Chances for Cal Poly SLO Computer Science

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
1

MCA: 4430
Race: Hispanic/White
CSU GPA: 3.87
Class Rank: 1/25 “Valedictorian”(Not that impressive with such a small class, but still)
ACT: 33 superscore (31E 35M 31R 33S) waiting on my October score. May be able to bring score up to 34, but probably not.

Income: 200k+
State: Texas
Major: Computer Science

Leadership: Youth Leadership at Church; Sophomore (like 75 hours)
PAL(Peer Assistance Leadership) Program (assist mentally challenged students fit in socially and academically in school); Freshman-Senior (250 hours)

ECs: Golf; Junior-Senior (Practice and compete 5-10 hours per week)
Boy Scouts; K-9 (moved and couldn’t manage the drive but got star scout)
A&M STEM Camp for two weeks; Sophomore Summer
Football; Freshman
Youth Nights every Sunday at church; Freshman-Senior

Volunteer: Local Scholarship Program; 12 hours
Two summer vacation bible schools; 50 hours
Mission to Moore, OK after the tornado; 40 hours

Work: 25 hours a week every week for the past two years since I turned 16

Thoughts on chances of acceptance and/or scholarships to Cal Poly

Also could someone tell me if I got the MCA calculation correctly?

3.87535.7 + 1500 (converted ACT to SAT)1.03125 + 100 (Work 21+ hrs) + 210 (ECs + Leadership) + 500 (10 semesters of math)

CSU GPA is 9-11th? Do they take into account my first semester senior grades if I were to send them mid-December?
Is class rank taken into consideration?

2

Reach since SLO CS has about a 10% acceptance rate and your MCA is low for the College of Engineering (competitive MCA of 4700+).
Class rank is not considered.

SLO does not consider Senior grades for admission purposes but keeping up your grades will maintain your provisional admission if accepted.

3

@Gumbymom wow that’s a shame;(

I’m severely confused about this a-g thing. Do I not include my electives and stuff? I submitted my application with anything that was not included in a-f in the g category.

Do I could Dual credit at honors and what about ‘honors’? I have about 4 semesters of what is considerers ‘honors’ from my school. Did not count those because it said AP and IB only

Also, in my application, it asked for my grades only including 10-12 which was like 4.08 or something. Why would it want to know my GPA for that if they use 9th-12th?

4

You seem to have a pretty good profile, good sat score and you have a job and all- the only thing im concerned about is if you took aps and if you took any sat 2. Although they’re not required they are both “highly recommended”. If you don’t think you can get into the comp sci school, you can apply undecided, the regular acceptance rate is 30% and then transfer into the comp sci school. Class rank usually isnt taken much into consideration (because every high school is different), but if other people in your area also apply, you have an advantage with that. I think it just really depends on your essay and recs now. Good luck! Please chance me back

5

Since you are OOS, only Dual Enrollment/AP and IB courses taken in 10-11th grade count for the extra Honors points. Your HS Honors courses do not. You can have up to 8 semesters of extra Honors points.

Also the a-g courses are self-explanatory.

History/social science (“a”) – Two years, including one year of world history, cultures and historical geography and one year of U.S. history, or one-half year of U.S. history and one-half year of American government or civics.

English (“b”) – Four years of college preparatory English that integrates reading of classic and modern literature, frequent and regular writing, and practice listening and speaking.

Mathematics (“c”) –Three years of college-preparatory math, including or integrating the topics covered in elementary and advanced algebra and two- and three-dimensional geometry.

Laboratory science (“d”) – Two years of laboratory science providing fundamental knowledge in at least two of the three disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.

Language other than English (“e”) – Two years of the same language other than English or equivalent to the second level of high school instruction.

Visual and performing arts (“f”) – One year chosen from dance, music, theater or the visual arts.

College-preparatory elective (“g”) – One year chosen from the “a-f” courses beyond those used to satisfy the requirements above, or courses that have been approved solely in the elective area.

For the College Prep electives (g), here is a sample list from my son’s CA HS:
AP Computer Science
Physical Science
Macro Econ/Econ
Psychology
Natural Science
Journalism

Where it gets tricky are the MCA points that SLO uses. I am no expert but the frequent SLO poster @eyemgh seems to know the most about it.

For all the other CSU’s, they only use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation but SLO likes to be different and uses 9-11th grades. They will calculate your CP GPA based on your self-reported grades.

FYI to @pax101 and @Jpgranier: SLO requires you declare a major and undecided is not an option. You might want to consider Software Engineering instead which has a higher acceptance rate and very similar to CS. Your ACT scores are excellent, but your CSU GPA is low with average of 4.17. CS is the most competitive major at SLO.

6

What a shame… my schools doesn’t offer APs and I couldn’t take dual credits until I was 16(junior year) so I could drive myself to classes and the college will only allow you to take 2 classes a semester your first year cuz they don’t want to overload you.

Will any of that be understandable? I go to a small private high school that doesn’t offer much of that stuff.

My UW is a 3.8 so it’s not terrible. Feel like CA kids have a significant advantage because they can also get points for other things.

At least I was already accepted into Alabama engineering school so I won’t be collegeless. I got my SMU, TAMU, UT, Rice, Case Western, and GaTech apps in, so hopefully I get into some of those.

Is everyone positive they take the 9th grades into account? Seems odd that they would be the only one to. My 10-11 is significantly better:/ would be a 4432 overall. I guess all I can do is pray for a 36 on my English and Math ACT subsections

7

CSU’s are California public schools so they are funded by California taxpayers. Of course in-state applicants should get an advantage.
SLO will take into what type of classes are available to you so you never know if the DE courses you took will give you an greater advantage than what is apparent now. Definitely worth applying since your ACT is on target.
I would love to be proven wrong and see an acceptance come your way. I can only go by what you have reported and compare you to the average stats.

Good luck

8

This is because we, the parents, pay HUGE amounts in California State income taxes to partially fund those schools.

Your parents’ income stretches further in Texas. Not so true in California.

9

“Also the a-g courses are self-explanatory.” To an out of stater, this is anything but.

As for OOS students being disadvantaged, they should be, it’s a CA state school. With that said, even though Californians do pay high taxes, VERY little of it supports a student’s college education. The highest percentage is now from tuition, like a private university. Cal Poly, because CA has SO screwed up their budgetary process through the initiative process, now relies HEAVILY on OOS tuition. The advantage for the OOS student? The barrier to entry MIGHT be slightly lower.

10

As for the OP’s chances, I too would say it’s a reach. The wildcard is the OOS status. It’s still probably a stretch.

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@eyemgh thanks for the insight! Your MCA thread was very helpful. How exactly did you find the numbers for that? I’ve searched and I’ve searched and nothing came up.

Will being hispanic help or class rank? I feel like schools should look at GPA in comparison to the other students of a school, but maybe that is just Texas logic.

The school is very intriguing due to the location, cyber security section or computer science, and fairly high ranks. I hate how there seems to be a stigma toward Cal Poly just because it is a CSU… Now if it was named UCCP (UC Cal Poly), that’d be something huh?

How certain are you about the 9-11 grading system? It’s just hard to believe that only they would be like the only public California school to look at 9th grade grades. Like I said earlier, I would have a 4.08 instead of a 3.87 which would bring my MCA up about 112 points

12

@Jpgranier: Class rank is not considered along with your race/ethnicity. California public schools banned affirmative action so that will not help your chances. You want to play the URM card, you need to look at California private schools.

All UC’s and CSU’s look at Freshman grades to make sure the a-g courses are passed with a C or higher and you meet the minimum a-g course requirements, it just that these grades are not used in the GPA calculation.

13

@Gumbymom from everything I have read on this forum, I thought that Cal Poly SLO used the 9th grade grades in the GPA calculation? Am I incorrect? Please tell me I am :)) By that I mean the GPA used in your MCA calculation

14

SLO is the only CSU that does use 9th grades in the GPA calculation, but the rest of the CSU’s and UC’s do not but they still consider 9th grades in admission decisions. Sorry, I should have been more specfic with my answer.

15

Cal Poly is very transparent in their institutional research. There was a Power Point from Cal Poly admissions that was up on CP’s web page for some time, but was subsequently pulled. That’s where I found it.

16

Just got my superscore up to a 34 (35E 35M 31R 33S) That’s technically a 35 in their eyes.

How much would that help my chances?

My new MCA is a 4492

17

Since CS has about a 10% acceptance rate, a competitive MCA is around 4700. Still think it is a Reach but since you are OOS and pay higher fees it may help? All you can do is wait and see.

18

GPA has the highest impact on the MCA and that horse is already out of the barn. You MIGHT get into CS, but you should strongly consider SE instead if you REALLY want to get into Cal Poly. They’re very similar in curriculum and job placement, plus they make it a bit easier to switch between them if you jump through the right hoops. Good luck.

19

Last year my in-state son didn’t get accepted for CS with an MCA over 4800. He got into other top 10 programs.

20

@belmom yikes… and I don’t even hit 4500 :open_mouth:

What other top 10 programs are you talking about?