My youngest, a junior, is starting to tour and investigate colleges. My other kids started college in 2016 and 2019. It’s hard to believe how things have changed. One of his favorites, (Cal Poly SLO) is test blind, does not accept essays and has an median accepted student GPA of 4.08-4.2. Both my oldest were accepted to SLO, but I don’t think they would today.
SLO is one of about 6 colleges on his list with around a 4.0 UW admitted average GPA - 
. WTH?
Current Juniors were in 8th grade during quarantine and most suffered learning loss - and yet admit stats have gotten higher? My ds attends a private school with heavy rigor and A’s are VERY difficult get - borderlining on grade deflation. It makes it hard to compete with some easier schools. For us, SAT/ACT tests leveled the playing field. Is anyone else feeling like this learning loss/ high GPA scenario goes against common sense?
SLO has never accepted essays as part of their admission review but yes, many of the CSU’s and UC’s have gotten even more competitive for the last few years.
Also so many applicants apply to same competitive majors across both college systems, that admit rates for these majors such as CS/Engineering can be less than 10%.
I feel sad that there is so much pressure on some of these HS kids to perform and never get a chance to enjoy their time in being a kid.
Our son attended a very similar school, but some students at his school were earning those grade-deflated A’s under that harsh grading rubric, and it was those students he was competing against/being compared to by the colleges to which he applied, not students under a different rubric who went to a school he did not attend. It is what it is. The important thing is that he was well-educated and well-prepared for the college he chose. I’m sure your son will be equally well-prepared for whichever college he eventually chooses, and that’s what counts.
No test scores, only GPA means that the top student from a terrible school has the same chance as the top student from an extraordinary school. It is a means of achieving diversity, equity. Of course, once there, some of the students may be inadequately prepared, so either standards have to be lowered, or some will drop out.
Colleges know how to evaluate the rigor of the various HS and are able to put grades into context. They have no interest in admitting students who will struggle or, worse, drop out. Also, grades are only one part of an application, test scores or no.
This is 100% wrong. College evaluate a GPA in context. Meaning the context of your specific school as against others in the school at different levels/tracks and as against other schools. If you are in state in California the UC system has A LOT of info about your school and how to put it in context.
That’s a BIG part of the Cal Poly admissions algorithm.
CP has been competitive for some time. The average GPA of admitted students to the CENG in 2014, the year my son started was 4.04, using the UC/CSU capped and weighted GPA for 9-11.
It’s gotten more competitive with the 25th percentile being 4.13 last year.
It’s wildly variable though. Almost everyone gets into Industrial Technology and Packaging, arguably the most underrated major at the school. Industrial Engineering is also not very competitive. Pick CS, AE, ME, BME, etc. and it gets VERY competitive. Plus, they make it hard to change into a major the student might not have been accepted to initially.
They do this in a different way, by giving algorithm points to students from Hayden Partner School (assuming the MCA is largely unchanged).
A school with a lenient grading system isn’t necessarily an ethnically or economically diverse school. I’m thinking of our local HS where the getting all A’s is the norm and is composed of 90% upper middle class white kids. Also, Imagine the stress the parents and kids put on the teachers to obtain GPA perfection. Ugh
Actually, many CSUs have gotten less competitive over the last decades. Only 7 out of 23 are now listed as having campus impaction (though some majors like nursing are commonly impacted). A CSU applicant to a non-impacted major at a non-impacted campus should be admitted by meeting baseline CSU admission requirements.
Of course, the 7 campus-impacted CSUs include the usual suspects like CPSLO, CPP, SDSU, and SJSU.
Indeed, there was a study in NC suggesting that grade inflation was greater in high SES schools than in low SES schools.
My third is a college freshman now but my older two are the same years as yours. And, yeah, it was noticeable how much more competitive the most coveted schools were. Overall across all colleges, enrollment is down but we’re still seeing a flight/fight for what is perceived as top quality where the tippy top gets harder even as many other schools need students are are having to incentivize them to apply. Schools that were relative safety/likelies for the older two became at best matches and borderline reaches for the third, made worse because many of those schools have become addicted to ED and now take the majority of their class that way. So the same school can be likely ED and skip to high reach for RD. The admission stat for my S16’s college literally halved by the time S23 applied (from ~14% to ~7%). The college S23 went to in the end had a 3% RD rate, which is insane. UCLA (seems like you are in CA) is now a single digit admit.
I think this is what colleges are getting at when they say they would prefer to have test scores (many AOs have indicated that in podcasts and such). The way I have interpreted it is that they are not equating tests with ability, but with preparedness. Too many kids have As but big gaps in their knowledge, particularly in Math.
We’re also in California and similarly concerned for our S24 (and S27). There has definitely been more students applying to CA public colleges (UCs and CSUs) since both systems went SAT/ACT test free, driving down admission rates.
I also wonder if the increase in the capped 10th & 11th grade GPA for Fall 2022 (HS Class of 2022) and Fall 2023 admission cycles (HS Class of 2023) reflects artificial inflation of some CA high schools modifying grading policy to pass/fail for 2019-2020 and 2020-21 (AB104) school year. If yes, then the GPA ranges could come back down for UCs’ calculation for Fall 2024 (HS Class of 2024). This would not necessarily be true for Cal Poly SLO Fall 2024 average as they use 9th grade courses which were in the 2020-21 (AB104) school year.
Meanwhile, there are some UCs that consider AP exam scores in their holistic admissions review (per @Gumbymom in other posts), but it doesn’t appear that Cal Poly SLO or CSUs do. Private schools may lean more into AP exam scores for the “external assessment” of the inflated grades per
Assessing college readiness for the pandemic generation.
CA community college route is our kiddos’ true safety.
thanks for sharing - I’ve been so struck by the inflated GPAs and reading this article was validating
Yes! I agree 100%. Many administrators and superintendents caved to lower grading standards after schools were shut down for an entire year. It’s easier than getting kids caught up academically.
The only UC school (imo) that reviews holistically is UC Berkley. My dd graduated from CAL in May and she was told by many in the admission dept that the essays in particular were very important to Berkeley, amongst other holistic variables
All the UC’s use 13 areas of criteria in their application review however each UC campus is free to determine how each criteria area is weighted, so some campuses may weight the PIQ’s more heavily than others. They consider this a Comprehensive/Holistic review since it is not just about the students Stats.
For UC Berkeley they call their Selection process Holistic but they emphasize the following areas from the 13 that all UC’s will consider during the application process:
We review students using a Holistic Review process. This means that we not only look at academic factors, but also non-academic factors. Using a broad concept of merit, readers employ the following criteria which carry no pre-assigned weights:
- The applicant’s full record of achievement in college preparatory work in high school, including the number and rigor of courses taken and grades earned in those courses.
- Personal qualities of the applicant, including leadership ability, character, motivation, insight, tenacity, initiative, originality, intellectual independence, responsibility, maturity, and demonstrated concern for others and for the community are considered.
- Likely contributions to the intellectual and cultural vitality of the campus. In addition to a broad range of intellectual interests and achievements, admission readers seek diversity in personal background and experience.
- Achievement in academic enrichment programs, including but not limited to those sponsored by the University of California. This criterion is measured by time and depth of participation, by the academic progress made by the applicant during that participation, and by the intellectual rigor of the particular program.
- Other evidence of achievement. This criterion recognizes exemplary, sustained achievement in any field of intellectual or creative endeavor; accomplishments in extracurricular activities such as the performing arts or athletics; leadership in school or community organizations; employment; and volunteer service.
- Race, ethnicity, gender, and religion are excluded from the criteria.
All achievements, both academic and nonacademic, are considered in the context of the opportunities an applicant has had, and the reader’s assessment is based on how fully the applicant has taken advantage of those opportunities. For an applicant who has faced any hardships or unusual circumstances, readers consider the maturity, determination and insight with which the applicant has responded to and/or overcome them. Readers also consider other contextual factors that bear directly upon the applicant’s achievement, including linguistic background, parental education level, and other indicators of support available in the home.
The review recognizes a wide range of talent and creativity that is not necessarily reflected in traditional measures of academic achievement but which, in the judgment of the reader, is a positive indicator of the student’s ability to succeed at Berkeley and beyond.
Here is UC Davis’s Freshman selection which does not go into as much detail as UCB’s selection criteria.
How your application is reviewed
During the selection process, UC Davis conducts a comprehensive review of every freshman application to ensure each applicant is assessed thoroughly and fairly.
We evaluate every application using 13 criteria that all UC campuses adhere to. We consider a broad range of factors, from traditional academics to extracurricular achievement and response to life challenges, but we’re looking beyond the numbers to find out who you really are!
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