Hey, I am a high school senior planning to apply to Cal Poly SLO this October. I am planning on pre-vet, majoring in Animal Science @ Cal Poly SLO (1st choice). I know it isn’t as competitive as other majors such as engineering and psychology, but it is still competitive and impacted nevertheless (most impacted in CAFES). I want to know, how do I maximize my chances of getting in? I also want to know if I have a shot.
I have a 4.09 weighted 10-11 A-G gpa. I’m in-state. 5 years of math (Alg 1, Geo, Alg 2, Pre-calc, Prob & Stats), 4 years science, 3 years foreign language (ASL), and 4 years of English (considering doing a semester of Creative Writing @ CC senior year to get 5 years English).
I only have 3 APs, which is another concern, AP Psych, APES, and AP Gov. Is there a cap for APs or does number of APs matter? Aside from that, I took ASL 2 college-level @ UCSD Extended Studies.
I really cannot chance you for Cal Poly SLO as I do not know much about it.
I do have a daughter who is a veterinarian, and who got her DVM relatively recently (a bit more than one year ago). As such I could answer questions regarding becoming a DVM. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
One thing to mention is that the cost of 8 years of university can be quite a bit, and a lot of DVM students run up more debt than they really should. Also, students in DVM programs typically come from a huge range of undergraduate schools (the same can be said for many other types of graduate programs). As such, starting at an in-state public university such as one of the CSU’s is very likely to be a very good plan.
The required pre-vet classes are the same as the required premed classes, and you are likely to know premed students once you get to university just because they will keep showing up in the same classes. As such, taking at least some biology class and some chemistry class in high school would be highly recommended. A physics class would also be useful. It sounds like you are doing well in math, and are at least ready to take calculus when you get to university (my veterinarian daughter did take calculus, although I cannot recall whether this was actually required).
To me it sounds like you are doing well, although again your chances specifically at Cal Poly SLO is something I cannot predict. Do you have any large animal experience?
I just took a quick look at the Cal Poly SLO animal sciences web site, and it does indeed look quite good for a pre-vet student. Best wishes.
Cal Poly SLO calculates out their own GPA which is different from the rest of the CSU’s using 9-11th a-g course grades with a maximum 8 semesters of Honors point weighting for CSU approved Honors, AP/IB and Dual enrollment classes taken 10-11th grades. You can use the linked CSU GPA calculator and add your 9-11th grades to get your SLO GPA. Any additional AP classes will still be considered for rigor.
SLO has not yet posted their 2026 Freshman profile but the CAFES 2025 admitted GPA range was 3.88-4.23. Again, major specific GPA data is not available.
SLO does not list admit rates by major but projection targets so based on these target numbers, you can get an estimated/projected admit rate for Animal Science. For 2026-27, the projected targets show 2105 Freshman applicants for 201 spots. According to final numbers, yield rate was 40% for the College so a projected admit rate for Animal Science would be around 24%. The unknown is how competitive the actual Animal Science applicant pool was in comparison to the listed statistics.
SLO also considers the # of hours/week of your EC’s but unfortunately you cannot go into detail about you activities, if you held a leadership position and if you had a paid job related to your major.
You have maximized most of the numbers of a-g courses recommended by SLO. There is no set number of AP classes that you need to take but rigor is important so if 3 is considered rigorous at your HS, then you should be fine however, not having any AP Math and only 1 AP science could put you at a disadvantage. It would have been better to continue your Math sequence with at least regular Calculus or AP stats.
Based on what you have posted, you are a competitive applicant but there is no way to know your chances other than SLO is highly impacted and considered a tough admit. All you can do is apply and hope for the best.
I would suggest trying to complete the recommended high school units, to the extent possible. Cal Poly SLO recommends 4 years of foreign language and 2 years of visual/performing arts. The list of required and recommended classes is on part C5 of their common data set.
You can impact your application at the margins through ECs. They only count hours per week, but leadership is a significant boost. Secretary of the pottery club counts the same as National President of Key Club, so get some leadership position somewhere. The same goes for major related work experience. It doesn’t specify that it has to be paid. Volunteer at your local vet.
Take the full recommended course sequence, but know, they count middle school classes if they are part of that sequence. For example, my son started the Mandarin sequence in 7th grade. He also too Algebra. That’s where Cal Poly starts counting. Ultra important though, they will ask for those classes even though they were taken in middle school on your application (assuming it hasn’t changed). Leaving those off due to oversight will radically impact your algorithm score and is an insufficient reason for appeal.
I really appreciate it! I just got into the passion of veterinary but I am really excited because I finally discovered a career I want to pursue (after months of apathy). I understand that debt can be an issue, but I will plan for it. I’m planning on minoring in business so I can learn how to manage a business and my finances since the dream is to own my own clinic (thru direct acquisition) one day.
I don’t have any previous large animal experience. I have contacted many vet clinics around the city to get a ton of volunteering and shadowing hours (and to get a realistic understanding of the day of a life of a vet). I have taken biology freshman year and chemistry sophomore year. The rest of my science classes are APES and Biotech. Excited
So I am in that middle range of 3.88-4.23 for CAFES which is good at least. I understand they cap AP weight in GPA, but how about in general? Do they add points to your profile for each AP you take? Are certain AP classes more “desired” than others, such as APUSH vs AP Psych? Luckily I have held a leadership position and a paid job (both unrelated to major). Thank you!
I have 5 years of math, 4 years of science, planning on 5 years of English, and 3 years of foreign language + 1 year of visual/performing arts. I can’t really get more years for foriegn language and visual/performing arts, but I am trying for English. Thanks!
I think I have about 10-11 hours a week, but that being said, I haven’t started on vet related extracurriculars and upcoming programs. So I am trying for 16 hours a week. I do have a leadership position as “Advisory Board Committee” at a non-profit for waste advocacy. I’m planning on getting some vet experience, I’ve already emailed a couple vet clinics in the city to shadow and volunteer and I’m waiting to hear back. I’m planning on trying the full recommended course sequence, except for foreign language (3 years) and visual/performing arts (1 year). I don’t think I have any classes from middle school I could count. Thank you so much!
All schools want to see applicants that challenge themselves so there is no specific or desired AP classes they want to see but since they admit by major, you will be compared to all Animal Science applicants and also within the context of your HS’s AP class offerings. For an impacted school like SLO, 5 years of Math is important and recommended, but you probably will be competing with applicants that have taken Calculus and more AP Science courses other than APES.
SLO is no longer transparent about how they determine their MCA points for admission: All candidates are objectively evaluated by the cognitive and non-cognitive variables under our faculty-mandated Multi-Criteria Admission (MCA) process.
You are a Senior so there is very little you can do to improve your chances at this point so apply and see what happens.
Veterinary experience is helpful. So is animal experience in other environments. As an example there might be volunteer opportunities at a nearby animal shelter, or on a farm (if you have farms near where you live).
Veterinary offices in a large town or city are likely to have mostly small animal experience, which is also helpful. Veterinary offices in a small town or rural area are more likely to have both small and large animal customers. However, I do not think that large animal experience is actually necessary at this point, particularly while you are still in high school and applying for an undergraduate education. If you get into Cal Poly SLO, you will have an opportunity to get some large animal experience while you are an undergraduate student. I am sort of amazed how many large animals they have on campus there.
I am pretty sure that the pre-vet required classes will include a physics class, so you probably should take a physics class at some point in high school.
Figuring this out while you are still in high school is probably earlier than most of us figure this out.
A couple of things I have noticed: Veterinarians seem to do a wider range of things and have a wider range of patients compared to human doctors. A vet might be vaccinating young cattle one day, doing minor surgery on a pig the next day, and helping a pet rat with pink eye the next day. You never know what is going to walk through the door next. Also, compared to human doctors, I think that veterinarians see more animals die. One issue is that animals are not always good at explaining what is wrong, so some problems go untreated for too long. Also, sometimes veterinarians will get dirty. I think that my daughter just puts up with the dying patients part, is fine with getting dirty, and seems to quite like the variety.
My understanding is that Cal Poly SLO is known for its excellent computer science program. It would not surprise me if agriculture actually ends up being just slightly easier to get into compared to CS, which might help you a bit.
They are more specific about this than they used to be. ECs, including work, are averaged over the last 36 months. Work related has to be 25% of those hours. So, it’s probably late to impact that. And, that’s only IF the MCA is the same as it was in 2013.
