I have a high school junior who will be applying to colleges this fall. Cal Poly is high on her list after a visit. I’ve been reading about the nuances of the Cal Poly application and GPA calculation and just looking for some advice.
She received a “C” in her second semester of 9th grade math (Integrated 2) - this was largely due to her just not succeeding with distance learning in this particular area. She became depressed during distance learning, as many students did. She had a really hard time even though she would go to “office hours” and try to get extra help. She then received As for two semesters of Integrated 3 math (in person) and is now maintaining a B/B+ in precalc. She hopes to take AB calc or AP stats in 12th grade.
From what I can calculate her weighted Cal Poly GPA is 4.04 and her UW is 3.76.
My questions are - does that C in math spell the demise of her application as it does not seem a holistic review is done? And, is there any way to explain the extenuating circumstances of the COVID distance learning impact that led to a C since she has demonstrated improvement since then? And would you even recommend that she attempts to explain that?
She won’t be an engineering or CS major. She is not sure what she wants to major in quite yet as she may want to go into medicine. Loose interests for major are chemistry, kinesiology, biology, psychology…but nothing definite yet.
Her GPA will be what it is. Cal Poly doesn’t read applications per se, so there won’t be a chance to explain it. Major will be important, because acceptance rates are all over the map. Good luck!
One C will not keep her from getting into many wonderful schools including Cal Poly SLO especially if she has shown better grades in her subsequent rigorous Math courses. As noted by @eyemgh, there is nothing that can be done at this point and CSU application does NOT allow submission of additional comments to address the 9th grade Covid situation. Just realize that she was not alone and many students had difficulty with on-line/distance learning during Covid.
Cal Poly SLO like all the CSU’s admit by major, are heavily stats based and admission chances are dependent upon an applicant’s intended major.
My advice is that she not focus on any particular school but approach her college list from the bottom up. Find a couple of Very Likely schools that are affordable, offer her major(s), where she will happily attend and are affordable. There are many colleges that would be happy to have her as a student.
If she is unsure of major, please note that SLO does not offer Undeclared but there are many CSU’s that allow a student to apply as Undeclared and where she can explore her interests.
In regards to Undeclared, Competitive/Impacted majors should be selected as a first choice since there is no guarantee that a student will be able to declare these majors later if going in as Undeclared.
She should not try to explain or make excuses for 1 grade (which is passing). She needs to find schools that fit her stats and not the other way around.
Thank you so much. Truly wise words. She is casting wide net. We are going to visit more schools over the next several months which I am hoping will open her eyes to all that is available to her. She’s a sun-loving, beach-loving kid but we are going to show her some of the sunny more inland campuses as well in the hopes that a few feel good to her. It’s good to know she can explain. And we completely understand she was not alone in the distance learning era.
Oops. Sorry but noticed an error in my post in that the CSU application does NOT allow additional comments but even if they did, she should not explain since so many applicants were affected by Covid.
If she really wants to get into Slo and is flexible on majors I would suggest looking into the admittance rate by major, psychology actually has the lowest admit rate if I remember correctly.
For 2022, the targeted apps for the Psychology major at SLO was an estimated enrollment of 3,700 applications for a targeted enrollment of 71 students. It’s typically the most or one of the most difficult majors to get into at SLO.
Using Target projections for 2022-2023, estimated admit rates (3x the # of spots) since not all admitted students will enroll:
Psychology: 6%
Kinesiology: 13%
Biology: 13%
Chemistry: 26%
As you can all these majors can be competitive and every major is impacted at SLO.
The admit rates are estimates assuming they admit an estimate of 3x as many applicants vs. spots available. Yield rate is posted by College but not my major so this is a rough estimate.
Just want to caution you that based on this data, some applicants select less competitive majors to get their foot in the door so to speak and then try to change into a more competitive major later. Many times this will backfire since part of the change of major process includes the statement that the applicant originally needs to be competitive/qualified for the new major upon application review.
Estimated admit rate: FTF target x 3 divided by FTF apps
To add to that, you can go to the columns to the far right and see what the actuals were for the prior year. They are typically pretty accurate in their guesses.
I don’t know why Industrial Engineering surprises me on this list - when my son was exploring Cal Poly majors I read about this and it looks like such an awesome major! I can’t figure out why it isn’t more popular - except for the fact that most kids entering college may not fully understand how engineering and business work together in the real world and the benefits of this multidisciplinary approach.
No one seems to mention Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering either. It’s not in the CENG. It’s in CAFES and likely has an almost 100% acceptance rate. My D21 knows a few people getting their degree “there.”
That’s great news that they brought Industrial Tech back. It was closed along with all the other “tech” majors (e.g. ET) back in mid-nineties. My roommate was an IT major and he had all kinds of cool projects working with acrylics and metals and stuff. He’s now a COO of a major company in the Bay Area.
My D22 is a psych major at SLO. She got in and had a C one semester (AP course) in junior year due to distant learning. The one C didn’t affect her admission.
