<p>Our own lives again. 
</p>
<p>@Ralph4, that kind of money of course is from what makes Texas runâŠoil and gas. @texasbound, donât really know what you are inferring with negative slant comment but Texas has a huge fund that with oil and gas royalites has driven the fund to 14 billion this year (Well known in TX) So that is what I was referring to with a different beast. Not many state colleges have that kind of bonus money to increase their size, method of admissions, choice of OOS money or not, etc. Isnât that money almost as high as Princeton and Yale money? I havenât been a freshman in a while but I got an offer at a top UC for being a top 9 percent of my class, so I guess CA doesnât offer that anymore? Or not to your liking? Sorry, I looked at a broad selection rate for Texas A&M, 67%. It must have been inaccurate. No matter how hard it is for an OOS to get in, when I saw a 67% admit rate that seemed similar to when UCR offered me guaranteed admission at the end of my hs junior year, circa 2009. Many here that got rejected to the smaller admission college of Cal Poly, are not being ignored by CA . That merit scholar will have many options iin CA. My old hs had 37 National Merit Scholars this year. I know of one who got rejected for Biology and he preferred the less massive environment CP offered, but he will surely get admitted into UCSD Biology major of 5000 students. CP gives the highest ranking hs kid the limited spot in a small department, and they start learning their major from day one. They donât make them jump thru hoops again and get a unbelievably high College GPA only to be told after paying for 2 years of college they canât have a spot in the major they originally pre-majored in. I chose CP for this reason. Some of my hs friends at UCB never made into the Haas Business School after their 2nd yr pre major and their College GPA,s were extremely high. They are wishing now they accepted their very particular CP offer. So that is another perspective on the admissions logic. </p>
<p>@heyitsmee, According to College Board, the admission rate at Texas A & M is 69%, so your number was close. I think the 10% rule, along with the Academic Admits rule, makes it so a very large number of their applicants are automatically admitted. Even OOS students are guaranteed admission if they qualify under the Academic Admits rule. Three of my four kids applied there (my alma mater) and were accepted as OOS Academic Admits. All four of my kids chose Cal Poly (we live in CA), and OOS tuition wasnât really an option for us unless they could get an OOS tuition waiver (which Texas A & M gives along with competitive scholarships of $1000 or more).</p>
<p>The value of CP for OOSâs seems to be incredible. Tuition for 20K? I didnât realize it was so low. I know 2 kids from WA going to CP cause they wanted to go further from home and parents said it was so inexpensive compared to other OOS options. But I didnât know it was that low. No wonder so many applicants! </p>
<p>Itâs $250 per credit hour more for OOS. Thatâs $50k more than instate for a 200 hr ME degree. Thatâs not exactly giving it away.</p>
<p>According to the CP website: The cost of attendance for Tuition and Housing/Meals is $20,367. OOS pay an additional $248/unit which could bring it up to $24,335 for 16 units. This does not include books/transportation and personal expenses. CP SLO is the one of the most expensive CSUâs. Their tuition is about $1500 more than SDSU. I guess still a bargain compared to the UCâs</p>
<p>Eyemgh, No, the extra $50,000 for 200 units is not giving it away to OOS students. However, when you consider that a highly qualified in-state student who was rejected from CP ends up attending a UC (say UCSB), their cost of a 4 year in-state education goes up $30,000 (compared to in-state CP) and they are still paying California taxes every year, it really does turn out to be a comparative bargain for the OOS student at CP. And judging from the posts regarding admission this year on CC, it appears that OOS students had an easier time getting accepted to CP than in-state applicants. </p>
<p>in-state tuition + room/board at Cal Poly: $19,847 * 4 years = $79,388
in-state tuition + room/board at UCSB: $27,551 * 4 years = $110,204
OOS tuition + room/board at Cal Poly : $31,007 * 4 years = $124,028</p>
<p>*** all numbers for cost of attendance are taken from the College Board website as of March 2014</p>
<p>I guess, though, in-state students who did not get in to Cal Poly could always go to another CSU for the same or less money than Cal Poly, assuming they applied and were accepted.</p>
<p>@ralph4 Iâm going to look at that Admit Rule for OOS for my brother. He will be entering the admit process next year. He will make an excellent CS/SW EngineerâŠeven had a top firm offer him a job after doing some contract work via the internet when they thought he was already in college. They only thing is his GPA is like 3.75, so doubt he is going to make the cut. Top 9% in his hs has to be over 4.2 now, that was the cut off in 2010 when I graduated. Came on here to see how competitive this year is. Our family had some health issues so the college fund for him is limited now, so not sure if OOS will work. </p>
<p>I think thatâs probably true. For some reason they rank OOS against easy other and ISS against each other, rather than in one big pool.</p>
<p>In any case, Iâm pretty confident that my son didnât âstealâ an instate spot. He was pretty competitive, getting the maximum algorithm points in every area (higher than 4.2 CSU GPA, highest number of class add ons including two years of AP Calc, max EC hours including leadership) except SAT where he was 760/700 out of 800/800 and he didnât have work experience. He applied to ME which it turns out had the most slots. </p>
<p>When he was accepted to Oregon State, he received the highest merit offer they were extending at the time, $3500/year. Kids from out of state, mostly from California, however weâre getting up to $7000. </p>
<p>Itâs all relative and unfortunately in the end, as much about the business as anything else.</p>
<p>@Eyemgh, I didnât mean to suggest that your son âstoleâ anything. He played by the rules and won! Congratulations to him! I was just pointing out that, like CAdreamin said, the OOS price for CP is a bargain, especially when you look at the cost of the academically comparable UCs (oos and in-state).</p>
<p>@heyitsmee, Good luck to your brother! Texas A & M is a great school and has such a fun culture and traditions! The Academic Admit rule is for students in the top 25% of their high school class with SAT(CR+M) of 1300 or more. Details are found here: <a href=âhttp://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admittedâ>http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted</a> .</p>
<p>Others have suggested that regarding OOS.</p>
<p>Given the dismal 4 year graduation rate, weâre planning on 5, putting his total bill at just over $170k, not a bargain, no matter how you look at it. In fact, of the schools he applied to, only Stanford and RPI would be more expensive.</p>
<p>The main point Iâve been trying to drive home was that he chose Cal Poly over all other schools in the US because he thought it had the best undergraduate ME program at any price.</p>
<p>In reference to the relative stats of admitted/waitlisted/rejected applicants, I have found this thread and the Admissions of 2018 thread to have eye opening and disheartening information. We are going through this process with our first child and have been very surprised by what we didnât know about CP and itsâ admissions process. For one thing, we were told over and over again that you must declare and cannot change your major (during a school tour and on website) yet we also know of a current student who declared a âless demandingâ major (for lack of a better term as it seems that all are impacted per a chart someone posted and I browsed), and changed to Business major (asking that the âapplied toâ major now become their âminorâ) within the first month. Itâs frustrating to hear stories such as this as my D could have easily picked one of these and increased her chances of admission greatly, but didnât feel that was the honest thing to do. If CalPoly has this rule, then it needs to enforce it. I am sure this does not apply to Engineering majors as it seems like as a whole that is definitely not a major you can jump into. But, it does happen with other majors. We also know of a student who got wait listed this year with 25 ACT to a less popular major. So, it definitely matters what major you pick to increase your chances of admission. Who knew?! Seriously, most of us first timers did not know!
And I appreciate all the acceptance percentages by major and other admissions info within each major, etc, as well as how the bonus points are actually awarded that so many of you posted or wrote of âŠI hope this might help one of my other children, should they desire to apply to CP in the future. I think itâs still great school and has a lot to offer. I just donât agree with the seemingly arbitrary admissions process and the fact that a school in this high of demand being compared to mid-tier UCâs does not look into valid and time consuming ECâs, work experience, sports, leadership and what else the kid spent four years doing IN ADDITION to attaining a high GPA. I know my D worked her butt off and still gave a great deal back to her school and was rejected with a 4.2 WGPA, 6 APâs, 2 Honors, and worked and played sports and was in ASB. I also think a very valid BONUS point question should be how many years you have been a California taxpayer and supported this school. I mean, why not?? (I know wishful thinking!)
;)</p>
<p>@seashel I can sympathize with you being a first-timer, but competitive schools in California including UCs, calpoly SLO, San Diego State, and Cal State long beach, are not guarantees for students with great stats as your daughter. For your next child, buy the US news best colleges book/magazine. This tells you the avg stats of admitted students and admit rates. Then go on to college confidential and read the threads of the prior admits to see if your child matches the stats of the colleges he/she would like to attend. That will give you an indicator of how well your child matches the stats along with the admit percentage rate so there is no surprise. But with the number of applications going up year after year, it is going to be tough no matter what. My daughter applied to 10 schools. She got accepted to two of her top 3 and waiting to hear from that 3rd school. She also was accepted to her match and safeties. Prior to her receiving acceptances, we had no clue what was going to happen. Definitely pick reach, match, and safety schools. Good luck and your daughter will do well no matter where she goes to college.</p>
<p>Son rejected from SLO; heading to SDSU and very happy about it. Wishing all those out there that have applied much success wherever you land. </p>
<p>I think most of us in state parents can agree, after paying taxes into the system for our entire lives, it would be nice if our schools met the in state needs firstâŠsome set parameters that are black and white which is how it should be and then back filled with OOS. Also, perhaps a more clear statement about the previous years number of applicants into a given major and the number of spots for the current group applying. In that way a kid could easier see their odds. It should be easy to post what the average stats of the previous years admits by major are but I think itâs a profit center and the schools want the prestige of many applications to keep their decline rates up. Like everything in California, itâs about image. </p>
<p>@Seashel, it is very possible to change majors at Cal Poly, but it is very difficult to do what you are suggesting. The reason is that Poly basically sees where the student would have ranked on the algorithm of the new major they are choosing. That makes it quite easy to switch to an easier admit major, but nearly impossible to switch to a tougher admit major. So, Mechanical Engineering to Industrial, pretty likely. Business to Kinesiology, not very likely. Itâs an odd system that plays by itâs own rules, but the rules are out there. Itâs just once you figure them out you child is usually so deep in the process that they canât do much to alter their path.</p>
<p>Our eyes were opened a couple of years ago at a campus tour when our son S12 was interested in CP for environmental studies. The very frank no-sugar-coating presentation from the admissions rep said that the AVERAGE GPA to get into CP was a 4.1. - that included all majors so engineering balanced out the âeasierâ ones. My D14 swallowed hard but knew what she had to do to go to her dream school. Never did they say, by the way out of state kids you need not apply because we really only want California kids coming here - in fact they realized the benefit of a diverse student population. There was a recent Mustangs News article that stated something to the effect that it was easier to land that intended major than establish instate residency. CP has has done a good job closing that âloopholeâ for us OOSers (as a CSU grad myself, I know it used to exist). And goodness knows what OOS per-unit tuition fee we will pay as the years go by but it surely wonât be reduced. Had there been another school that was as good as CPâs âlearn by doingâ in architecture that allowed her to participate in her sport SHE probably would have considered it - including the UCs - but FOR HER no college in the nation was as good as CP. What SHE thinks, along with our ability to pay OOS tuition for 5 yearsâŠ, is what matters. We are all very grateful that she has be given this opportunity to fulfill her dream.</p>
<p>I actually like that there are schools like CP where ECâs mean basically nothing. I think kids are being driven crazy (literally) trying to keep up with these long lists of activities just to look good rather than cause they want to or enjoy it. Doing things around the home with family in some cases is better learning than after school programs. I just donât think kids have to be involved in a zillion outside activities to be well rounded if it is an active family with an active lifestyle. We have several acres and plenty of engineering type projects to do around our place that can be more valuable than joining yet another club. Kids should still know how to fix things and change the oil and a tire for their own car and most do not. :)</p>
<p>Eyemgh is absolutely right. My son is at Cal Poly and wanted to change his major from Bus to Landscape Arch. He did not apply to Cal Poly with the intent to change his major later. He is happy with his major, but after being exposed to other fields he has decided that he would probably like to go into landscape architecture.It is not impossible but extremely difficult. Cal Poly highly discourages it. He decided not to do it because it would have added at least another year for him which would be at least 6 years of undergrad. For him it isnât worth it. Declaring a âBack Doorâ major as they call it, is dangerous. You are setting yourself up for disappointment. There is not a "safe " major to apply to. All majors are impacted. CP also discourages having a minor. You will be penalized financially if you have met all your major requirements and are able to graduate, but donât because you are still taking classes to fulfill your minor. Cal Poly works hard to get the students out in a timely manner.</p>