WORRIED about admission chances for Computer Science OOS!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
1

I just discovered this wonderful website about a week ago, and I wished I had it three months ago. It would have considerably helped me with everything, but because I did not, I struggled through the application process and in the end, I managed to finish but I left out my middle school classes which includes Algebra I, Geometry, and Spanish I. Here is the breakdown of my MCA, please comment any thoughts on my chances because after browsing through the threads my confidence level definitely dropped from what I thought to be a guarantee admission to possibly a low one now.

Major: Computer Science

CalPoly GPA: 4.2 (maxed)

Act Score: 32 composite (Converted to 1450 SAT for MCA calculation)

Classes (Gathered from A-G Matching)
HISTORY/SOCIAL SCIENCE: 4 Yrs
ENGLISH: 4 Yrs
MATHEMATICS: 4 Yrs (omitted Algebra I and Geometry and counting AP Statistics)
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE: 2 Yrs
PHYSICAL SCIENCE: 2 Yrs
LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH: 3 Yrs (omitted Spanish I)
VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS: 1 Yr
COLLEGE-PREPARATORY ELECTIVE: 1 Yr

EC:
16-20 Hours of work 11-15 hrs of Recent Activities
Work is not major-related
No leadership role

OTHER:
Both parents did not graduate High School

My MCA Calculations:
4915.3125 (IF STATS COUNTS)
4665.3125 (IF STATS DOES NOT COUNT)

I’ve heard so many mixtures of things, that AP Statistics does or does not count and middle school classes would not be considered in this year’s admissions or something like that. I called them about middle school classes and the counselor I spoke to said that I would compete with other applicants with what I listed on my application, which I inferred meant that they still are considering middle school classes and whether or not they are listed. Can anyone alleviate my worries?

2

Middle school grades wont be considered this year according to the admissions faculty I spoke on the phone with. another user on this forum reported the same thing.

3

The max your rigor score can be is 750 and with your stats you’re around a 4676 MCA score, which is still pretty competitive.

I used this calculator for reference: https://repl.it/@jacksonpark/KnottyStrikingGerbil

4

You look like a competitive applicant but with around a 7% acceptance rate for CS, it will be a tough admit. Also SLO is overenrolled this year, so they may decrease the # of Freshman they will be admitting. Best of luck.

5

Also consider that OOS students pay full fees. There is no financial aid for nonresident students.

6

@“aunt bea” This is not necessarily true. Cal Poly provides merit and financial based scholarships for out of state students.

7

@diosmioleo: I think that all OOS applicants to the Cal States and UC’s should expect to pay close to full fees and yes there is some merit and FA available but OOS applicants should not expect that the FA available would bring the costs of these schools down to in-state levels. Most of the FA I have seen for SLO was around $1-2 K/year.

SLO is still a bargain as a Full pay OOS student vs. the UC’s. There are exceptions to any rule.

8

@diosmioleo, I agree with @Gumbymom that most of the “funding” runs in the range of about $1-2K. It’s a tease. The student’s family then pays the rest. Most of the large money packages come from the CalGrant program. He/she is not eligible for that.
This student is majoring in Computer Science, an impacted major. Why would SLO give full funding to an OOS in the most crowded, competitive major in California?

I still communicate with a lot of my former students. They are pretty informative about their campuses. Some of them have had to “cover” OOS roommates who can’t make their monthly bills because their OOS bills take a huge chunk of their funds. They say the kids are envious of the instate kids who don’t have to fork out such huge amounts.

9

I want to thank everyone for their responses so far, and to be honest, the fact that I will receive no financial aid is a huge deterrent. I do come from a low-income family, but based on your responses, looks like I still won’t receive financial aid, which I am pretty bummed out about. Despite this though I still hope to get accepted, and maybe I won’t mind taking out loans as CalPoly is one of my top choices in terms of education and location.

Also, @diosmioleo are you sure you calculated my MCA correctly? I came up with a different calculation but I might have done something wrong. I went to the website you linked and it was kind of buggy for me

10

@xVicez Sorry, didn’t see that info about your parents. Yeah it’s run off of an online Python compiler so it’s kind of weird. I think you’ve got a great chance, even w/o stats your MCA is near the 5000+ range. If I were you I’d just try to keep my mind off of your chances of getting into a school because no one on here really knows for sure your chances unless they’re in admissions.

I don’t really have much advice for your financial situation other than that no matter where you go you’re still going to college and majoring in something exciting and impactful. Based off of what I’ve seen in my family and other experiences it’s more how much you put into it than anything else – a name of a school can only carry so much weight.

My brother went to the University of Iowa for computer science, why? It was in-state and cheap and he’d have no student loans. He was involved on campus, did well in classes, got good internships, and now he’s working at Google and just received his master’s from GA Tech.

Sorry I digressed there and probably told you something you already knew, but anyway, best of luck, no matter where you go you’re gonna be doing great!

11

@xVicez: Unless you have a complicated financial situation, run the Net Price Calculator for SLO and you should have a good estimate of your costs. Remember that you also need to include travel costs since Freshman are not allowed to bring cars, so flights/train etc… needs to be considered at least for the first year.

https://financialaid.calpoly.edu/calculator/npcalc.htm

12

I ran the net price calculator as a fictional OOS student, just for kicks. The estimated price for dorms is probably lower than the reality for next year. It’s POSSIBLE that a student will pay only $12K for room and board, but with the new dorms opening, I’m guessing that the prices will be higher. $12K this school year was a for a triple in one of the dorm-style buildings. There will be very few triples next year. A typical double with the mandatory meal plan ($5K) was about $13.5 this year. It will probably be about the same, according to the website.
http://www.housing.calpoly.edu/student-housing/freshman-housing/freshman-student-housing-fees

Additionally, very few incoming freshmen will be bumped out to the apartments because of the new dorms. The plan, according to the housing website, is for the apartments to be mostly upper classmen and single rooms in 2018-2019. That means a price tag of nearly $14K per year ($9700 plus $4000). The shared bedrooms will only be about $500 a year less. Not much difference.
http://www.housing.calpoly.edu/student-housing/continuing-housing/continuing-student-housing-fees

Again, there are lower rates, but these will be the typical rates. There simply won’t be as many triples next year, nor shared rooms in the apartments. Some people will get a break on housing based on need, but it will probably go to in-state students first, I would guess. In any case, you can’t count on it.

13

@xVicez , I honestly think you’ll get better financial aid at more prestigious private colleges with big endowment. These elite colleges look for students like you – good stats, low income, first gen, URM, etc. – and they have money to give free ride. Public schools usually are not that generous. They offer a good price for in-state middle class students, but no big scholarships, especially for OOS students.

14

@bogeyorpar is making some good points. One of the reasons Cal Poly is so popular (besides location, weather, and academics) is because it is such a great value for in-state students. All of the UC’s and CSU’s are a good value for in-state students, but Cal Poly is at the very top in bang for your buck. It’s a generalization, but it is pretty much a UC at CSU prices for undergrads. That makes the competition to get in pretty serious. I teach at a public high school with a significant number of students from low-income families. We also happen to have an engineering academy on our campus. We have as many as 100 kids apply each year to CP with maybe 15 getting in. My son’s high school across town had at least that many apply with only six being accepted (no engineering academy). It’s a tough admit for any demographic from any location. Just too popular.

Good luck, @xVicez. I’m not trying to sound like a downer. Obviously, THOUSANDS of students are admitted each year and 93% of them return for a second year. If you make it there, I hope you truly love it.

15

If you are a California resident, then the state-subsidized tuition at the UCs or Cal Poly provides value that’s tough to beat. Most of the private schools have a hard time competing for California residents for that reason.

But for non-Californians, the situation is completely different. In that case, the state schools will cap non-resident enrollment, jack up the out-of-state tuition, and offer nothing for financial aid. Doesn’t seem very welcoming. The private schools, on the other hand, won’t discriminate against out-of-staters in admissions, won’t charge them higher tuition, and are happy to offer them financial aid. So which is the better value now?

Compare, for example, Cal Poly SLO to Santa Clara for a prospective out-of-state CS or engineering major:

Math SAT range in engineering college, CP: 630 - 730
Math SAT range in engineering college, SCU: 690 - 770 (from asee.org profiles)

Acceptance rate for engineering college, CP: 27.6%
Acceptance rate for engineering college, SCU: 54.9% (from asee.org profiles)

Estimated cost of attendance, out-of-staters, no aid, CP: $39,105 (from CP website)
Estimated cost of attendance, family income of 48K-75K, SCU: $21,945 (from College Navigator)

% of out-of-staters, CP: 17%
% of out-of-staters, SCU: 44% (from College Navigator)

4-year graduation rate, CP: 47%
4-year graduation rate, SCU: 82% (from College Navigator)

Travel time to nearest Fry’s Electronics, CP to Oxnard: 2 hours, 25 minutes (from Google Maps)
Travel time to nearest Fry’s Electronics, SCU to Silicon Valley: 6 minutes (Campbell), or 9 minutes (San Jose), or 13 minutes (Sunnyvale)

I think there is a reasonable case here that private SCU is a competitive (if not superior) option for non-Californians. The same case could be made vs. most UCs as well.

16

Well done, @Corbett. When you factor in that hardly any California publics participate in the WUE, it truly makes me wonder why anyone but rich kids would apply to our public universities. I guess Berkeley and UCLA are in a special class, but beyond that, there is almost always a comparable private school that makes more financial sense.

17

And I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Consider also:

2018 USN&WR Ranking, Regional Universities (West), CP: #11
2018 USN&WR Ranking, Regional Universities (West), SCU: #2

Now, US News doesn’t consider financial factors in its rankings. Most California residents would cheerfully pick Cal Poly over SCU, no matter what USN&WR says, given the terrific deal on CP tuition.

But for non-Californians, SCU is higher ranked – and probably costs less.