Early Decision

<p>Is Cal Poly SLO’s ED plan still binding? A friend toured the campus last week and heard that it no longer is a binding commitment.</p>

<p>Any Early Decision program is binding. If it wasn’t, it would be called Early Action.</p>

<p>I haven’t heard anything about Cal Poly doing away with their ED program or changing it to EA. It’s still on the website as ED.</p>

<p>I understand the difference between ED and EA. However, according to Cal Poly’s current catalog " Early Decision applicants will receive notification of their admission status in mid-December and those selected must accept or decline Cal Poly’s offer of admission by January 15th." This was also mentioned last week at the info session. From this language, their ED plan does not appear to be binding. I know two students who applied ED this year and they are not planning to attend. I will call the school to verify. Thanks!</p>

<p>Here is my understanding having gone through this last year with my daughter. If you get ED admission you will have about 3 weeks to confirm or decline admission. That is before you will find out about regular decision admission to most other colleges (some do rolling admissions in which case you may find out your admission status). </p>

<p>If you don’t accept ED then you are out of consideration for regular admission. This is the big catch. If you apply for ED you can only get ED admission. RD is out. So, you need to be confident you can decide to attend CP by mid-January or you won’t be able to go there. </p>

<p>If you accept ED than you are obligated to attend Cal Poly (unless there is a change in financial situation, which is an out for all ED acceptances). </p>

<p>I encourage you to ask admissions when the time comes to decide. I found them very helpful with these types of questions.</p>

<p>Cal Poly’s ED is binding. It can be declined only for compelling financial or medical reasons. This is consistent with all other colleges that offer ED, including Common App colleges. Here is the policy which hasn’t changed in the past 10 years or so:</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.calpoly.edu/~acadprog/99pdf/admissions.pdf[/url]”>http://www.calpoly.edu/~acadprog/99pdf/admissions.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Thanks to you both for your kind help! The link you sent was from 1999-2000, so we will double check just to make sure that the info is still accurate.</p>

<p>Do you know if Cal Poly practices single choice ED? We can’t find this in their current catalog. Does anyone know what the statistical advantage is to applying ED or does it vary by program?</p>

<p>ED is restrictive; you can only apply ED to one college (leaving out the very small number of schools that have ED1 and ED2).</p>

<p>Fall 2009 acceptance rate 37%
Early decision acceptance rate 23%</p>

<p>[Cal</a> Poly | California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo | Applying | Best College | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/cal-poly-1143/applying]Cal”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/cal-poly-1143/applying)</p>

<p>For fall 2010, Cal Poly accepted 10,918 freshman applicants out of a total 33,626 freshman applicants, yielding a 32% freshman acceptance rate. I couldn’t find the ED acceptance rate for 2010.</p>

<p>Those who aren’t accepted in the ED round will automatically be considered for regular decision.</p>

<p>Looking at the acceptance rates, one would infer that there’s a lower chance of being admitted ED than RD, but that’s just a correlation and doesn’t imply that a given student has a better or worse chance. Cal Poly acceptances are entirely numbers-driven, with SAT/ACT and GPA weighing most heavily. It’s become much more competitive in the past 3-4 years to be admitted.</p>

<p>What about Early Action? Does Cal Poly even offer that?</p>

<p>no, Cal Poly does not and has never offered Early Action. there’s only Early Decision, which is binding.</p>

<p>Cal Poly only offers Early Decision, not Early Action.</p>

<p>Closing this thread as it’s 2 years old.</p>