Letters of recommendation - site says No, but really?

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

<p>The Cal Poly site says not to send letters of recommendation, and that they’ll request one if needed. But at our school, teachers/counselors expect to be given 30 days notice before sending a letter, so I’m wondering how often people send letters of rec to them. What have been your experiences? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Don’t send them, they won’t be considered.</p>

3

<p>Yeah, Cal Poly does not require letters, and even if for some strange reason you need to send one, you could always send the same one as you sent to another school.</p>

4

<p>Not only does Cal Poly not require them, they don’t want them. They don’t even want you to send test scores until you are asked for them. The website states that if you send them early, they will not be looked at.</p>

<p>Strictly a numbers school. 40,000 applications last year and they don’t have time or manpower to read essays or letters of recommendation.</p>

5

<p>Thanks everyone for confirming what I was reading. I did see on the Honors website that two letters of recommendation are required for their program. So I guess we’re supposed to just do the regular application process, and then do the Honors-specific recommendations (directly to the school rather than through CSUMentor) later on. My next question will be whether Honors provides enough payback to be worth it for a Computer Science major. :-)</p>

6

<p>I don’t know too much about the honors program here, and I don’t know if it’s really worth it. I met one girl who is in the college of liberal arts and in the honors program, and she had to take some classes that were not at all liberal arts oriented because of the honors program. But I think if you are engineering or comp sci it may be better. They have honors desserts like once a quarter, and there are a few (very few) sections of certain classes (such as Comms 101) that are only open to honors students. However, these sections fill up fairly fast as well and usually have wait lists just like the not honors sections do. Personally, I don’t really feel like honors here is worth it, but its your choice.</p>