<p>Hi, my son is applying from out of state to Cal Poly SLO in engineering, RD, and wonders how much being out of state negatively affects his chances. Basic stats:</p>
<ul>
<li>GPA: 3.5 unweighted</li>
<li>private school, not sure how GPAs are weighted. School does send kids to top schools. </li>
<li>SAT I math 720, critical reading 800, writing 790. </li>
<li>extracurriculars, work, etc: most XCs in arts; a little sports, some volunteer work experience in science. XCs are about average for his school. </li>
</ul>
<p>From what he has seen, his numbers are probably good enough, but he does not know how much the out-of-state aspect would downgrade him. </p>
<p>I really don’t see being out of state hurting him at all here. I could definately be wrong as I have little background info on Cal Poly. However, your son seems waaay more than qualified for this school, so I believe he will be fine.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. Why SLO? I don’t think he has a strong reason - mostly because there are not a huge number of good engineering programs on the West Coast, where we live, and we know one person who went there. The school is highly rated, at least on paper. He has never seen the campus. Is it not attractive or something?</p>
<p>ParentalUnit58- There are plenty of good engineering programs on the West coast, please continue college search. He has good SATs but his gpa is worrisome, but in the ballpark. Good Luck.</p>
<p>It is a pretty good school for engineering, like you said on paper. The campus is nice and its not too far from the Ocean. Not a “real” party school, but kinda-ish. Usually, people going to Cal Poly SLO are California residents (i think?). Out of states students usually try to go to UC Berkeley (a little better and with more prestige?). I think your son has a shot to Cal.</p>
<p>Other good engineering school in California:
Cal Tech
Cal Poly Pomona
San Jose State (consider it more as a safety school)</p>