Tips from Alumni for those who want in to Cal Poly

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
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<p>My wife and I met at Cal Poly SLO in the late 80s and now have two sons in the school with a third aspiring to get in some day.</p>

<p>I am a bit taken back this year at the quality (and quantity) of students being denied admissions.</p>

<p>So I thought I’d start this thread in hopes that others will join me in letting people know:</p>

<p>1) why Cal Poly is so hard to get into</p>

<p>2) why Cal Poly isn’t seen as ‘prestigious’ which sometimes makes not getting in a bit humbling</p>

<p>3) why Cal Poly is worth trying again as a transfer student</p>

<p>and … most important … advice on how to get in.</p>

<p>So here is my contribution:</p>

<p>I was admitted in 1983 to Architecture and my wife to Mechanical Engineering. Both of us, even back then, knew many who got “rejected” that year who got into “better” schools. This is nothing new.</p>

<p>Why? Because Cal Poly is part of the California State University system. What Cal Poly can ask for from an applicant (by law) is limited. Furthermore the school is required to take a percentage of applicants from the local area - a constraint the UCs don’t have (I am informed that Cal Poly has gotten more discretion on that requirement recently but that it still exists). So if you got “rejected” realize that the school had limited information (did you notice the application at Cal Poly was shorter than MIT’s?)</p>

<p>So why is Cal Poly a hard school to get into? Cal Poly’s emphasis (since inception) is to provide practical undergraduate educations for the workforce rather than the lab. With the economy being where it is a degree from Cal Poly is now worth a lot more than a degree from a lot of “better” schools. Yes - a brilliant, newly minted Cultural Anthropologist from Stanford may be interesting to talk to at a party but the Cal Poly Engineer on the other side of the room is probably making a lot more money. (Both my parents, along with two siblings, have Stanford degrees so I have special dispensation to give Stanford a hard time).</p>

<p>Why is Cal Poly not “prestigious?” Because it is in the CSU system. Once you have gone there and been in the workforce for a few years “where you went to school” matters little (unless you work in Washington DC). I take pride in people under-rating Cal Poly - from a career standpoint it is good to have people underestimate you so you consistently exceed expectations. Unfortunately most of corporate America has discovered Cal Poly so the secret is out. At least it means Cal Poly grads get hired with solid salaries on strong advancement opportunities (again - this is why Cal Poly is hard to get into). As for prestige, the school has made an effort to expand out of state admissions. As much as that will bother California taxpayer-parents whose kids did not get in, Cal Poly fashioned this expansion so that these out of state students would pay much more to attend so as to subsidize in-state students. That’s the theory. The result will be a wider reputation for the school. So the “secret” about Cal Poly may soon be lost nationwide.</p>

<p>Why is Cal Poly worth transferring into? Well - ask yourself this simple question: “Why am I going to college?” If the answer centers on social/cultural/“get away from mom and dad” type answers then Cal Poly is not worth transferring into - go to a 4 year school, wear the colors, go to the parties and get the full college experience. Most kids end up loving where they went to school, regardless of who “rejected” them. However, if your answer is “I am determined to be the best [fill in technical profession here] and Cal Poly will ensure I get a great start” then work on transferring in. How? It is a CSU school - transferees from the adjacent zip codes get a little more love than others. Go and enroll at Cuesta (San Luis Obispo) or Allan Hancock (Santa Maria) and bust your butt to get strong grades. Each school has a specialist in their administration for getting people into Cal Poly (I kid you not - check it out).</p>

<p>Now - how to get in: some tips for applicants (both freshman and transfer) -</p>

<p>1) actually care about your field of study. Cal Poly requires a declaration on your application because these are vocationally oriented degree programs that require 4 to 5 years to complete. The school does not short change students of a specialty by giving them 2 years to decide what to do when you grow up. Those are 2 years lost. If you have a demonstrated vocational interest you have an advantage. Why? See the next paragraph.</p>

<p>2) unlike just about every other university you are applying to, Cal Poly admission decisions are made by the department you are applying to. Think about that for a minute. Go to the Cal Poly website, find the department that grants the degree you are applying to and actually look at the faculty who are there. They will decide if you get in. The people in admissions collect the applications and organize them for those people (of course, admissions may have been told “don’t send us anything with a [fill in number here] SAT score or lower”). Take a good look at what those faculty members think is important - how they want to impact their field of study. Having done that, consider taking a trip to the university - contact your department head or a faculty member (politely - use the department secretary) and ask if you can have a brief chart to learn more about the program. If you are smart (hint, hint) actually find where you share an earnest interest with said department head or faculty member and set about sharing that interest. They remember faces and remember names. That benefits you <em>IF</em> you make that <em>earnest</em> connection - if you are just playing at it they will sniff you out in a few seconds and they know you will want out of the program 1 year in.</p>

<p>Same goes for clubs - go to Open House (formerly Poly Royal) and check out the clubs from your department. There will probably be a faculty adviser standing with the students. If you are actually interested in what the club does share that interest with the students and adviser. Again - when faculty are sitting around a conference table trying to pick the top 20% out of a pile of applications one may just remember YOU from that interaction and put your app in the 20%. For them it is one step closer to getting that tiresome task of selecting applicants done. </p>

<p>3) send extra information where you can. Taking your AP tests and Cal Poly doesn’t require them? Send them anyway. Your GPA may have been inflated (or deflated) based on your school’s grading culture. AP scores are standardized. A decision maker would rather use the standardized metric even if it wasn’t required of all applicants.</p>

<p>4) realize that some departments are more impacted than others. That is reality. Be careful - don’t make a decision you will regret by going into a field you despise simply to “get in.” If you want to be a Business major don’t apply for Natural Resource Management thinking that you will just change majors once you arrive. You have to maintain excellent grades in BOTH fields of study to facilitate such a transfer which means loading up on units (which makes the high grades hard to achieve).</p>

<p>Anyways - I have said enough and if you got this far you are to be congratulated. I hate to see people feel unjustly “rejected” from Cal Poly. Understand this - those making the decisions have very little information to go on. Cal State Universities were not designed to be highly selective, yet Cal Poly is and will remain in the Cal State system (I pray the UC system never takes it over and ruins it).</p>

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<p>Beyond the career opportunities afforded to Cal Poly’s graduates, I think other compelling reasons to go there is because the quality of the education, the splendid campus and surrounding environment, and the strong sense of community and school spirit/pride.</p>

<p>So you really think that the CSU label is holding back Cal Poly’s growth in national reputation?</p>

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<p>Great post.</p>

<p>Makes me think even more that my son’s two years of computer programming classes in high school, 1 Summer quarter programming class at Stanford, and community service programming projects helped him get in as a computer science major, even though those items don’t show up on the basic “stats”. The departments are picking the applicants and there may be some things that catch their eye.</p>

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<p>GREAT post!! I am happy to see someone with deep ties to the school sharing their experience with others.</p>

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<p>Classic! Spot on! </p>

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<p>Couldn’t agree more.</p>

<p>As an employer myself, I PREFER a Cal State resume over a UC. First, I am hiring business majors. Most UC’s offer nothing at the undergrad level for business other than accounting or econ. I need people who can sell, network, and think on their feet in real world situations as well as analyze financial data for the benefit of our clients. I apologize for my bluntness but, I do not need philosophers and scholars. Deep thinkers YES, but only in the context of application to the real world solving specific problems that affect real families and businesses. I am an MBA from an international program. One of my business partners holds a Masters in Finance from London Business school. Another partner is a CFP with a great educational background. All of us went to undergraduate institutions that were research universities. We all had to UNLEARN a lot of the BS that we were spoon fed by our universities in order to be successful. Not that that education was useless, it just took years to apply it practically.</p>

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<p>@ickglue : The CSU has a focus that is different than the UCs and Cal Poly has to implement the CSU focus. So Cal Poly offers masters degrees but very few doctorates and doesn’t attract the grant money that a research university does. All of that affects the “status” and prestige of Cal Poly - Cal Poly is unlikely to have a professor awarded a Nobel Prize because Cal Poly professors focus primarily of teaching undergrads rather than employing an army of grad students that keep the undergrads at bay.</p>

<p>@sutteyo: Yes - sound’s like your son’s demonstrated interest in his field helped. Cal Poly gets plenty of applicants who max out SATs and APs yet show no particular interest in any field yet apply to Cal Poly’s most prestigious departments. It is hard to watch a brilliant and capable kid learn he/she hates a vocationally aligned degree program who then leaves. These decisions strike many as “random” but many simply don’t see Cal Poly as different from just about every other school their S/D has applied to.</p>

<p>@OsakaDad: Looks like we are kindred spirits. Another school that I have hired engineers out of without hesitation is Harvey Mudd. Hard to get out of that program without getting your hands dirty. Plus, their grading policies create more humble yet self assured graduates than many other elite programs.</p>

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<p>TheITCrowd and OsakaDad,
Your posts are making me so incredibly grateful that my son will be going to CalPoly next year! Would have waited for UC admission decisions, but my son chose Learn By Doing education–thank you!</p>

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<p>Thanks for your thoughtful post, TheITCrowd, and welcome to the forum.</p>

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<p>You’re comparing an anthropologist to an engineer! Of course the engineer will have a higher salary. That’s an unfair comparison.</p>

<p>Besides, you can’t really compare research schools vs hands-on based schools.
Comparing them two is like apples and oranges–they are different, can’t be compared.
Research schools =/= Hands-on schools</p>

<p>Research schools are focused on finding news studies, revolution, and create a scientific break through.
-If you’re interested in finding the cure for cancer, AIDS, malaria, and other currently incurable illness then that is what a research university is for.
-If you’re interested in Stem Cell research and find more effective ways to improve it, then that’s what a research university is for
-If you like reading those scientific articles online where they start with “Scientist have found out a new…”–then this is where a research university comes in handy.
-If you like the theoretical, scientific, and research based approach in education then research University is your best bet. </p>

<p>Want to be part of CERN and immense yourself with the Large Hadron Collider? [They recently found the Higgs boson particle a.k.a the ‘God’ particle.] Then research university is what they are for.</p>

<p>Most research University student end up becoming interested in research; however, in order for them to enter the career of research they do need a Graduate/Professional/Ph.D degrees. So, a lot of the research university bachelor degree graduates end up attending school for another 2-9 years.</p>

<p>Hands-on school are better approach for those that want to work right after they graduate. They don’t focus on the research aspect, but rather train the students to enter the workforce right after graduation. It’s cheaper than a research university. Teaches the students on how to be efficient in their fields. And it’s straight to the point. </p>

<p>Two different methods, different schools, and approach.</p>

<p>Is one better than the other? No. It’s different–like apples and oranges. </p>

<p>If salary is the main factor for you choosing your major then you don’t have to even go to college. Enter a job in sales(Real Estate, etc.), entertainment industry, and many other good stuff. Like I stated previously in another thread, I had a friend who never went to college but his salary is +$200K; but if you add the bonuses, gifts, and other additions then it easily hits +$300k. He is an entertainment talent agent and he is only 22 by the way. He makes more money than some of the doctors, lawyers, engineers, business owners, and many others college graduates who had to bust their butt off for college.</p>

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<p>@lawlking: I am not certain we disagree.</p>

<p>Cal Poly is different from just about every other selective school. If you read people’s comments made when not getting accepted I think the point becomes clearer. That was why I posted in the first place - to make clear that the school is different. The Stanford comparison underscores that - they are very different institutions with very different charters making very different contributions to society.</p>

<p>All the more reason students who are looking for the prestige that comes from being associated with other people’s accomplishments probably aren’t going to choose Cal Poly. Yet some are insulted when not accepted. </p>

<p>Research universities certainly have a place in society. Sadly, undergrads rarely get the opportunity to get in the center of such projects (when they do - like a kid I met from San Francisco State they get fellowships to places like MIT as grad students).</p>

<p>Cal Poly has a mandate to support California industry and agriculture. It is not there to produce Nobel laureates. We produce Burt Rutans - engineers who solve problems, sometimes with wild ideas and a wilder fashion sense.</p>

<p>As for salary - fact is that Cal Poly outperforms almost all California public universities. It is just a fact, not a judgment against those who take other paths. If people wonder why Cal Poly is impacted and selective perhaps they should consider that fact which was why I introduced it. And - yes - there are plenty of stories of people making big $ who never went to college. Were that common and everyday, however, very few people would go to college.</p>

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<p>@TheITCrowd. That is what I am pretty much saying!</p>

<p>Different schools, different methods, and different approach!
One school best fits for one student, another school fits another student, and ad infinitum.</p>

<p>The whole concept of “ranking” has ruined and created stereotypes that undermines one school because of the way its named, affiliated, and ranked. Cal Poly SLO has been negatively stereotyped because it has been affiliated as a ‘CSU’ and ranked (Ranked are done differently by different companies that ranks university)–even though its a superb school. That is why I take ‘ranking’ with a grain of salt, just so I don’t undermine the school that many are facing today.</p>

<p>That is also why I don’t solely make an assumption and judge people from the school they graduated from; rather, I judge the character of the person, their ambition, their drive, passion, and their overall ‘whole’ as a human being. The passion of the person is always what makes an individual successful; the school helps, but it’s always passion–just like Burt Rutans was passionate about his field.</p>

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<p>@lawlking; I think we agree again.</p>

<p>This study is an interesting one and i wish more parents would read it.</p>

<p><a href=“http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/business/dalekrueger_More_Selective_College.pdf[/url]”>http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/business/dalekrueger_More_Selective_College.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It goes into self-selection bias and how school rankings based on selectivity and prestige are self-reinforcing. The inference is that ranking systems are unlikely to ever have their ranks change and that students do best by finding the best school for themselves rather than the most selective they were admitted to.</p>

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<p>Like you said: passion.</p>

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<p>My guess is parents income/education have more of an impact on future earnings than college selected…</p>

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<p>Hey here is a true admission… As an undergrad, I was a liberal arts major in Asian Languages with a Cultural Anthropology minor. I also took a few business classes. So, I WAS that interesting guy at the party that TheITCrowd was talking about!! Today, I have an international financial consulting practice focusing in investments, insurance and financial and tax planning. I had to get an MBA and work experience in business before I could do what I do today. Not to say that my undergrad was useless. It set the stage for my practice as I speak foreign languages with my clients every day and the cultural anthropology made me sensitive to cultural and communication issues. But, when I graduated from college, I couldn’t even balance a checkbook. Everything else and all the knowledge I needed to do my job today happened post graduation from undergrad. I was wholly unprepared for business when I finished school close to 30 years ago.</p>

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<p>… so, since they say you absolutely cannot change majors - and especially before school starts - is it ever possible to change majors before school starts. Advice on how to go about that? My son got accepted for Econ as his major and he really has no interest in it now. Physics is what he has wanted for a long time. Worth a phone call to head of physics department??</p>

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<p>I am not certain that Cal Poly has suffered terribly in ranking as the result of being a CSU, up until now. Yes, there are prejudices against the CSU (and CP does get some guilt by association effect), but Cal Poly has been lucky enough to be viewed, in most part, in a class of its own niche. </p>

<p>Nor do I entirely agree that Cal Poly suffers from adverse self-selection when it comes to competing for new students (All you have to do is to look at the stats of some of the highly qualified rejected applicants here!), again up until this point in the school’s evolution. </p>

<p>CP’s admission requirements and applicant volume have essentially increased steadily for the past 20+ years without interruption. Moreover, its reputation has also increased commensurably with the increase in requirements and applicant volume. </p>

<p>I remember 20 years ago Cal Poly’s reputation and the perception of its reputation in general, were solidly below that of the mid-tier UCs, and perhaps even below that of the lower tier ones too (UCR, UCSC). So in 2 decades, CP ascended the league table, and achieved parity in general reputation with UCD/UCI/UCSB. Hence, I am not sure if the rankings has really hurt Cal Poly for now. In fact, it might have helped in its ascension.</p>

<p>I do agree that some people readily dismiss Cal Poly as being inferior to any UCs due to its CSU affiliation. But for most part, they are becoming ever more a minority. </p>

<p>However, I think CP’s rise will probably hit a natural ceiling soon, especially with the funding cuts. I can’t imagine CP can substantially push their admission requirements way beyond what the mid-tier UCs are asking for without commensurable improvements in its organization, infrastructure, quality of its education, and its current brand affiliation with the CSU. Perhaps going forward, the problem with the rankings might get magnified.</p>

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<p>@Neerod</p>

<p>Cal Poly physics department is very close knit and tiny, and very good in terms of quality. So you probably will benefit from directly reaching out to them and explain your son’s story. It is not clear whether they can do anything, but it will definitely not hurt if you let them know your son’s strong interest in the department. </p>

<p>I was a physics major in CP and loved it. The professors knew all of us, and was very supportive of our academic pursuits. But the program was INSANELY HARD. It was harder than my other CP major, electrical engineering.</p>

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<p>@Neerod</p>

<p>If your son wanted to go into a Physics program, why did he apply for Econ?</p>

<p>Just curious. And what did he apply for at his other choices?</p>

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<p>The obvious question is would he have gotten into Physics? The reason they won’t let people change is they don’t want people getting into an “easier” major (or one that is easier to get into) then switching. So I think changing at this point is virtually impossible, they have to stick with that policy or it would be chaos and unfair to others. But, can’t hurt to ask. If he can’t do it now, you really need to investigate how likely that change will be once he is in as well.</p>

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<p>That’s the thing though, you shouldn’t rank a research university with a hands-on university.
Different schools, teaching methods, and approach.
They are apples and oranges.</p>