<p>I agree that not everyone would want to give up their senior year of HS to go to Cal Poly. I was only speaking for MY SON. It was a very good decision for him as he was uninspired in high school and had only a 2.65 HS GPA after 11th grade even though he was a National Merit Commended student for his high PSAT (also SAT) score. He was not involved in high school sports nor was he interested in things like HS Football, Homecoming, or Prom. </p>
<p>CC his senior year allowed him to take things he was interested in like computer programming and advanced 3D Animation. He was also able to get some College GE’s out of the way like Psychology and Speech Communications. Taking 2 semesters of CC Calculus got him out of 3 quarters of Engineering Calculus at Cal Poly, and best of all the CC courses pushed his “rigor” score through the roof and made him competitive for Cal Poly despite his GPA.</p>
<p>For him it was no sacrifice, it was just what he needed. And now he is VERY HAPPY at Cal Poly and is ahead of the game when it comes to degree progress and finishing in 4 years !</p>
<p>My daughter has 48 semester of a-g all inside her high school. The only non a-g course she took was PE in 9th/10th grade which are HS graduation requirement. She didn’t have 5 years of English, but despite a business major, she has 4 years of Science, and 6 year of Math (incluse Algebra from 8th grade). She chose to double up her math instead of taking the 4th year of FL since she just didn’t want to take Spanish AP. (The HS doesn’t offer Spanish 4)</p>
<p>@mariner - Yes, I misunderstood your use of “extra classes”. College-Prep in CA means A-G classes, so you won’t find a lot of UC/CPSLO bound who are filling their four available semesters of electives with fluff classes that don’t count. Like Watermark, he took only PE (and an internship, he had 8th grade math) as non-AG. He actually had 44, taking all the “desired” and not just the required numbers of courses. When you’ve taken all those, and they’re APs, you’ve gotten as rigorous as you can be at a non-IB, semester hs.</p>
<p>I understand that SLO gives preference to those who take additional a-g courses. I wish they would give consideration to elective classes that relate to a students intended major, though. (They dont I asked at both SLO and Pomona). My daughter took introductory engineering her freshman year in high school and architectural design classes for sophomore through senior years. One of the arch design classes counted toward the visual/performing arts requirement the rest all went down as simply electives not even college prep! If she had taken additional a-g classes in place of these ones she would have had a better chance she has a friend who has a lower gpa, lower SAT score, took none of the arch design classes and got accepted into SLO for architecture while my daughter is waitlisted. Yet on the first day of class, my daughter is the one who will already know AutoCAD, ArchCAD, Rivet, the state and federal building codes, etc She also already knows that she likes and is good at architecture. A lot of students have to select a major without having any real hands-on experience with it. You would think Cal Poly would want a student who already has this experience. Oh well - we knew going in that it was a chance …</p>
<p>Zita00, I see your point. Last year before the senior scheduling time, I had a conversation over the phone with an admission officer of a private college. I was asking if my daughter was better off to take an introduction business class instead of a science class since she would major in business. The answer was “No” since these introductory business classes in HS are more towards job training for going into workforce after HS and are not considered rigorous. He further suggested that if daughter wanted to explore the business course, it should be “in addition”, but NOT “in replacement” of core subject. The college likes to see the students take courses in core subjects and well prepared for the rigorous college work.</p>
<p>note that calpoly desires 5 years of English…for most students this can not be accomplished in 4 years of HS unless you do an additional course at a community college. points are assigned based on number of courses completed and planned in the academic areas designated…I have talked with an admissions counselor who confirms the point system is used. when you are looking at thousands of applications there has to be a quick way to rank. Its a point system Do an extra science, math, English and you will improve your chances.</p>
<p>I noticed how they preferred 10 semesters of English. Of course, this wasn’t until after my daughter submitted her application. Too late, anyway. She didn’t have an extra year of English. Do the UCs desire this, as well? I wonder just how many kids manage to get in 5 years of English. My daughter’s friend was admitted to Cal Poly as an English *major *and she had a B+ average. 28 ACT. She didn’t have two extra semesters of English. So, is this just random?</p>
<p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ccounselor wrote:</p>
<p>note that calpoly desires 5 years of English…for most students this can not be accomplished in 4 years of HS unless you do an additional course at a community college. points are assigned based on number of courses completed and planned in the academic areas designated…I have talked with an admissions counselor who confirms the point system is used. when you are looking at thousands of applications there has to be a quick way to rank. Its a point system Do an extra science, math, English and you will improve your chances.</p>
<p>yes…and note that one semester community college course equals one year of HS course. do online if scheduling is a problem. If you want to get into a rigorous academic program like engineering then you have to be willing to do the extra work in HS.</p>
<p>I wonder if high school counselors are letting kids know this early on in their h.s. career. I honestly don’t remember hearing about that when the counseling dept. held meetings every year for each class. I knew about the a-g requirements. My daughter had to take pre-calculus and statistics at the c.c. (not particularly her choice), but by necessity since she couldn’t fit into her schedule. Took a computer science class, too. (To satisfy her h.s. Applied Arts). She refused to give up her music classes. In the end, it worked out fine since like you said, the semester equals a year. Not to mention, an added point on the grade for the math classes.</p>
<p>ccounselor wrote:</p>
<p>yes…and note that one semester community college course equals one year of HS course. do online if scheduling is a problem. If you want to get into a rigorous academic program like engineering then you have to be willing to do the extra work in HS.</p>
<p>All good info, thanks, but unfortunately, never communicated to us by our daughter’s h.s. counselor. In fact, we were told that adcoms preferred “well-rounded” candidates, so in addition to taking the required core curriculum AP/Hornors courses (which she did) she was encouraged to pursue ASB, Yearbook, etc. as electives (she was Editor of the Yearbook) as well as varsity sports. Bad info apparently, at least as far as Cal Poly is concerned.</p>
<p>My son got into engineering and he never took 7 periods or a cc course. he took all core courses and several APs and he had top grades and test scores, but he did not take any extra classes. CP works well for him too because he did not do a lot of clubs, volunteering or sports. He had a job outside of school and a hobby. It is too bad that the UCs and CP are so different, but students will get into a good college if the took a rigorous course load and do well on tests. It will all work out!</p>
<p>On the topic of English, I wanted to add that taking a cc level English class would also get you an exemption from taking the English Placement test and, I believe, college credit at CP. To me, that sounds like it’s better to take cc english and not AP English at your hs. I wonder if this is encouraged (I could be missing something, but I didn’t see this on the UCs desired coursework.) in order to solve some sort of bottleneck problem in freshman english at their school. </p>
<p>From CP’s EPT web site…</p>
<h1>Equivalent college-level work. High school students who have earned a grade of C or better in a transferable, college-level composition course equivalent to English 134 or 133 should have a college transcript forwarded to the Evaluations Office at Cal Poly to document this exemption.</h1>
<p>Off-topic…I really valued taking freshman comp at my U, back in the day. It really changed the way I wrote and interpreted things. It was key to my seeing things from different perspectives, which often a problem with teens. I don’t see that happening with kids who take cc english - it was like a modified hs course. I don’t notice much change in he writing/analyzing ability and was thinking that the difference may be being at a U where you’re living with a variety of individuals and experiencing different perspectives. I guess I don’t want to get so focused on getting my daughter in (in four years) that she misses the growth experience…what’s been your experience with taking english at cc.</p>
<p>Especially for those reading this thread in the future: know that Cal Poly has flexibility. My son was accepted and he did take way more than the minimun a-gs, but he didn’t take them in the way the chart linked above shows. The chart under “Cal Poly Semesters Desired” shows English desired 10, my son took 8; foreign language desired 8, took 4; social sciences desired 4, took 8; math desired 10, took 14; lab science 8 and 8; visual arts desired 4, took 12; other electives 2, took 0. He took all his classes in high school except for two math classes taken in junior high. He took a full load all 4 years, he took lots of AP classes and he had APs in all catagories except foreign language. Cal Poly allows for individual variations, but they want students who challenge themselves and prove themselves by taking a rigourous curriculm. All selective colleges and universities look at rigor.</p>
<p>^@twodownonetogo…We rowed a similar boat here and I wouldn’t trade that strategy because those clubs/sports taught my son how to accept criticism, accept rejection, and, most importantly, how to lead. Plus, the friends he made while doing that are what made his hs experience. I plan to encourage my daughter on that same well-rounded path because I do think being a multi-dimensional person is important (I know there are many in hs who aren’t ready to do that in hs, but go on to do that in college.)</p>
<p>I used to hear the term “well-rounded” more often. But lately it seems that having a “passion” for one thing and sticking to it is something many schools are looking for–at least some of the private colleges. I think they’re just trying to emphasize that a student doesn’t spread him or herself out among too many extra-curriculars, particularly ones who are “padding” their resume. Of course, I imagine a student who is able to handle several “passion-driven” activities in *addition *to a rigorous class load will have an advantage. </p>
<p>My own daughter has a *passion *for vocal music, however she’s also president of the National Honors Society and a member of Key Club. It’s through those two clubs that she’s able to get involved in community service projects. But, on her applications she emphasized how much her singing means to her and how being part of the choir and jazz ensemble have enriched her life at school.</p>
<p>All good info, thanks, but unfortunately, never communicated to us by our daughter’s h.s. counselor. In fact, we were told that adcoms preferred “well-rounded” candidates, so in addition to taking the required core curriculum AP/Hornors courses (which she did) she was encouraged to pursue ASB, Yearbook, etc. as electives (she was Editor of the Yearbook) as well as varsity sports. Bad info apparently, at least as far as Cal Poly is concerned.</p>
<p>@2Leashes, understood and agreed. Passion and focus are important qualities, definitely good indicators of future success. Which makes it all the more puzzling why the school would place heavy emphasis on merely taking an additional core curriculum course or two at a cc (some of these can be taken online as ccounselor notes - lol - like traffic school!). Hard to see how that demonstrates passion - or rigor for that matter - but who knows. Also the state universities do not permit essays. Oh well, good luck to all, onward and upward…</p>
<p>@towdown, I think it is hard to say whether Cal Poly puts too much or just the right emphasis on the “rigor” selection elements. My original post on this topic was to help resolve the admission confusion over why someone with lower grades, test scores and ECs could get admitted over someone with higher results. The answer is that there are four selection criteria and the discussions were only dealing with three. </p>
<p>I believe each major can weight the four selection criteria differently so there is not really a single “school based approach”. Each major can weight the factors based on what they think is best for them. So, one major might put a lot of emphasis on rigor, another much less. The important point is that all four selection criteria matter to some degree for each major.</p>
<p>@Mariner116, so let’s get this straight… different departments assign different weights to the different admission factors, and they can change the weight a program will assign to any admission factor in any given year? Whew, that’s a heck of a “standard.” Sounds more like a moving target.</p>
<p>The only course my daughter took online was a h.s. requirement: Health. She didn’t even report it on her application. Nor did she put down PE. However, she did take Visual Arts (choir/jazz) all 4 years and noted that. She also didn’t report the Applied Arts class (computer science) because it wasn’t part of the a-g requirements; just for the h.s.</p>
<p>I don’t think an additional *core *class taken online or at the local cc is what they consider something a student is passionate about. I would say it’s more like music or sports or volunteering (above and beyond). Or a hobby that keeps him or her exceptionally interested and driven. An extra-curricular could also be part of the a-g requirements, such as part of her music in my daughter’s case. </p>
<p>Of course, this could be more important for the UCs and private schools.
<p>twodownonetogo wrote:</p>
<p>@2Leashes, understood and agreed. Passion and focus are important qualities, definitely good indicators of future success. Which makes it all the more puzzling why the school would place heavy emphasis on merely taking an additional core curriculum course or two at a cc (some of these can be taken online as ccounselor notes - lol - like traffic school!). Hard to see how that demonstrates passion - or rigor for that matter - but who knows. Also the state universities do not permit essays. Oh well, good luck to all, onward and upward....</p>
<p>@twodown, yep, I think your statement covers my understanding. There are about 60 majors at CP, each can set its own weights for the four criteria (within certain parameters), and I suspect they can change them each year. I think it makes sense to have different selection weights by major. The factors that will indicate someone will be a successful student of biomedical engineering may be different than the success factors for journalism. Hence, the two majors can set different weights on each of the criteria.</p>
And now he is VERY HAPPY at Cal Poly and is ahead of the game when it comes to degree progress and finishing in 4 years !</p>