Hello! Will you please walk me through on how to calculate my MCA score for me? I want to make sure I am doing it correctly. Thank you for your time. It is greatly appreciated.
CSU GPA: 4.0
SAT: 1600
Semesters of Math: 12
Semesters of Lab Science: 10
Semesters of English: 10
Semesters of Foreign Language: 8
Semesters of Visual/Performing Arts: 2
Hours of Paid Work: 11 (Major Related)
Hours of Extracurricular Activities Per Week: 21 (Held Leadership Position)
4862
https://mca.netlify.com/
Here is the topic http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-san-luis-obispo/2128874-understanding-the-mca-plus-calculator.html
@Noisymom Since the max score for the SAT is 1650, would I put in 800 and 850 in the calculator?
You are right, I forgot about that… put 825 for both parts of SAT, then you get 4914
Thank you for the help! I got 4914 when I put it in the calc and I just wanted to make sure I calculated my MCA properly.
@Noisymom For the SAT score of English: 750, Math: 800. Do I need to input just like this, or add 50 for the calculation of MCA? Thanks.
@jenny001,
“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.”
@Noisymom: Are you using the MCA calculator below? Much easier than hand calculating. If so, just enter in the SAT scores as they are into the calculator.
@Gumbymom, oh… I thought we need to follow these instructions to recalculate test scores before entering them in to calculator…
@jenny001, in this case you enter your scores as is (if you are using https://mca.netlify.com/ ) Gumbymom knows better
@Gumbymom @Noisymom, thank you very much for your information. The information about ACT conversion is also very helpful.
Just wanted to put this out there if it is helpful to anyone. I spoke with admissions today asking questions as I reviewed my daughters Cal Poly application. Learned 2 things that don’t exactly mesh with the MCA calculator. The ACT conversion they use includes math, reading and english subscores (not just math and English) but she didn’t tell me how they did that conversion. She also told me the GPA displayed for the CSU app is not the one they use. She said they have their own GPA formula. She did confirm the 8 semester honors cap though.
@mommto3: SLO uses 9-11th grades for the a-g courses with the 8 semester honors cap while the rest of the CSU’s use 10-11th grades (which is the CSU GPA on the application). The SLO GPA calculation is well known but the ACT conversion is something new. Thanks for the info.
From the SLO website:
[quote]
Academic Performance
College prep GPA Calculated by Cal Poly for 9th -11th grade coursework designated on the application (with honors points granted for courses designated as “honors,” “college,” “advanced placement" or “international baccalaureate” on a high school transcript, for up to eight semesters).
I will also add. In the EC area for Work Experience, work experience can be paid or not. Internships or volunteer programs are absolutely applicable to this section.
Just found this statement in the SLO application tip guide
But of course no mention on how they do the conversion.
Thanks, Gumbymom. My son’s SAT score is 1550 (math: 800, English: 750), and ACT composite score is 35 (math: 34, English: 36, Reading: 33, Science: 35, STEM: 35). If SLO only considers English, Reading, and Math, is it better to only report SAT not ACT for applying CS, since it emphasizes a lot in Math? According to the following conversion in MCA calculation table, 35 in ACT has 10 points higher than 1550 in SAT.
ACT Critical Reading Math
36 800 800
35 770 790
I think he was careless in math section for the ACT test. Thank you very much.
@jenny001: My understanding is that SLO superscores across tests so they will take the highest sections from the SAT and ACT. I would send both.
I know community service can only be included in the activity section. How about on-campus tutoring? Can this volunteer service be put in the work experience?
Thanks.
Please ignore my previous message. My son included his volunteer tutoring service in the activity section, and left his employment hours as 0.
@Gumbymom Thanks for your help. My son finally did not put his ACT score on the application, because Cal Poly SLO will not consider science score and his math score is low.