How does this work?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
1

<p>I have been reading about all of highly qualified applicants that got rejected, and then I look at my stats, and they don’t stack up. Yet, I got accepted into Engineering. </p>

<p>My stats are.
4.13
4.00 </p>

<p>I have gotten an A in every class I have taken in high school.
But I have only taken a couple of honors classes (honors calculus, honors physics) </p>

<p>I’m a 3 sport varsity athlete, and I have made all-league for every sport.
I said I was interested in playing baseball on the application. </p>

<p>I coach little league baseball every year, so I have a few hundred hours of community service. </p>

<p>I attended California Boys State over the summer. </p>

<p>I am a foster child and I live in a very low income family.
We make less than 17,000 a year. </p>

<p>So everything from here seems pretty good for admissions.</p>

<p>But here’s the sat’s.
I got a 1530/2400.
570 in math and 490 critical reading. </p>

<p>I took them once in junior year with absolutely zero prep, didn’t study anything.</p>

<p>So even with that, I got accepted with the major of computer engineering.
Does this make sense?</p>

2

<p>There are 30 core CSU courses required to apply to Cal Poly. How many more core classes did you put on your application over and beyond the 30 required?</p>

3

<p>NO it doesnt.</p>

<p>Youre a straight A student (valedictorian?), yet you have a 1530 out of 2400, not 1600? Its not that I dont believe you, its just hard to believe that your GPA and SAT scores are so far apart…</p>

<p>Maybe you got in because of your family income, being a foster child, sports, maybe?</p>

4

<p>SAT scores are not everything…you can be smart and not do well on SAT’s, the test doesn’t truly level what you’re capable of, in my mind.</p>

5

<p>I completed the a-g requirements, and took 5 years of math, 4 years of science, etc…
I’m ranked number 1 out of my class of 66.
I go to a small school, ap classes aren’t offered, and I took all the honors classes that were available. </p>

<p>I really didn’t try at all on the sats. It was a very poor choice, I know. </p>

<p>But, I have still gotten accepted to cal poly, and because of ELC I have been accepted to UC Davis, and have been guaranteed acceptance to UCSB.</p>

6

<p>Good observation on the number of courses taken Mariner. That makes sense. However, that doesn’t seem like the best way to evaluate a candidate. They just ignore classes that they took that didn’t count for AG I guess…</p>

<p>Cal Poly should have their own better admissions process still a cal state, but a better process or something.</p>

7

<p>Maybe your high school classes were easy. Sorry, but I never seen a straight A’s student with only 1500’s SAT, so either you literally didn’t try on the SAT’s or your high school is easy.</p>

<p>But congrats on SlO!</p>

8

<p>Mike, I think your 5 years of math, 4 of science etc helped boost you over the threshold. Cal Poly gives a lot of weight to the amount of extra a-g courses applicants take. That is probably a major reason why you made it. So, you may have made a bad decision to slack on the the SAT, but you made a very good decision to take those extra a-g classes.</p>

9

<p>i was a straight A student my junior year and only got 1690 on my SAT’s out of 2400, and i go to a difficult school that does an american and a french curriculum at once…</p>

10

<p>My daughter also has a decent GPA (4.27 weighted) and has been on a rigorous track from day one. AP and Honors classes as an upperclassman. BUT, her SAT scores weren’t impressive. They definitely didn’t correlate with her GPA. However, she did better on the ACT. And that makes sense since the ACT is based more on what a student is learning all along. So if they do well in their studies, it will show up on the ACT test scores. The SAT, on the other hand, is more of a “tricky” test. It’s based more on logic, critical thinking and problem-solving. It’s not that my daughter isn’t logical or isn’t a critical thinker. I believe a lot of her problem is with the TIMED aspect of the exam and ability to decipher what the SAT was all about under pressure. And she didn’t spend a lot of time studying for it.

Differences in Testing Philosophy &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;ACT vs SAT &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The ACT strives to assess the knowledge you’ve acquired, meaning that the test focuses on subjects and skills taught in high school.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The SAT tries to assess “innate ability.” It does so using tricky and confusing phrasing to determine your test-taking skills (i.e., your performance under pressure and your ability to identify what’s being asked).&lt;/p&gt;
11

<p>Same with my daughter - 4.1 GPA, didn’t do super well on her SATs but she scored fairly well on her ACT. I am so glad she took that test as I believe it really helped to pull her over the threshold. Plus all a-gs, 4 years science, math, etc., lots of work experience and ECs.</p>

12

<p>Mine also had all the a-g requirements, plus a bit more, ie; extra math, science, foreign language, etc. I know Cal Poly prefers the ACT (not sure why), but that’s the one she sent, regardless. Not sure her SAT would have helped her. Mine didn’t have much work experience, but she did have ECs (but not certain how much weight the CSUs put on that, especially since applicants really can’t elaborate.) But, every little bit helps!

SoonEmptyNester wrote:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Same with my daughter - 4.1 GPA, didn't do super well on her SATs but she scored fairly well on her ACT. I am so glad she took that test as I believe it really helped to pull her over the threshold. Plus all a-gs, 4 years science, math, etc., lots of work experience and ECs.&lt;/p&gt;
13

<p>Dam I was the exact opposite. My GPA was horrible (took loads of honors and AP classes though) and applied with a 3.5 but I had a 2190 on my SAT. Also got into engineering.</p>