<p>Cal Poly accepts students almost entirely on GPA and Test scores, although GPA can be boosted by a difficult class load, but I believe they top it out at 4.3 not very high. Only other items are a slight bonus for activities in their major and work in their major, but I was told it had a slight effect. Whether you visit or not, seemed overqualified or not, or any other things the UC’s, privates, and ivy’s look at make no difference. My son was admitted early decision and applied only there, UCSB (named Regent), Berkeley and UCLA. One other thing the admission’s director repeatedly stated was that many many make mistakes on their applications. It might not seem difficult, but to be absolutely sure we did it right we called numerous times and discovered he needed to include classes he took as a 7th grader (Algebra, Geometry and French), and including his CC courses was complicated too. I suggest you call and see if by any chance there was a mistake and maybe since waitlisted you can get it corrected. Also at Cal Poly last year they had 3% or 4% more students attend than they expected so this year’s class will be smaller making it even harder to get in. Do not know stats from other California schools.</p>