If he is interested in SLO, spend some time on the SLO forum to know what they look for. SLO calculates a GPA from 9th -11th grade but a student receives credit for any A-G course taken from 9-12 grade. A-G foreign language and math from junior high count as well. An applicant receives extra points if they take more than the minimum years of courses. For EC, there is no place to list what you did or to write about your activities. They have a few simple questions where you check off pre-set responses.
There are some very active members on CC who know a lot about SLO. You might reach out to them. @sushiritto has a student who just finished his first year. @s318830 has a student that was just accepted to SLO. She knows a lot about what SLO looks for. @eyemgh has a son who graduated a few years ago but he knows quite a bit about SLO admissions as well.
D21 is finishing up her freshman year at Cal Poly SLO. Her last two finals are tomorrow (Wednesday). She has had a great 1st year. SLO is a wonderful small town.
For anyone applying, admission results will depend much on what major is chosen. Hereās their 2022-2023 enrollment projections for each major. Cal Poly does publish yield by school, but not by major, but 33% is a rough estimate. We assume acceptance rates range from very low (<10%) to very high (80-90% +/-), but as I said, yield by major is unknown.
Weāre a few weeks into summer and S23 is enjoying every lazy minute of it. He had a good semester and is well-positioned for all of the colleges on his list. He has a 4.0uw/4.8w with a 740/770 and even earned one of those ātop, prestigious awards.ā He was also named team captain of his main extracurricular and is over the moon about thatāIām equally thrilled for him as heās poured his heart and soul into that team over the years.
His spring semester was crazy busy so we still have a lot of college visits to do this summer. He has a top choice on paper, and will start drafting that essay, but needs to visit other colleges for a full comparison. He got a really good start on his CommonApp essays during the last weeks of LA and will finish those up this summer too.
He has his first date ever (!!) this week and his summer job starts in about three weeks.
Glad to hear she had a great year. I went to Cal Poly SLO years ago and loved it. Still get back to visit every few years. Several of my friends were able to stay in the area.
My D23 isnāt applying to any reaches. She doesnāt want to go to a school that is super intense. She has a good list of about 2-3 matches, 3-4 safeties that all have strong programs for her interests. The reach part will be that a couple of the matches may not come in with enough merit money to make them work. But all the safeties, per their NPCs, should meet our budget.
The Twins are still on the fence about one reach schoolā¦UT Austin. Thing 1 is an auto admit due to his class rank, but heās not guaranteed his major of choice and Thing 2 dropped slightly out of auto acceptance range but isnāt considering a hard to get/impacted majorā¦still makes UT Austin a reach though.
They are both mulling over it, I guess weāll know once Aug 1 hits and they start submitting apps lol.
All the other schools they are applying to are true safeties and matches.
My D23 isnāt really looking at reaches, aside from our in-state flagship (UIUC), but sheās applying to the College of Education (likely test-optional) so Iām not sure that really qualifies. Other than that, sheās applying to schools that are matches or safeties.
I am not planning on any college visits till my DS gets admitted. We will do all the research online and ask questions on this forum but physical visits will be after he gets admitted only.
I am saving most college tours for after admitted. Not really because of gas prices, but more so his schedule is crazy busy and some may be more flights than long drives.
We did a college tour trip over Spring Break but wonāt be visiting anymore colleges until after admission decisions are released.
I think D23 will most probably apply to 5 colleges total - she has a fairly specific major she is interested in and isnāt really looking at big reaches. 3 safeties, two matches. She has seen three of those schools in person; the other two were added after her tours as schools that she thought had the stuff she liked at the ones she saw.
D23 busy working on her common app essay, she finished junior year on a good note and is looking forward to hopefully having most of her applications complete by the end of summer.
To each his own, but we have gotten a lot of value from visiting in person, especially now that real tours are happening. So, we have several to see in person this summer, to narrow the list down AND to help pick an āearlyā school among a group of currently ātiedā schools. That being said, we are leaving a chunk of schools unvisited and will only visit if they are in the final running next spring.
We felt there was a lot of value in our spring break touring. All the schools were in session, tours well attended and we got a ton of valuable feedback from D23 about what she liked at schools, what became clear was very important to her (and what wasnāt).
If you havenāt done any college touring, I would recommend going to a couple colleges/universities close to home just to get an idea of how your child responds to the characteristics available at the schools. They donāt need to be schools you think your child would want to attend necessarily; D23 learned the most about what she liked/didnāt like with the tours of schools that fell off her list.
Glad I am not alone! Sometimes this thread makes me feel like I/we are not doing enough. She toured two reaches, and she is applying EA to one of those What we are struggling with is narrowing down to a couple of targets and a good safety or two. I think 5 is a good target to apply to. We need to find an East Coast safety option with good merit. And choose a couple on the tuition exchange, with decent extracurricular dance, and stem for someone unsure of a major
The ones that made the initial spreadsheet as seeming to check all the boxes (including dance) and TE are:
Case Western
U of Richmond
Villanova
Bucknell
Syracuse
Pitt (which I doubt she will apply to-too close to home, too urban)
There are more on the list from her GC that I may need to re-look at
We visited over spring break, but that was after 6-7 months of doing lots of virtual visits and narrowing everything down to just four colleges to go see in person. It also helped make the decision to do ED. Only speaking for myself - I wouldnāt do ED without a personal visit to the college during a time that the school is in session.
