
@ccrider5: Middle school courses (Math and FL) along with their corresponding grades has been an issue this year with the new Cal State apply. On the old CSU Mentor app, you would report all middle school grades for these courses in 8th grade and the grades were not calculated into the CP GPA but would help you with course rigor bonus points.
This year, the Middle school grades were suppose to have been reported in 9th grade. Many applicants did not report or reported them incorrectly, so SLO is not penalizing anyone that did not report them this year.
If they are used or not used as part of the GPA calculation is still up to debate since how will they distinguish between real 9th grade classes and middle school classes.? This is an issue for SLO and Cal State Apply and I cannot give you answer and how they have resolved it or will resolve it.
@Gumbymom Thanks for your insight here. We just got back from a tour of colleges in California and SLO was our last stop. My daughter loved it but is worried about acceptance for the 2019 Fall class (Bio Major). I asked the admin counselor after the campus tour about reporting 8th grade classes (Math and FL). What she said was that they are reported under 9th grade and that you do not have to put the grade but can pick “passed” (I have never seen the application so have no idea if this is an option). So when others on this forum and the CP SLO application tips said they report the grades, I got confused. After touring 6 colleges, it was a lot of info!! I think we will just email or call CP to see how this works. Feeling overwhelmed already!