I was waitlisted at SLO this year and I went up to visit and talk to admissions to get more information. They informed me that the earliest they would notify for waitlisted students is May 1.
jumping one step ahead here, and not sure what housing is like at CP, but… if youre admitted off the waitlist, how much of a disadvantage are you for on campus housing? earlier admits will have already submitted their housing applications, i assume, so how are waitlisted students affected? can you still choose from different housing options, or do you just get what’s left, if anything at all?
I don’t believe it will make an difference in housing. Cal Poly has a unique housing policy that isn’t dependent on when you sign up. Your soon to be freshman will be asked to choose a living community and will be placed in the dorm housing that community. Dorms and communities change from year to year and are not publicized before hand. The two exceptions I know of are 1) the Living Well living community is already full and 2) the Honors living community is slated for the Yak.
@sf94121 All incoming freshmen are guaranteed to have housing at cal poly, so no worries about that. The way housing works at cal poly is that students will indicate their top two preferred Residential Learning communities (housing themes like college-based, mindful living, leadership, etc)), then housing will determine which themes will be placed in which buildings and whether students will be placed in their first choice or second choice theme, then students will select their specific rooms in the buildings assigned by housing. Some themes are more popular than others, and housing selection priority is driven by the date a student has paid their housing deposit. Signing up later, such as a waitlist, may result in a student not receiving their top choice theme, or being one of the later students to choose their room. Or in the case of students who are accepted VERY late, housing may choose their rooms for them. The negatives that could arise from having a late room choice might be for students to only have a choice of triple rooms versus doubled, but that would be possibility for students who insist on the most popular themes anyway. Waitlisting will have no impact on which buildings are assigned to which themes,so it won’t druve whether you end up in the old dorms or the new dorms.
Wondering if anyone on the waitlisted has heard from SLO with offer of acceptance ?
It is interesting that we haven’t seen any announcements regarding waitlists being converted to acceptances yet.
Last year, they started in mid-April.
@Gumbymom Wondering if you have heard from SLO what is the situation this year with waitlisted students? Perhaps not a whole lot of student that got the acceptance from SLO turn it down and thus no openings to take in much from the waitlisted lots? Appreciate if you can share any news you may have on this…
@gchiang I’m wondering the same thing except I’m a transfer student who applied for Aerospace Engineering so I know there is basically zero chance of me getting in. I feel like since this year Cal Poly accepted less applicants compared to last year (2018), they might take more from the waitlist???
@gchiang and @rocketrycory: No insider information on when or if they will be pulling from the waitlist. The earliest would probably be tomorrow but I would think they need another week to confirm the SIR’s.
I sent in a LOCI already to the school I got waitlisted at and also visited around a week ago. The school is 3000 miles away from where I live so I thought visiting would help my candidacy. Should I send in an extra report regarding my visit or will it be “annoying them”?
@hssenior191919 There’s no value in sending additional information at this point; the school will not consider it.
unlike the previous years, most of the SLO admitted in my child’s HS (public, instate) this year accepted and will attend SLO. This may explain why they are not rushing to admit off waitlist.
I think the private school tuition is really making some parents and students turn to a public, though severely impacted institution like SLO (many acquitances go there), because even assuming a five year time to grad, it would cost (~$130K) compared to over $200K (assuming 10-20K per year scholarship from private) in four years at a private college.
Good luck!
Great that makes me feel so much better 
Has anyone heard from the waitlist so far?
On the Facebook parents page, a couple of posters said their student was accepted off the waitlist last week, yet when my S called today, he was told that nobody has been informed about waitlist status yet, so who the heck knows what the story is.
Yes, I saw on the Facebook page as well that someone said that a friend got in off the waitlist for engineering.
My D just withdrew from Cal Poly as a Psychology major since she got off the waitlist at UCSB and is going there instead. Good luck to all who are still waiting to hear.
Some of our friends’ kids are getting off the UC waitlist now, but none from SLO.
yes, Davis, Berkeley, Santa Barbara and San Diego all admitted wait lists earlier this week. My S was admitted to Davis on the 6th and we toured the campus on Wednesday, everyone on the tour was in the same situation. I wish SLO would let us know soon because the Davis acceptance has an extirpation date of the 13th. I’ve already paid for one SIR, about to pay for a second and am not going to pay for a third.
That is what I heard too. You have at most 1 week to say Y or N. Not an ideal way to decide on your child’s future in the next 4-5 years.