Can you explain these a bit more? My son got rejected, but he happy was going to San Diego. However, my daughter would love to go to Cal poly slow in a couple years. Thanks!
Can you elaborate on casting a wider net? We will be trying for SLO again in a couple years for our daughter. Tbanks!
Waitlist data for the current year will not be available until the CDS is published. As noted, section C2 of the CDS.
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Same with my son. Rejected but he will go to SDSU for EE.
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Cal Poly SLO considers the number of years taken for each a-g course in their application review which is true for each CSU.
If a student has taken a HS level Math or LOTE (Language other than English) in Middle school, then you need to report these courses on the CSU application for SLO to give you credit. SLO does not automatically assume if you listed Spanish 2 in the HS academics that the student took Spanish 1 in Middle school. SLO needs to see these courses listed on the application.
There is a section on the CSU application for these Middle school classes and they should be reported regardless if you apply to SLO or any other CSU.
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Casting a wide net means you start your college list from bottom up and identify at least 2 Very likely schools that the student is willing to attend, affordable and has a guaranteed or close to a guarantee for admission. That means a school like Arizona State which has automatic admission if the student meets the listed criteria or a local/non-impacted CSU campus.
SLO is an impacted campus so all majors are impacted (more qualified students than spots available) and should be considered a Reach school for all applicants.
So the rule of thumb is at least 2 Safety/Likely schools, 3-4 Target schools and several Reach schools.
You will need to pay attention not only to the overall school’s acceptance rate but also the major acceptance rate which can very different than the overall acceptance rate along with all the additional factors used in the application review. Many students benefit from applying to schools that consider essays, LOR’s, test scores and detailed EC’s vs. just stats based like SLO.
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There is information from the SLO individual that complied the Data but not from the poster. The CDS is public information listed on the SLO website.
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Denied psych. Not surprised and has more affordable choices higher on the list. Maybe I am in the minority, and maybe because we knew likelihood of psych acceptance was a moonshot, but I like the later denial timeline as it came on the heels of many RD and honors acceptances that kind of nullified the sting of rejection. We had only reach schools left at this point in the game.
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My D24 was waitlisted yesterday for Environmental Mgmt. She had great stats but it’s a competitive major. 
. Our HS probably had about 10 admits and at least 3 through the back door Ag business/communications route. One was admitted for Biology and is getting waitlisted for most of her top schools. I was trying to encourage her to apply to honors at CalPoly. I know today is the deadline. Anybody know where she can find that?
S24
Decision: Waitlisted
Major: Physics
SLO GPA: 4.03
Number of UC approved Honors/AP/IB or DE courses: 16
EC hours and with leadership or job related: Minimal
In-State/OOS/International: NorCal
Number of years for the following courses:
English: 4
Math: 5
Science: 4
Foreign Language: 4
Social Science/History: 4
Visual/Performing Arts: 1
Accepted: CU Boulder, UCSC, UCR, Cal Poly Pomona, SJSU
Waitlisted: UW, SDSU, Occidental, Cal Poly SLO
Declined: UCI, UCD, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, Harvey Mudd, USC, Rice
Waiting: UC Berkeley, Stanford
Deciding between UCSC and Boulder
CP SLO alumnus here, with numerous friends who were Arch majors at Cal Poly.
It was and is an excellent program and if this is your son’s first choice, I’d at least suggest driving him to the school to meet with someone on the architecture faculty (Head of department, preferably) and ask for 4 minutes of their time.
With the stats you’ve listed here, I’m sure that he didn’t get a fair chance. CP’s philosophy of learn by doing is not just words on a website, they take it seriously and your son has demonstrated this.
It may not work yet it has a decent chance. That said, the Arch major is incredibly tough to get into and their graduates come out with some serious skills for the real world. Hope the best for you!
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My D24 too… Denied last night for Aerospace Eng. Honors, Calc, Both AP Physics, AP CS etc. Sports, Stem President etc. They sound very similar! Also rejected to her UC choices. Sigh. Lots of tears a couple weeks ago as SLO was her dream school . Last night was tough, but already assumed rejection… Will be deciding between UofA or SDSU. CC is definitely a good route - good luck to him!
Since you are local, wondering if the acceptance letter for you DD and the rest of the locals that got accepted noticed if their letter (at the bottom) stated there would be no on campus housing for them?
Apparently on the parents FB page this is happening to lots of the locals being accepted (seems like the most recent acceptances) because of one of the freshmen dorms being torn down this summer (North Mountain) and dorm housing being tight for freshmen because of it.
I anticipated that housing would be tight when it came down, but was surprised to see that they would tell freshmen no on campus housing and not the 2nd year students (who are required to live on campus 2nd year unless they get an exception).
To me living on campus as a freshmen is necessary more then a 2nd year student who has the lay of the land and found connections already.
Is on campus housing for non-local students guaranteed?
I thought SDSU has similar rules. Non-locals have priority, locals can apply but will be offered on a space-available basis.
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On campus for non locals is guaranteed as long as you apply by the deadline (not sure of exact date on that) but applications open up on April 9th. Have to accept admittance offer to get online housing application in portal.
There is no priority for housing based on when you sign up. However, groups of 3’s then 2’s then 1’s choosing housing in that order.
Choosing roommates (if not going random) is not necessary at the time of housing application as first year students have until June 16th to edit their application with roommate groups and choice of living options (RLC).
Prior to this year locals and non locals could live on campus but the one less dorm next year will cause shifts on dorm housing, probably no 2 person rooms and only 3’s and 5’s (new dorm Yakitutu and the rooms are HUGE for a dorm room).
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Just hearing of a student (not mine) who had all As and like over 20 AP and Honors and DE classes get rejected from CalPoly. Amazing. Not even a waitlist or an alternate major offer. Does CalPolySLO allow applicants to apply for a second choice major?
SLO will consider an alternate major occasionally. Usually if an Engineering major is the primary major and the alternate major is a non-engineering major. IE. Mechanical Engineering for primary and Physics as an alternate.
No guarantee the alternate major will be considered.
Program Selection
- All Cal Poly applicants must select a major. Undeclared is not an option for our campus.
- You will be evaluated against other first-year applicants applying to the same major.
- You may select an alternate major, but very few applicants are offered admissions based on their alternate major selection.
Not that unheard of. If they are in state probably got into top UCs though.
What major? Major is a factor.
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