Basically the title sums it up. From what I’ve read, Cal Poly is no longer a “safety” and I’m thinking it might even be a reach school for me, especially in BME. How hard is it to get into the BME program at Cal Poly SLO? I have a 33 ACT and am a female from California.
SLO predicted a 12.5% acceptance rate for BME this year and is one of the more competitive Engineering majors. Your ACT is on target, what is your Cal Poly GPA (CSU GPA plus Freshman year grades)?
They do an MCA score and rank their applicants. Complicated point system where bonus points are given for extra Science/Math/Language/Art/English classes along with points for specific school attendance, veteran status etc…
Below is the explanation:
The maximum GPA they will use is 4.2, even though you can have a higher calculated CP GPA. A 4.2 is worth 2250 MCA points. Thus, multiply your CP GPA by 535.7 and you’ll get your MCA points for GPA.
The next biggest thing is test scores. The odd thing, likely because they wanted it to total a nice round number, is that the max score is 1650, even though the max SAT score is 1600. Multiply the total of your best SAT CR and your best SAT math by 1.03125 to get your MCA test points. If you took the ACT, they convert and vice versa.
The third largest section is the class rigor score, worth 750 points. In this section you get zero points for meeting the minimum admission requirements and adders for more than the minimum. The bonuses in order of power are (min semesters/max total semesters/bonus per extra semester/total possible bonus): math 6/10/125/500 (note: stats and finite do not count), lab science 4/8/50/200, English 8/10/50/100, foreign language 4/8/25/100, visual performance 2/4/25/50, no bonus points for social sciences or electives. As with GPA, you can actually score higher than the maximum, but 750 is the most they will count.
Finally, work and ECs, worth 350 points. Work (hours per week/bonus): 0/0, 1-5/20, 6-10/40, 11-15/60, 16-20/80, 21+/100, add 50 points if work is major related. ECs (hours per week/bonus): 0/0, 1-5/30, 6-10/60, 11-15/90, 16-20/120, 21+/150, add 60 points for leadership role.
If you are 100% sure SLO is your school, I would consider apply ED since the acceptance rate is higher. Good Luck.
Great answer @gumbymom, I was just going to say 'VERY"
@NCalRent: I cannot take credit the MCA score explanation since that can be attributed to @eyemgh a frequent poster on SLO threads. I copied his information which I found very informative to the many prospective applicants. Yes, BME is very competitive. I believe @eyemgh stated their was a 10% acceptance rate for BME this year. The 12.5% rate was the predicted rate.
@Gumbymom, As you know, it’s really all about yield. The whole school is typically 33%. I’ve read several places that for the really competitive majors, yield is more like 37%. That would put BME at 11%. I picked 10% because it’s a nice round number. 