<p>I have applied to Cal Poly early decision in materials engineering.</p>
<p>3.77 GPA
1460 SAT (Math+CR)</p>
<p>I have taken only one AP class, AP calculus ab, because it was the only AP offered at my school. I have taken a rigorous course load, including Abstract Algebra this year.</p>
<p>What do people think the chances are of me being admitted?</p>
<p>Your school only offers 1 AP class ?!?! Where do you live???</p>
<p>Compare to this year’s freshmen here:
[Prospective</a> Students - Admissions - Cal Poly](<a href=“Cal Poly Admissions”>Cal Poly Admissions)</p>
<p>Engineering averages: GPA-3.94 ACT-29 SAT-1299
You…GPA-3.77 ACT-N/A SAT-1460
Your GPA is a bit low for engineering but your SAT is good. It might come down to your schedule. You said it was rigorous…but you have only taken 1 AP class? Also, what is abstract algebra? o.O I’d say your chances are okay, but your not a lock by any means.</p>
<p>Best of luck!!! I’m applying to SLO as well =D</p>
<p>Oh yeah, I’m also going early decision Engineering, by the way, but Civil for me =)</p>
<p>Abstract Algebra is a pure mathematics course, which is not offered nearly anywhere. I go to a small school in the bay area and this is the only time they have ever taught this course.
[Abstract</a> algebra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_algebra]Abstract”>Abstract algebra - Wikipedia).</p>
<p>I am also taking statistics this year. I took physics and calc last year as well as Spanish IV.
Under extra-curricular I was able to answer 16-20 hours weekly and yes to being in a leadership position.</p>
<p>Out of my lower GPA and higher SAT, which will make more of a difference.</p>
<p>You took Spanish IV? For most schools this is an AP or IB class.
Was your Physics class also not AP or IB?
The leadership and work exp are nice but ultimately dont count for that much compared to SAT and GPA.
Between these 2, GPA is considered slightly more important as it is considered more representative than 1 test (SAT/ACT).</p>
<p>My physics and Spanish classes were not AP. The school I go to is too small to offer both AP and non-AP courses, so they go without AP. If I have the time second semester, I might study to take the AP Physics C mechanics or Spanish Language AP.</p>
<p>Also, I realized that the scores of the people attending is not representative of the average admitted student because it is people with the lower scores who will tend to end up going to Cal Poly out of those accepted.</p>
<p>I am also going to apply to UC Davis, San Diego, LA, Berkely, Irvine. I know Cal and LA are long shots. What do you think my chances are with UCs. SAT total=2060</p>
<p>How do you think the UCs I could get into compare to Cal Poly in engineering. College rankings do not compare universities that offer PhDs with those that don’t.</p>
<p>Are you applying to UCs?</p>
<p>That link I gave ( [Prospective</a> Students - Admissions - Cal Poly](<a href=“Cal Poly Admissions”>Cal Poly Admissions) ), is the freshman students that are Attending, not just those accepted.</p>
<p>Am I applying to UCs?
simple answer: no.
Im really set on civil engineering, and the only UC that might have a better Undergraduate Civil than Cal Poly SLO is Berkeley. Berkeley atmosphere was not exactly to my preference and I didnt really want to be getting Bs and Cs compare to all the other top students … if I got in of course (my gpa is UC/CSU 4.18, SAT: writing-570 reading-640 math-800 == 2010) so I had an okay shot at getting in … ~30% in my opinion.</p>
<p>Is Berkeley that hard to get into? YES. I’m sorry to tell you, but even if you write an absolutely brilliant essay your chances are basically 0% as far as Engineering. The same is basically true of UCLA and UCSD. Again, I’m sorry to say this but they are very selective, the average GPA of those accepted is ~4.15. For you they are all high reaches, UC Davis and UCI have about an average GPA of ~4.0. Your chances are better at those but still not very high. </p>
<p>The rest of the UC’s really aren’t that great in engineering. If you are set on doing Engineering, a Cal State might be your best option for a public university in state. Cal Poly Pomona is a solid school with a decent engineering school, as is cal state long beach. San Diego state is also really nice. Dont dismiss them because they dont have that big a name! I applied to them as well should I somehow get rejected from SLO.</p>
<p>Best of Luck and hope this helps!!!</p>
<p>This contains the enrolled student profile for 2010:</p>
<p><a href=“Cal Poly Admissions”>Cal Poly Admissions;
<p>You can see the difference b/w the admitted and the enrolled. But regardless, you can’t really use the enrolled as a benchmark, because admissions is using the admitted standards as a ruler for admission, obviously. </p>
<p>I would second what jturn711 said. I think the only UC engineering program that is definitively ahead of Cal Poly is really Cal’s. After Cal, UCLA and UCSD have various engineering programs that are better, and some worse than Cal Poly. So it depends. But of course, both UCLA and UCSD have very good engineering schools.</p>
<p>@ BeingSLO: that document is dated “Printed 9.04.09”
it also says “preliminary new freshmen profile - fall 2009**” - which basically means “predicted” because this was printed before the applicants of 2009 even applied.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean its really all that far off, but my link is for “Fall 2011 New Freshman Profile” so its a slightly better representation 
=P .</p>
<p>yea my bad. It is 2009, not 2010. </p>
<p>But the enrolled student profile is the actual enrolled stats. I think they somehow didn’t do a good job conveying their data with the label “preliminary”.</p>
<p>But either way, it is a good rough guideline between the applied profile with the enrolled ones.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice!
I looked at CSU Pomona and I think I’ll also apply there as well as CSU San Jose because those are the CSUs that offer materials engineering.</p>
<p>Also, for Cal Poly would you say that my SAT is higher than GPA is low? My GPA is .17 lower than average and my SAT is 161 points higher than average. So considering the combined value of these numbers I am better or worse off than the average applicant?</p>
<p>I would say GPA is slightly more important than SAT score, so your GPA is lower than your SAT is high.</p>
<p>I found the metric that Cal Poly uses that they call the eligibility index, which is 800<em>GPA+SAT. So you’re right that GPA is more important, but for me it balances out positively.
I have 800</em>3.77+1460=4476 as opposed to the average 800*3.94+1299=4451, and you have 4784.
Cal Poly says that this is just for preliminary qualification and they don’t use for the final decisions, so how do you think they determine the top 37% if not with this?</p>
<p>Also the calculus course I took is not titled AP calculus even though it was a preparatory course for the AP test, which I passed with a 4. On the application form I put the title of Calculus, but then listed that I received AP credit for it, and I sent Cal Poly my AP score. So will Cal Poly recalculate my GPA considering this course as AP, which would leave me with a 3.86 GPA and eligibility index of 4548?</p>
<p>You are correct about the workings of the eligibility index and the fact that it is just a preliminary qualification.
Just like any college, I would assume that Cal Poly uses the same system of evaluating both:
-SAT scores, which have little room for different interpretation, all they could really do is value math slightly higher than reading or vice-versa depending on major.
-GPA in the context of the courses you are taken, looking at both rigor as far as college prep (Honors,AP,IB) and rigor as compared to the hardest classes offered by your school.<br>
This is why I’m not completely sure what to tell you because you are in a more rare situation of coming from an extremely small school, that because of its population, was not able to offer more college prep.
As for what you asked about GPA; in all likelihood Cal Poly will just use whatever you told them on your now submitted application. You could always contact them by phone or email if you have questions/problems.</p>
<p>Sorry I can’t really offer much else!!!</p>