Minimum semesters - without that, you’ll get rejected
Maximum total semesters - you can take more, but you won’t get any further MCA points
There are no bonus points for the minimum, for each extra semester you get the number of bonus points associated with that subject up to the max for that subject.
Example: Math minimum semesters 6 (algebra, geometry, algebra II). Take pre-Calc add 250 points. Take Calc add 250 more. Take more math, good for you, because math is important, but you’ll get no further benefit on your admission.
Cal Poly views college credit as twice high school credit. I’m not sure if that’s just for the rigor score or if it factors into GPA. I’m also not sure if it applies to high school courses taken as dual enrollment with a local college or just for courses taken on campus.
Our dual-enrollment courses offered on the HS campus could only be selected in the UC/CSU apps by selecting them from the college list, not from the high school list. (That is, they are not listed on the hs-articulation.ucop.edu site, but are listed on the http://www.assist.org site.)
I checked the downloaded PDF of his CalPoly application, and all college courses, including the ones on the HS campus, counted as 2 semesters each.
I asked the UC system at one point, and was told that the 2 semesters per college class does affect the calculated UC GPA.
This may have been answered already, but how does the semester counting work for common core english classes on the MCA? I took English 1 freshman year which was only offered as a one-semester every-day class, then English 2 sophomore year which is a year-round every-other-day class at my HS, and now I’m in English 3 which is only offered as a year-round every-other-day class (I took honors all three years and both standard and honors are only offered in those formats) and next year I’ll take either honors English 4 or AP Lit, which is every-day-for-a-semester and every-other-day-year-round respectively.
Anyway, that adds up to 6 or 7 semesters of English which is less than the required 8. But I know people from my HS have gotten in to Cal Poly so I know they must count semesters differently. What is considered a “semester” on the MCA? Technically my every-other-day-year-round classes had the same number of hours spent in class as my every-day semester classes, so really by hour count I’ve only got 4 semesters of English.
Similar situation with math; by my count I’ll only have 5 “semesters” unless I take calculus which I was not planning to do.
I checked a block schedule high school near us, and most of their half-year courses count as full year–because all their classes are 90+ minutes per day every day.
Quick question, How does one get 10 semesters of math in 8 semesters of high school? Are they counting more than just high school or is it meant for someone taking two math classes in one semester?
Thanks.
Can anyone clarify how the MCA’s hours for work experience and extra curriculars are calculated?
Are they averaged over the entire school year? All four high school years? If a student works 40 hrs/week in at a summer job but not during the school year, is that averaged to 7 hrs/week per year? To achieve Cal Poly’s highest bonus, do you have to average 20+ hours for all 52 weeks for all four years of high school?
Thank you in advance for anyone who can offer some guidance on this question.
It’s been quite some time and my son found his app on his own, so I’m sort of guessing here. I think it’s senior year including summer, average hours across the year. The app will further clarify and as I recall, it’s a little open to interpretation. If you want to know for certain, call admissions. They’re very helpful.
@eyemgh Thank you for the information in this thread, it’s been very helpful! I am wondering what they would count as a leadership position for the bonus points - do you need to hold an office in a club?