My son is considering Chemical Engineering, but SLO doesn’t have it. Anyone have experience with the materials science engineering program? How competitive is it to get in?
We are instate, (not that it matters but 35 ACT), goes to probably one of the most rigorous high schools in Southern California.
I haven’t done the GPA calcs for CSUs, but his UC 10-12 GPA is 4.56 and his UW is 3.97.
Cal Poly SLO is test blind this admission cycle so GPA will be the major factor.
Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades with 8 semesters of Honors points for a-g qualified courses taken 10-11th grades for their GPA calculation.
I like to use the Roger Hub UC GPA calculator and add in 9th grades to get the SLO GPA = UC Capped weighted with 9th grades
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
SLO projections for 2021 estimated 211 applications for 60 spots in Material Engineering. Since SLO will accept more applicants than spots, I would say Materials Engineering would be an easier admit than many of the other Engineering majors at SLO,
SLO admit GPA range for the College of Engineering 2021 was GPA 4.12 - 4.25.
Best of luck to him.
thank you! Our HS calculates the UC GPA right on the transcript-- I wonder why they just couldn’t do the CSUs!
Cal Poly SLO is the only CSU that uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation with the 8 semester honors cap while the rest of the CSU’s use 10-11th grades like the UC’s.
The UC’s also consider the Unweighted UC GPA, Capped weighted UC GPA and the Fully weighted UC GPA. The GPA of 4.56 listed in your post is the Fully weighted UC GPA. CSU’s only use the capped weighted with a maximum of 4.4.
Knowing all 3 GPA’s for the UC’s will be helpful since most of the GPA statistical data listed by the UC’s is based on the capped weighted and not on the fully weighted. Only UCLA/UCB routinely post their admission data with the fully weighted UC GPA.
I used the calculator and get a 4.22 Capped. I didn’t include obviously the one semester that everything was P/NP due to Covid. How will colleges (not just UCs, CSUs) account for this? Do you know of any stats of where high schools actually had letter grades during the Spring 2020 semester?
@Gumbymom is the expert on those questions. I’m just chiming in to say I think your son would be a very good candidate for MatE even without test scores. MatE is a strong program at Cal Poly, but one of the less competitive majors. Remember, selectivity measures one thing, popularity. I think CP MatE is probably the most overlooked major in the CENG. If he doesn’t have a leadership position, no matter how minor, in an EC, that will help. Also any work that is major related, even if unpaid helps. Good luck!
Thanks- he has quite a few leadership positions, has a paid job with the Boys Scouts Assoc. and is an Eagle Scout. He’s also a great swimmer (varsity captain, CIF,etc). He’s also doing some science related program with UCI. Hopefully things align for him. Thank you for your input. He’s been all over the map with which type of engineering he wants- but the more I look at it-- whichever school he looks at, maybe Materials Science would be better for him. He’s doing some coding class at Saddleback college, and I am glad he’s learning Python as I tell him we use it all the time at my job (finance) and it will be useful regardless. But this class has also confirmed that CS is not for him. He’s definitely more interested in physics/chemistry.
According to this article in the local paper, MatE is the 9th (in the Top 10) LEAST impacted majors to get into for first-time freshman at SLO. Of course, every year can be different, depending on demand, which can be variable.
https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/education/article250612749.html
My son is a CP alum (BS/MS ME). He didn’t want to sit in front of a computer all day coding either,. That said, he uses multiple Cs, Python and Matlab regularly. Python is a great tool to have in your pocket.
For me personally, MatE seems to be much more interesting than ChemE. I could be wrong, but it feels like there are cooler possibilities. 
They will consider all applicants in the context of their HS so if they had P/NP grades for one semester vs. grades, the application will be evaluated based on what the HS reported.
With Covid it has been a difficult time and admissions is aware of all the challenges the students have faced this past year. He will not be penalized.