Does it take longer for SLO to process applications where a student attended a CA highschool, moved out of state, and then returned to the CA highschool?
My daughter hasn’t heard from SLO or SDSU, but has taken and passed 6 AP tests, and taken 12 AP courses (enrolled in 5 currently) including AP Bio(4) , Chem (3), Physics 1 (3), Calc AB (5), APUSH (4), Human Geo (4). Enrolled in AP Enviro, Calc BC, Lit, Macro, Comp Sci.
Seems strange to me that being in top 9% of class and 3.94 UW, 4.54 weighted gpa that she hasn’t gotten in to a state school.
Is your daughter a California student? ELC (top 9%) is important for the UCs. The CSUs do not consider ELC. They also do not consider involvement in sports.
SLO notifies admitted students first, followed by waitlisted students, followed by denials.
I moved this to a separate discussion thread. If there was an issue in processing your daughters application for either SDSU or SLO, she would have been notified for further information by now.
The majority of decisions for SDSU have not yet posted. Only some early admits have been admitted throughout January and February. Most decisions should be posting next week.
SLO’s pattern has been a wave of admits, followed by waitlist and then denials.
Your daughter sounds like a wonderful and competitive applicant but so are the majority of the applicants that apply to these schools. Both campuses are impacted meaning more qualified applicants vs. spots. SDSU received over 94,000 applicants so the majority of students will either be waitlisted or denied. SLO has seen a huge increase in applicants also.
Being in the top 9% of a HS class gives no guarantees in the CSU system. There are many variables when it comes to admissions. For the CSU system these are the following:
Local In-service area priority. Local applicants are given priority/bump in admissions (CSU’s mission goal to educate local students)
Intended major. All CSU’s admit by major and there is a huge variation in the admit rates dependent on that major
SDSU uses the Capped weighted CSU GPA (10-11 grades) with a 8 semester honors point cap for qualified courses so the maximum is 4.4. Weighted
SLO uses 9-11th grades with the 8 semester honors point cap which brings the maximum down into the 4.28+ range.
If she is a recruited athlete then she should be hearing from the schools with the coaches support.
SLO and SDSU over the last few years have denied plenty of 4.0+ applicants admission since they cannot accommodate all qualified applicants. All she can do is wait for her decisions and get excited about the other schools which have accepted her. Remember love the school that loves you.
Stats are not the only consideration for SLO along with the other CSU’s. Since going test blind, CSU’s have had to come up with other application review criteria to help make a more informed decision.
Was the applicant from the local in-service area? Was the applicant 1st generation? Did they attend a Hayden Partner school (specific for SLO)? Do they come from a low SES HS? Did they have access to AP/IB and Honors courses?
Here is a Supplemental Criteria chart for the CSU’s so you can see what are some of the factors considered.
This is a response to another posters inquiry of why their student had not heard from SLO specifically:
SLO does not consider ELC which is part of the UC application review
You cannot list or go into detail about EC’s/activities or awards
Their a-g course recommendations exceed the UC’s such as 5 years English, 2 years VPA, 4 years Foreign Language etc…
They use 9-11th a-g course grades in their GPA calculation with a 8 semester Honors point cap
All candidates are objectively evaluated by the cognitive and non-cognitive variables under our faculty-mandated Multi-Criteria Admission (MCA) process. We encourage students to apply to the program they feel best fits their academic and professional goals.
They do not spell out their MCA process so there are definite unknowns.
For First-Year Students Cal Poly requires you to declare a major when submitting your application. Our selection process considers many factors for admission in an objective format in which applicants compete against other applicants within the same…
She is a Caucasian female, born to one college educated parent who lives in SoCal. She maxed out AP/IB classes available at her school while being an athlete. (Required class period)
If we had stayed in CA, her 10th grade courses would have lined up better (all honors/AP and only 5 courses) Out of state school was on quarter system instead of semester, made her take 8 classes and only allowed 2 APs (grade 10). I am thinking those “regular” level courses are hurting her chances?
We haven’t heard from UC’s, but we are very discouraged viewing applicants with lower stats getting admitted to state schools for the same major while she is likely waitlisted or rejected.
It does not hold up an application. What major are you talking about?
It isn’t like everyone over five feet gets in and those under five feet don’t.
Be careful when comparing your child to what you see in posts on CC.
People often don’t calculate their SLO GPA correctly.
People exaggerate their child’s accomplishments/grades
There are often other factors (as Gumbymom mentioned above) that may place one applicant higher than another.
In addition to what Gumbymom mentioned, SLO considers the number of years of each subject taken. They include math (Algebra and Geometry) and LOTE (foreign language) taken in junior high. Although they have made the application easier, some students forget to add those in.
Which UC’s did she apply since UC Merced, Riverside, Santa Cruz and Davis have all sent out some or all decisions. UC Irvine, San Diego and possibly UCLA decisions should be out next week. UC Santa Barbara on March 21 and UCB on March 30. Has she gotten any acceptances?
UCSD, UCSB, UCLA and Cal. Hopefully next week we will get some answers.
A friend of hers from 2022 had similar demographics (gender, race, gpa, college educated parent, same highschool) and didn’t get into state schools or UC’s.
I love this site and appreciate all the information you provide! It is really kind of you!
Only applied to Cal Poly SLO, SDSU, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UC Berkeley.
Her major is Comp Sci. I know it is the most difficult to get into, but it is what she wants to do.
She was a recruited athlete to multiple schools with COA of 75-85k a year. We turned them down because we qualify for no financial aid. It never occurred to me that she may not get into state schools.
I will update this thread at the end of March for informational purposes.
For the UCs, her PIQ and A&A sections will make a difference. She played for sports. What did she write about these sports? How did she describe what she did as part of the team, how she led and what she got out of the experience? What else did she do besides the four sports? There are 20 spaces on the A&A section. Did she maximize her opportunity to let the UCs see that she will be successful in college and share how she will contribute to their university?
I’m not asking you to answer those questions. I am just trying to show how one application might look different than another. It isn’t just about GPA.
It appears that she has a very top heavy list of schools, especially since she was applying for CS. If she is ELC, and she is not admitted to the UCs she applied to, she will be offered a spot at UC Merced. The CSUs also offer redirection.
If it’s any consolation, I doubt it will make any difference at all. The UCs will look at context and will understand why her classes were different in 10th grade and not penalize her for that. Really, I think the problem is that CS is just such a super hard admit these days, and you’ve chosen some tough schools to begin with. It can be hard for anyone to get admission to some of those schools for CS, so don’t worry too much about the 10th grade blip. Whatever happens I don’t think it will be because of that. I hope you get some good options this month!
You are from So Cal. Which CSU service area do you live in?
Look at the CSU impacted program matrix and find schools that are not impacted for CS. Do the research about those schools now. If she is offered redirection, and a school has a CS opening, she will want to act quickly.
You might see if there are CSUs that are still accepting applications for CS. On first glance, it looks there might be a few options. San Marcos appears to be the only one in So Cal and it has an application deadline of 3/15/23
No data means that the UC does not break out admit rates by major but based on the # of enrolled students yearly and the overall yield, these are estimates.
Unfortunately, no GPA data available so you cannot determine how competitive the applicant pool was for CS.
Hopefully, SDSU comes through along with a few UC’s.