@eyemgh - Yes, it’s true but realistically those high-stat students would prefer to go to other OOS top universities than to go to other in-state universities. How many of those would go to UCM, for example? I don’t mean to disrespect anyone applying to UCM but it’s the reality.
@Coopy1 My portal was updated on Tuesday
@Tabitha18, lots of students would like to go to Berkeley and UCLA too, but they only have so much space and so many resources to educate a finite number of students. That’s why we have the other UCs and the CSUs.
All of what you say is true. And in years past kids from my son’s high school who were rejected from SLO were accepted to: Stanford (ED), Harvey Mudd, and MIT. Others have similar stories.
Every admissions system has its drawbacks. The holistic schools can abuse their system to enable the social engineering fashion of the week and circumvent state law banning race base admissions. A tremendous amount of power is given to individual admissions officers that have often have their own biases and political agendas. However, if done right the holistic review captures kids with amazing ECs or academic achievements (Intel Science Fair winners, etc) that Cal Poly misses.
High quality accomplishments are difficult to demonstrate on a generic fill in the blank CSU application. For instance being the captain of the state championship football team is given the same MCA points as being the president of the “do nothing club”. And most disturbingly (as your point out) having a lot of extra AP classes effectively dilutes your max GPA at Cal Poly and thus your MCA score.
My son’s best friend was a casualty of the MCA system. Initially he was really bummed with his CP rejection, but he is thriving now at Berkeley. I am sure the folks this year that ultimately are rejected from Cal Poly will do very well where ever they end up.
@choroidal - Agreed with all you said. Personally I prefer SLO’s system because it really places emphasis on grades and test scores. I only wish that they had an additional space where applicants can describe their ECs so that the AdCom can truly distinguish between what you said “captain of the state championship football team” and "the president of the “do nothing club”.
If you received the waitlist in the first wave does that mean you’re higher on the list? Is there any order to it all?
Accepted into Biomedical Engineering during the first round. Good luck everyone!
@norcalgirl22 I called the office of admissions and they said they don’t really have a list but a pool but if a spot opens up in your major they go back and review the entire pool again
That is a good question that you will probably never receive a definitive answer on @norcalgirl22 . I wondered the same thing.
I remember reading in a book (title was “admission secret that colleges don’t want you to know” or something like that.) In most colleges, waitlist is not ranked. It’s just a random pile. When a student send in some update about him/herself, AO pull his/her file out and write a note on it and put it back on top of the pile. So you see, if you send them periodically updates, you file will be kept on top; the students that never send updates sink to the bottom. When a spot opens up, they pull the file from the top to admit. Makes logical sense to me.
@bogeyorpar what do you even mean updates?
@bogeyorpar, that might make sense at a holistic school, but I doubt it will make any difference in a system that uses an algorithm to rank applicants.
@bogeyorpar how would you even send a periodical update to cal poly?
Honestly, after looking at this thread I am a bit disheartened. I did not know that Cal Poly was one of those schools that just looks at numbers, not the value of an individual, what they have been through, and maybe reasons why they couldn’t perform the way that other kids could. I don’t even know if I would attend a school that doesn’t value me as an individual and simply sees me as a number.
Good luck to everyone, anyways. I hope that the UC’s are a lot more holistic than CSU’s seem to be.
Most CSU’s look ONLY at numbers @polololo . ACT/SAT and GPA. Cal Poly does put value on an individual which is why they do factor in EC’s, job experience etc. The learn by doing and smaller class size available at CP is real.
Found the actual book:
What Colleges Don’t Tell You (And Other Parents Don’t Want You to Know): 272 Secrets for Getting Your Kid into the Top Schools
Disclaimer: She’s not paying me for advertising 
I wish I had read the book in kid’s freshman or sophomore years, so I would have known the “research” and stuff.
@03miata Updates are just that. It’s a way to let the admissions office know what you have accomplished since you have submitted your app. An example would be: “Hey Harvard, since I submitted my app last fall I was published as a first author in Nature- just thought you might want to know”. But, the point is moot here as I do not think Cal Poly would even accept an update.
Anyone else get into agricultural and plant sciences?
Here’s what I would say since this is my second time. Don’t sweat it. My older daughter got into Chapman and spent her first year there. She wasn’t exactly happy, and they declined her request to study Public Relations. We pulled her out and she spent her sophomore year at Irvine Valley College, living in a house in Orange with her Chapman friends. She applied and was accepted at Cal State Fullerton Communications. She’s nearing the end of her junior year, living with us at home, which we’re all enjoying immensely, and also finishing a fantastic paid internship. So I’d say sometimes the ideal fantasy college experience doesn’t happen. The amazing thing was she managed to get all her credits accepted and will graduate on time!! Oh and my second daughter was accepted at SLO in Anthropology and Geography. Good luck!
There are some other nuances that can impact the MCA score. For example. for work experience, per the Cal Poly Application Tips: “Work experience can be paid or not. Internships or volunteer programs are absolutely applicable to this section”. I’m under the impression that most only report paid positions while others may include their volunteer positions.
On a tour, we were told that the computer makes the decision. I don’t know how true that statement is. However, I live near a UC and each year, the university recruits a small army of application readers for seasonal, temporary work. They hire and train these individuals to work from home and read/score applications. I’m doubtful CP SLO has the staff to review the applications in any meaningful way.