<p>Cal Poly not only looks at grades earned but also the classes completed as well as in - progress… I think senior year courses means a lot in the evaluation of one applicant over another and remember this is different for each major…</p>
<p>@Mariner116: So the most meaningful information a HS counselor or prospective applicant needs for assessing the chances of being admitted is what weight each individual department assigns to the 4 factors. Has the university ever made that data available?</p>
<p>@twodown: I have never seen anything about the weights by dept. I think that is one reason things look so inconsistent, but really aren’t. My guess is that EDs at CalPoly are not that important and most students pick a similar response. Grades and tests are important but as we have seen in these discussions, there are a lot of great students with similar test scores and grades. I think there is more spread in results for the a-g classes taken, and that this category has become a “tie breaker” for many admission decisions, or has helped students with a low GPA or test score get back into admission contention. Thus, the advice for students would be to take 46 core classes in high school.</p>
<p>@Mariner116: Assuming you are correct, it still doesn’t add up in our D’s case. Rechecked the transcripts - 1340/1600 SAT; 3.7 UW GPA, all desired coursework except the 5th yr English, all AP/Honors in core curriculum. The pool of applicants for pol sci would have to have been off the charts for her to not even get waitlisted. Her friend, same h.s., same curriculum, was admitted as CE major, with a 3.3 GPA/1850 SAT. Very curious.</p>
<p>Mariner116- I think you believe you have all the answers but i believe you are incorrect. I was told directly by an admissions counselor at cal poly that the selection criteria for ALL majors is exactly in this rank:
- GPA
- Test Scores
- Rigor of classes taken
- EC</p>
<p>He said that 1 and 2 have the most wait and 4 is a very small percentage</p>
<p>calpolytobe, I think your ranking is correct. My point is if students in a major are close on #1 and #2 (and many are from looking at CC posts), and #4 does not count much, and there is a wide spread on #3 (and I suspect there is), then #3 ends up being very important. If some applicants get 0 points (take 30 semesters) and others get a lot of points on #3 (take 46 semesters), that may be the “tie-breaker” factor that decides which students with similar scores for #1 and #2 end up with the most total points…and get offers. </p>
<p>I’m guessing on this to some extent because almost no one is posting their a-g semester score.</p>
<p>Twodown: Political Science is a very small department compared to Civil Engineering. Additionally, the College of Liberal Arts accepts a much lower percentage of their applicants compared to the College of Engineering. Perhaps this helps to explain the situation with your daughter and her friend.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.calpoly.edu/~inststdy/factbook/fbfall08.pdf[/url]”>http://www.calpoly.edu/~inststdy/factbook/fbfall08.pdf</a></p>
<p>Number of newly admitted Freshmen:</p>
<p>---------- Political Science – Civil Engr
Fall 2004 ------- 16 ------------178
Fall 2005 ------- 49 ------------ 96
Fall 2006 --------45-------------126
Fall 2007 ------- 33-------------157
Fall 2008 ------- 31-------------123</p>
<p>Acceptance rate:</p>
<p>----------------CLA ---------- CENG
Fall 2004 ----- 25.0% ---------51.7%
Fall 2005 ------33.8% -------- 45.6%
Fall 2006 ------34.4% ---------63.9%
Fall 2007 ------31.8% ---------64.4%
Fall 2008 ----- 25.2%----------43.3%</p>
<p>Mariner116- Ok i understand more what you are saying. That does make sense that those extra points that could get someone in over others could be based on their classes or a-g requirements</p>
<p>Mariner116- i think ur absolutely right!</p>
<p>also i think that they also scale some gpas that students have differently, because some who take honors courses get the extra grade point while kids at other schools dont get it but they talk advanced classes. for example, at my school i took advanced english freshman a sophmore year and got A’s all four semesters. but it did not count as an extra grade point, whereas someone from a school who offered honors english (which is essentially the same course) would get the extra grade point thus inflating the gpa</p>
<p>Cal Poly looks for a strong academic portfolio…In other words, you better have a strong backround in Math (4 years including senior year) and the life sciences as well as the other core courses… and the senior courses have additional weight given to them, so make sure you are not weaving baskets…they also look at all your grades, assigning additional weight to courses that are important to the polytechnic focus…Again, this means science & math.</p>
<p>Ralph4, thanks for the link of the factbook. It contains tons of information.</p>
<p>@twodown: Would you mind sharing, if you know, what math level the CE friend was at. I’m wondering if perhaps it was all honors and calc BC which would be a logical explanation for things. At application time, I actually thought they might look at the hs and based on AP history of prior admitted students know the AP class passing rate. My son’s AP Cal teacher has an 85% passing rate, so you know those students are Calc-ready (plus, the 3 that applied scored a 32 or above on the ACT math portion), yet the three that applied didn’t get in - had higher gpa/tests than you note.</p>
<p>Also, cheers to your D’s friend, of course, but I do want to point out that women engineers are really sought out by universities.</p>
<p>@otc2010: Her friend was on same track, 4 yrs math, honors Calc. Good kid, we’re happy for her too. Maybe female/engineering was the hook.</p>