<p>I was just wondering if it is more difficult to get in for Early Decision or Regular Decision. It seems like it may vary between majors? If anybody has any input that would be awesome!! thanks! Specifically Ag Business and English</p>
<p>Here is my theory. Most people think that ED is harder because the schools want to get the creme de la creme of students so they only select the best. However, Cal Poly is not that prestigious, so a few other things happen. The people who apply ED will be those people for whom Cal Poly is their highest reach most likely.
But in RD, people applying to much more competitive schools, who have a more competitive profile, will apply to the non-binding RD at Cal Poly as a safety, which makes the RD pool of applicants much more competitive compare to the ED pool.</p>
<p>I’d be interested to hear other peoples’ opinions on this.</p>
<p>When talking to an admissions rep I was told that early decision tends to be slightly more competitive than regular decision. Michael’s reasoning is solid, but since they are only willing to give out a set number of spaces early decision, it tends to be pretty competitive. Yes their might be more competitive applications with regular decision, but the amount of seats available is much more favorable. This is just what I was told.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about AG Business/English, but I’d be willing to bet that ED is fairly difficult for the engineering/architecture majors because of the prestige of cal poly’s programs in those departments.</p>
<p>Cal Poly’s College of Ag is considered one of the best in the country as well.</p>
<p>So I would agree with Jakotatio that College of Ag, Engr, and Arch. would be the most competitive for ED.</p>
<p>I partially agree with Michael that RD pool could have a lot of highly qualified applicants treating Cal Poly as a potential second choice, and thus making RD challenging.</p>
<p>But I do sometimes wonder what is the general view on Cal Poly’s “prestige” level? </p>
<p>Is what Michael theorized also apply for the mid-tier UCs since CP is viewed on par with them ?</p>
<p>From my own experience, I applied ED for English and got deferred so I called admissions and they only accepted 5 applicants total for English, so I would assume that is much harder than RD. But for other majors I am not sure. All of your theories make total sense, it is hard to say which is actually correct though.</p>