Our daughter is seriously considering an ED this week for Computer Science. Her MCA is 4866 (ACT M=35, E=33).
Any opinions on her realistic odds, as I’m not convinced that an ED is the best way to go here? She really wants to go attend CP, but I’m not so sure she’s even that competitive. The odds are so small. I’m thinking one really needs a 4900+ in order to really be competitive. I would appreciate any thoughts or opinions on this. Thank you.
Your daughter looks like a very competitive applicant and has a very good chance at an ED acceptance. I agree that the odds are small but if she is deferred, she will still be an exceptional candidate for RD.
Thx for the reply gumbymom, as we are trying to understand all this ED, RD, etc. They didn’t have this when I attended college. Help me understand. Why would she be deferred for ED and then picked up RD? Are we better off just RDing then?
Cal Poly SLO accepts a certain percentage of applicants that apply ED (usually top applicants and around a 1/3 of their Freshman class). If the applicant does not meet their criteria for ED, they will deferred to RD and then re-evaluated against the RD applicants. Your daughter is a very strong applicant, so much will depend upon her competition in the ED round for computer science. Many applicants will not apply ED to SLO since they would like to shop around their financial aid packages or see which other schools they are accepted before making a final decision, so they will apply RD. Competition is usually tougher in the RD round since far more applicants apply for RD but if you are competitive, you have a good chance for both. Personally I feel she will get in ED, but SLO is sometimes hard to predict. Just hedging my bets.
I also wanted to add: Software Engineering is an easier admit and if for some reason she is deferred to RD, she can change her major before the RD applications are reviewed.
With an MCA over 4800 I would say her chance of ED admission is very good. Know, it is binding. Cal Poly has to be her top choice. If she is accepted, she’s obligated to attend unless you can certify that you can’t make the finances work. It is very perceptive of you to wonder about chances of RD after ED deferral. They are low. They accept kids out of ED that would likely make the RD cut. Why? The yield is 100%. Good luck!
Thx, eyemgh. I’m enjoying reading your posts. You’re extremely helpful and it’s much appreciated. We know it’s binding and are ok with that. As a dad, I’m just trying to look at our odds and ‘using’ the ED carefully. The number of applicants last year (per the Keys to the Kingdom post you had) were ridiculous. 3589 applicants for a fixed acceptance rate of 140 slots for non-transfer students. Yikes. I hope you’re right and that the MCA of 4866 can make the cut.
If your daughter absolutely wants to attend Cal Poly definitely apply early decision to increase her odds. Some applicants are accepted RD that were deferred from ED, BUT that is the exception and not the rule. Guessing competition for CS will only get tougher RD with many wanting to keep all their options open. Also have a couple of acceptable safety schools in case it doesn’t work out. Admission acceptance dates for various universities make it that much more of a tricky guessing game of who will accept and who won’t. Frankly very few students are excepted off the waitlist.
@drdiego, the 140 isn’t the number of students accepted, it’s the number of students admitted. For the College of Engineering as a whole, just under 40% of students choose Cal Poly after being accepted. It certainly varies among the majors within CENG, but if you just use the number for the whole College, they’d have to accept about 350 to net 140. For the 2015-2016 class they just admitted, they predicted a bit over 3500 applicants for CS. Assuming 350 acceptances for 140 admits results in an acceptance rate of 10%. That’s still HIGHLY selective. I’d ED if she wants CS. Good luck.
@drdiego recommend applying ED for sure. May want to consider Software Engineering which based on MCA scores of last year she is a very likely admit—however for CS not sure – we know someone with 4800 MCA last year denied both ED and RD for CS----really , really competitive. My son was admitted to SE ED last year with ~4750 MCA. Good Luck—great school and program!
And, as @Gumbymom pointed out, if deferred in ED, she can switch to SE for RD.
@drdiego, your daughter’s MCA score is exceptionally high - I’m sure many others would be thrilled to have her score! No one (except for the number crunchers at Cal Poly!) know what the minimum/cut-off MCA score for admissions into the CS program will be. And, the acceptance rate/selectivity for each major can change from year to year depending on how many students apply to any given major.
@4enroute, with the exception that there is a hard minimum (4000 for CS and most other engineering) even the CP number crunchers don’t know the MCA threshold until the applications roll in. All we can go on is a little bit of past history from those who have posted here and have been accepted or denied. As you stated, that all changes every single year. We can assume though, given the relentless upward trend in application numbers that the pools will continue to be very strong. I’d be surprised to see an MCA over 4850 rejected, but it is important to have safety options no matter how good an applicant looks when applying to highly selective programs.
@eyemgh: this is what adds to my confusion. If they don’t know the MCA threshold until the applications roll in, then how/why would an ED be the play here. Do they change the MCA thresholds for ED and RD?
It’s an interesting question since ALL applications will be in by November 30th, so when they make the decision about ED candidates they will know their total applicant pool.
I don’t think any of us can answer that for certain. It is very likely though that they do. They know they want to fill 140 slots. They know the yield of ED is going to be close to 100% and they fill about 33% of a class ED. That leaves LOTS more students vying for the remaining 90ish seats. They’d almost have to use a different MCA in each pool.