Tips from Alumni for those who want in to Cal Poly

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
21

<p>Also I would like to add:</p>

<p>It’s like comparing a doctor vs a lawyer
A mechanical engineer vs electrical engineer
So on, so forth. So, which one is better? The answer would be neither. By comparing a UC (Research University) with CSU (Hands-on University) is exactly what that is like. What I’m trying to say here is that one is NOT better than the other, they are different. </p>

<p>And that is also why I take ranking with a grain of salt. Yes, the average GPA and SAT scores for admissions is important for the overall statistics of the school, but anyone can sit in front of a book and memorize the answers and earn a high grade–but no one can feign passion. Passion is what makes people stand out during job interviews (or their overall pursuit of success) out of all the other applicants who also have high GPA. Passion is what created Google; Steve Jobs for Apple, Mark for Facebook, Gates for Microsoft, and ad infinitum. Also, because ranks tend to be subjective, opinionated, biased, and widely varied by each individual company that ranks college; it causes negative consequences to the school and students.</p>

<p>I believe that ranking can stereotype schools to a certain extent and cause a negative consequences to those who went to a ‘lower’ ranked school by judging them base on their school rather than their capability. A student who went to Cal State LA will be looked ‘down’ upon when they shouldn’t be just because of the school they went to, but rather on their character, ambition, and drive. Everyone is different. Steven Spielberg went to Cal State Long Beach, Tom Hanks went to Sacramento State University, and etc.</p>

<p>That’s why, instead of solely focusing on the reputation of the school–regardless if you went to Cal Poly SLO, UC Berkeley, CSUF, Cal State LA, and etc–people should focus on the character of the person. Their drive, passion, and character–rather than ‘the school’.</p>

22

<p>@TheITcrowd, OsakaDad, & lawlking - Thank you for your posts. They were very insightful and I enjoyed reading them. Maybe one of you can hire me after I get my B.S. in Econ from CP. :)</p>

<p>@Neerod - UCSB has a world-class Physics department. Did your son also apply there? I just got accepted into Cal Poly for Econ. I would like to study Energy economics or simply the economics of Natural Resources. (Assuming that there are any natural resources that are left once the ***ushima catastrophe is all said & done!) Anyway, if your son resigns himself to attending Cal Poly for Econ, I’d be happy to try to share some of my passion for economics with him! (you can tell your son that I love Brian Greene!..if he’s into physics, he’ll know who that is!)</p>

23

<p>I did not attend Cal Poly, but I have had all 4 of my kids accepted to Cal Poly, so I thought I might add my two cents to this discussion about getting into Cal Poly. Here’s my advice.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Learn all you can about Cal Poly’s MCA policy and throughout high school work to maximize your MCA points. Aside from getting high GPA and SAT/ACT score, this would include getting as many bonus points as you can for “rigor” or “strength of schedule”. Keep in mind that extra classes in Advanced Math give you far more bonus points than extra History or Performing Arts or Foreign Language classes. Extra Science (and English?) classes are the next most heavily rewarded. Most students don’t get the recommended 5th year of English, so you can gain an advantage if you do. An easy way to get those bonus points (if you are good at English) is to take and pass the AP English Lang or AP English Lit exam when you did not take the corresponding class. Passing the test will count as a year of English if you did not also take the corresponding AP class. </p></li>
<li><p>Keep in mind that 1 semester (or summer session) of a Community College class counts the same as 2 semesters of an honors or AP class, so you can rack up “rigor” points quickly by taking CC classes. These can also have a double benefit as they can count for Cal Poly classes and reduce your course load once you get in! Use assist.org to know what courses transfer to CP and what their equivalencies are.</p></li>
<li><p>Read College Confidential threads regarding admission decisions to learn the stats of those being accepted/waitlisted/rejected in the different majors. Then pick you major wisely. Decide which matters to you more: getting into Cal Poly, or getting into you first choice of major from the beginning. (Remember that change of major is never guaranteed.) Cal Poly only considers you for ONE major (they do not consider 2nd choice major even though you put it on the CSU mentor application), and you only compete against others applying to the same major. The competition for some of the most competitive majors is on par with ivies, while the competition for other majors, is not so stiff (Ex. Biomedical Engineering vs. Fruit Science).</p></li>
<li><p>Apply Early Decision if you know you want in to Cal Poly. During ED you are only competing against others for whom CP is their top choice. Many super high stats kids want to go to UC’s or private schools and won’t be in Cal Poly’s ED applicant pool, but may be in the RD applicant pool increasing the level of competition at RD. Another advantage of applying ED is that if you get deferred to RD, you have the opportunity to modify you preferred major on your application (try again with a different major) before regular admissions decisions are made.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>All this is to say, learn the rules, and play by those rules to win. This is true for any university admissions process. Good luck!</p>

24

<p>Most informative! Thank you all for taking the time to post this information.</p>

25

<p>Whenever people get sucked I to the research vs. practical debate, they somehow decide that CP SLO graduates don’t go to grad school at research institutions. In fact, some do, and they are highly regarded.</p>

<p>The issue is what type of institution offers the best UNDERGRADUATE experience. Unfortunately, many of the big names marshall most of their resources towards GRADUATE research, short changing the undergrads in both teaching and access to hands on experiences.</p>

<p>My son is interested in ME. My father, an MIT grad, my uncle, a Stanford grad, and two family friends, both former Cal Tech faculty members all recommended against their respective institutions for undergraduate study.</p>

26

<p>Cal Poly involves faculty in helping develop the admission criteria but they aren’t involved in actually selecting the cohort. Each applicant is screened and scored on the same criteria and admission offers are then based on predicted available space. As a public University, Cal Poly takes pride that each and every candidate is treated the same.</p>

<p>The process is transparent so getting to know “someone” plays absolutely no role in selection.</p>

27

<p>The faculty help develop the criteria used to screen and score applicants but they don’t play any roll in selecting the cohort. Applicants are actually screened and scored on the same criteria and they compete for admission which is based on predicted space. Cal Poly prides itself on treating all applicants the same. It’s not who you know but rather what you have accomplished that best helps you gain admission.</p>

28

<p>I applied today as a transfer.
Cal Poly is my number one choice!
It has everything I want in and outside the classroom…I will be soooooooo sad if I get rejected :frowning:
Hoping for the best :relieved:</p>

29

<p>TheITCrowd: my brother is also a Cal Poly grad-accepted in 1983. A few years ago he was honored as a distinguished alumni. At the event, many of the honorees noted that they wouldn’t be accepted today!</p>

<p>ralph4: I appreciate the information about applications. My 11th grader wants to apply to Cal Poly next year ( ED) I don’t see him getting in, but we can try. I worry he’s already at a disadvantage though-he attends a Catholic School, so of his 28 classes over 4 years, 4 are religion. </p>

<p>At this point he has 3 years of social studies, math, English and Spanish. He has his 1 year of PE and fine arts and is taking computer programming</p>

<p>Next year he will have to take English, math, social studies and religion. He can take 2-3 other classes. Any suggestions for those? </p>

<p>I know his odds are very slim, at best. But I’m his mom, I have to help him try, right? (Probably doesn’t help his sister was accepted RD and turned down Poly)</p>

30

<p>Kangamom as long as he’s got all the a-g requirements, he’ll be eligible for Cal Poly (and any CSU/UC). What major will he be applying for? If engineering, he really needs to be at the level of math so that he’ll be taking Calc BC next year. What science courses has he taken so far? Is he on track to take Physics C as a senior? Is his computer science course an AP course? The overall rigor of his high school coursework is important.</p>

<p>I wish him well when he applies next year!</p>

31

<p>Hi vball mom, thanks for your comments. He will have all of the a-g requirements, obviously. He attends a fairly academic and competitive college prep private school. (46 commended students in the National merit competition and 23 finalists. This year 67 commended students and 31 semi-finalists.) They make sure the kids have the requirements. </p>

<p>Son’s computer programming class is a prep class for taking AP computer programming next year. He is also now saying he will take Spanish 4, if it will help him get into Cal Poly. He currently has a Skype Spanish tutor three hours a week, which I am hoping will get him solid for Spanish 4.</p>

<p>I actually don’t know about what he can do next year for math or science. He’s done just the basics: bio, chem and physics this year, plus Geo, Alg 2/Trig and PreCalc this year. My daughter did AP Stats and AP Environmental Science. I’m guessing those won’t do the trick and he needs something different.</p>

<p>He’s also willing to try and self study for the AP Language Test, to give himself that 9th and 10th semester of English. His sister took the AP Language test, without taking the class and with absolutely no prep whatsoever and scored a 4, so I am hoping he might be able to study with a tutor and score a 3!</p>

<p>That gives him Religion, English, Math, Science, CompProg, Spanish and Econ (one semester) and Gov (one semester). Econ and Gov are required for graduation.</p>

<p>So, best case scenario, he would be short the recommended 4 semesters of Fine Arts (will only have 2 semesters), but on target for everything else. My question would be, how many kids really have ALL of the Cal Poly desired coursework? If you have their desired coursework, is that considered rigorous?</p>

<p>I am assuming his Cal Poly GPA would not include his religion classes or PE? (Even though some of his religion classes are UC approved electives!)</p>

<p>Son would like something in the area of engineering or computer programming. </p>

<p>I’ll be honest, I had NO clue about these requirements when my daughter applied and I had no concept of her being accepted. But, what probably worked to her advantage, even though she didn’t have a ton of AP/Honors classes (I think she had 8 1/2), was her overall rigor (she had 12 semesters of English!) and her ACT score of 30.</p>

<p>This thread has been extraordinarily helpful to me so far.</p>

32

<p>Kangamom this might help. My son is a Cal Poly Sophomore and used this advice from his counselor to take the right courses to improve his chances at Cal Poly. Cal Poly admissions gives extra points for course work beyond the required a through g list. The most points is for advanced math taking 4 semesters of Advanced Math beyond Algebra II classes gets your student 500 extra points on the admissions score. My student took Pre Calc, Calculus to qualify for this (AP STATS should also qualify). The next highest bonus points awarded are 200 for 8 semesters of Lab Science my student took Biology, Chemistry, Physics and AP Environmental Science to qualify. The next level is 100 bonus points for 10 semesters of English and 8 semesters of Foreign language. My son had the English but not the foreign language bonuses. </p>

<p>Best of luck to your student, it is a wonderful school and my son could not be happier there.</p>

33

<p>I agree with Dadfan. Maximize the bonus points for strength of schedule, or rigor. As of 2010-11, these were the bonus points available from high school curriculum.</p>

<p>---------------------------------- Bonus per — Total Possible</p>

<h2>Courses - Req. - Desired ------ Semester ---- Bonus Points</h2>

<p>English — 8 -------10 ----------- 50 ----------- 100
For Lang - 4 -------- 8 ----------- 25 ----------- 100
Lab Sci — 4 -------- 8 ----------- 50 ----------- 200
V&P Arts - 2 -------- 4 ----------- 25 ------------ 50
Adv Math- 0 -------- 4 -----------125 ----------- 500</p>

<p>No bonus points are awarded for extra Social Science or History classes.</p>

<p>We were strategic in high school in choosing classes. My son got all the bonus points available above except the 100 points for extra foreign language. He took 4 years of symphonic band and 2 years of jazz band, so he got 50 bonus points for V & P Arts, but no bonus points for all the other additional band classes. But he loved music, and did not love Spanish, and sometimes you have to go with what makes you happy. </p>

<p>He was accepted ED for Fall 2013 with a 3.5 CP GPA and SAT (CR+M) of 1410 into Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering.</p>

<p>Good luck to your son, Kangamom. You (like me) are doing your homework on college admissions. Hopefully it will pay off!</p>

34

<p>I’m curious where the bonus points are published - can you provide a link?</p>

<p>In the meantime, here’s from the CP website:</p>

<p>[Freshman</a> Selection Criteria - Admissions - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo](<a href=“Cal Poly Admissions”>Cal Poly Admissions)</p>

35

<p>Here’s a link to the document listing bonus points -</p>

<p><a href=“http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=statsp[/url]”>http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=statsp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

36

<p>

That indeed is the issue… Research Universities are funded for, and organized around, the production of original peer reviewed research. The Professors primarily manage graduate students in the production of that original research under the Professor’s name. Any desire of the Professors to engage undergraduates in dialogue or mentoring is completely outside of their mission, and any time spent doing so is really at the expense of what the Professor is really hired to do. The interaction between research Professors and undergraduates is limited to those top 10% or 15% of undergraduates who are of some actual utility to the Professor in advancing his/her research mandates. In other words, the student is there to serve the Professor, and not vice versa. </p>

<p>Liberal Arts colleges, on the other hand, exist to connect Professors and undergraduates in a meaningful way. That’s why the Professors interviewed there, why they were hired, and that’s their primary mission while teaching there. Cal Poly is more like a LIberal Arts college in its promotion of the interaction between Professor and undergraduate student than it is like a UC or other Resarch Universities. By design. And that interaction between Professor and undergraduate does not impair that undergraduate’s application to graduate programs at all. In fact, it enhances it.</p>

37

<p>Thanks to vballmom, ralph4, Dadfan and MLM for your information.</p>

<p>Can I ask a couple more questions?</p>

<p>Can you get credit beyond what is “desired”? For example, if he has 4 years of English, plus takes the AP Lang test (and passes) and has 2 semester of English electives, can he get 200 points instead of 100?</p>

<p>If you take three years of a foreign language instead of 4, do you end up with 50 points instead of 100? </p>

<p>How else are points earned? How is a GPA converted into points? Same with SAT/ACT…is there a conversion process?</p>

<p>Since my son is a junior, we aren’t on the Cal State Portal. What are the questions regarding the work experience and extra curricular activities? I’ll be honest, my son has very little work experience. But, he does play one sport (track and field), is a Boy Scout who is finishing Eagle (will have finished probably next Feb/Mar), and has done Robotics for 3 years. Does any of that actually help at all, points wise?</p>

<p>Also, since everything is impacted, how do you know which majors within departments are harder or easier to get into?</p>

<p>Thanks!!</p>

38

<p>“Can you get credit beyond what is “desired”? For example, if he has 4 years of English, plus takes the AP Lang test (and passes) and has 2 semester of English electives, can he get 200 points instead of 100?”</p>

<p>No, I don’t believe you can exceed the Maximum Bonus Points for any subject.</p>

<p>“If you take three years of a foreign language instead of 4, do you end up with 50 points instead of 100?” </p>

<p>Yes, for extra foreign language classes you get 25 bonus points per semester.</p>

<p>I think Cal Poly GPA (grades 9-11, A-G courses only, and up to 8 weighted semester grades) accounts for around 40-45% of total MCA points, and SAT/ACT accounts for 30-35% of total MCA points. You might be able to get more specific info from the link posted by MLM above. </p>

<p>Extra curricular and work activities account for only up to 10% of total MCA points, and there are only 4 multiple choice questions about that. They are something like this:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>How many hours per week do you spend in extracurricular activities?
a. 0-5 b. 6-10 c. 11-15 d. 16-20 e. 21 or more</p></li>
<li><p>Have you held a leadership position in any extracurricular activity?
a. yes b. no</p></li>
<li><p>How many hours per week do you spend in a job?
a. 0-5 b. 6-10 c. 11-15 d. 16-20 e. 21 or more</p></li>
<li><p>Is your work related to the major to which you are applying?
a. yes b. no</p></li>
</ol>

<p>“Also, since everything is impacted, how do you know which majors within departments are harder or easier to get into?”</p>

<p>You read the admission decision threads on College Confidential. :slight_smile: And the Factbook published by CP every year can give you info about department sizes, graduation rates, etc.</p>

<p>Suggestion: Start a CPU Mentor application now for 2014 so you/he can get familiar with exactly what is required on the application. Just don’t submit it. He can start a new one next year when he is ready to apply. </p>

<p>Good luck. The more you know about the admissions process, the better. I did all this research for my kids and all 4 of them got accepted. :slight_smile: Counselors at our high school have way to many kids to assist, and they did not have as much info as I found by doing my own research. Of course my kids had to earn all their own grades and SAT scores, etc. I just helped guide them in course selection since we were targeting Cal Poly.</p>

39

<p>A question about some mechanics: My D has submitted her application (ED) to Cal Poly SLO this weekend. She’s also requested that ACT and SAT scores be sent so I think we’ve done that correctly so far. My question is this: @TheITCrowd recommends sending in additional information and test scores right away. The CP admissions page says to submit additional test scores and transcripts when requested. ([Submitting</a> Your Documents - Admissions - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo](<a href=“Cal Poly Admissions”>Cal Poly Admissions)).</p>

<p>Should we go ahead and request that her transcripts and AP scores be sent now, or should we wait until CP SLO admissions requests them? I was going to email the admission office tomorrow, but am also wondering what the experts here recommend. </p>

<p>I appreciate so much the helpful information on this thread. Thank you!</p>

40

<p>Not definitive, but our high school college advisor (California) says not to send transcripts to CSU or UC until they ask for them; which is presumably when you are accepting an offer of admission. My daughter applied to SLO (not ED), and we have not sent transcripts. I don’t believe they care about AP tests until you are using the credits either.</p>

<p>What is @TheITCrowd?</p>