I don’t know if it’s actually that high for any major of course, but the rule of thumb prob does apply in most cases. It’s vastly harder to get accepted for something like Psychology at Cal Poly than it is for, say, something like Anthropology. I was relatively sure (and correct) that my D23 would get into Cal Poly last year because Anthro just isn’t as competitive (which isn’t why she applied to that major — it’s what she applied to everywhere based on her interest). That said, it’s hard to change majors at Cal Poly. You need to have been qualified to be admitted to that major in the first place based on your initial application, so it doesn’t make sense to try to game the system in any way.
I’d have to go back and look but yes when I did some calculations at least one was that high with others not far behind which doesn’t make sense for SLO. I don’t know about gaming the system personally as my son is in the major at SLO he wants to be in but he does have friends who have had their major change approved.
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Decision: Accepted
Major: Music
SLO GPA: 4.10 (weighted capped)
UC approved Honors/AP courses: 7 Honors + 4 APs including senior year
EC hours and with leadership or job related: Lots of hours including volunteering at recording studio serving justice-impacted youth and teaching music production to young kids and founding music production club at his high school
In-State/OOS/International: In-state (Bay Area)
Number of years for the following courses: English 4.5
Math 5
Science 3
Foreign Language 3
Social Science/History 2.5
Visual/Performing Arts 6
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@collegegirly2024 yes my DD was accepted for animal science too!
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These are not acceptance numbers, these are target enrolled numbers. They admit more students than spots available since not all admitted students will attend. The issue is that SLO does not post how many students are admitted for each major.
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Ahh… Got it.
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My daughter is an OOS Biology major who has not heard yet. She has pretty high stats in terms of IB and dual credit in math and science classes, also IB and Dual Credit social science and fine art. Her grades are strong… mostly A’s. A weakness is only two years of a foreign language and having a job in high school that was not biology related. She is starting to move on from SLO since it does not look like it is going to come together for her. We are sad but happy we have a few other good 2nd place options.
OMG, I have been looking at these charts and tables in a number of posts, and I think the light bulb just went on. 
To confirm, using the table five posts above. As an example, in 2023 Aerospace projected 2095 Freshman applications for a targeted enrollment of 85 students. Assuming a 25% historical/calculated acceptance rate (% simply made the math easier), they would admit 340 students.
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Yes, correct if the yield is actually 25%. Since SLO only lists yield by college, then it is a guesstimate.
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Sure but for example using the 3X theory Mechanical Engineering has a 72% acceptance rate.
About 19%
230*3/3638
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duplicate
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yes and acceptance rate would be 17%
What is acceptance rate for software engineering ?
Can you explain the numbers and the categories indicated.
Our OOS D24 is deciding between two schools, and we have a few questions for this group. The two schools are CP and Ohio State. I will provide her stats, state our questions, and give some background information.
Decision: Accepted
Major: Biochemistry
SLO GPA: 4.3 GPA; 6 APs (our high school has limited APs) and 8 honors courses. APs completed include biology, chemistry and calculus.
EC hours and with leadership or job related: Strong ECs and leadership positions.
In-State/OOS/International: OOS
Number of years for the following courses: English (8); Math (8); Science (8)
Other Acceptances: Baylor, Colorado-Boulder, Colorado -Mines; UC Davis, Oregon.
Waitlisted: Washington
Rejected: Carnegie Mellon
- Reputation. What is CP’s reputation outside CA? Especially for programs other than engineering?
- Research. How are the research opportunities different/better/worse when compared to a national university? One commentator described the research at CP as “applied research” or “hands on projects” versus the more “theoretical research” at a national university like OSU.
- Overcrowding. How real is the overcrowding due to the increase in admissions? We read (and somewhat confirmed with tour guides) that waitlisting for classes is an issue with students taking community college courses to meet general requirements, and by the article posted at the start of this thread (the school is pushing to make the summer quarter a full-time quarter to handle overflow).
Background: She toured both schools and enjoyed them both! OSU offered two scholarships making the cost about the same as our home public schools. We understand CP will not be offering much if any scholarships for OOS students so it will certainly cost more to attend CP. We are weighing other pros and cons for both schools, but these are questions we could use help. Thanks all!
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Sorry I meant Materials Engineering.
FT Apps =First Time Freshman applications
NTR= New Transfer applications
FTF Target= First Time Freshman Target enrollment
NTR Target= New Transfer Target enrollment
Total New UG= Total number of New Undergrads
Total Cont. UG= Total number of Continuing Undergrads
Total UG= Total number of Undergrads for each major
The target projections are just a guide to see how many undergrad Freshman or Transfers they want to enroll for each major.
What the data does not show is the actual number of admitted students Freshman and Transfers needed to reach the target number. This is where yield comes into play. If for example the yield (enrolled %) for Computer science is 50%, then they would need to accept around 404 applicants (or 2X the target number) to reach the target of 202.
So yield by major is very important since it can vary greatly. Most guesstimates use a 33% overall yield so you take the target number x 3 and divide by the applications.
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