<p>My D received a rejection letter from Cal Poly Pomona. we are in CA. Based on her stats, it was supposed to be a safety. I’m still trying to figure out how this happen. I’m guessing that too many students are applying to public colleges now days. Any other ideas? I think I’m starting to lose my sleep.</p>
<p>alias,</p>
<p>Don’t lose sleep yet. How many schools is she waiting to hear from?</p>
<p>My daughter was just wait-listed by her safety Master’s program. Even on a visit last year she was told she was a strong match. The suspicion is that so many laid off architects are applying to grad schools that the schools can select more individuals with experience, giving them a stronger class. She’s now waiting for the other safety as well as the fave 5’s.</p>
<p>Does Cal Poly Pomona require a portfolio for admission? If so, in my view, no school with a portfolio requirement or other type of artistic review process is a true safety. A safety would be a school that has no portfolio and where it is also an academic safety.</p>
<p>This pertains to the undergraduate applicant. </p>
<p>MomofTwins…different story for your D as all the graduate programs require a portfolio and none are really a safety (I know as my D went through the MArch app process last year and had 10 schools.). At her program, she is one of only two students right out of college.</p>
<p>“If so, in my view, no school with a portfolio requirement or other type of artistic review process is a true safety.”
Thanks for validating what I have always thought about all “portfolio required” programs. It is so very subjective.</p>
<p>Sorry the Cal Poly Pomona letter wasn’t as expected. Lots of reasons why it could have happened, including not having all the required UC coursework in hs, as well as all the crazyness surrounding CA public school budgets. I don’t think it was portfolio, as I don’t recall my son submitting one last year. He was waitlisted and someone told him they waitlsted “everyone” for arch (can’t verify if that was true), so he moved on to the schools that accepted him. I found a letter last fall when cleaning out his room that he eventually was accepted sometime in mid May, so maybe there is hope for your D? </p>
<p>Best wishes on her other applications…</p>
<p>Thanks all for the responses. Cal Poly does not require a portfolio. My D attends a highly competitive private high school. She took all AP classes allowed in her HS. All her AP are science and math. Based on her gpa, she’s eligible for the UC system by a comfortable margin, and her wgpa is A-. She has decent SAT scores. Any takers why she’s rejected and not wait listed at least?</p>
<p>another question, I believe there are not architecture programs in the CSU system right?
at this point, I think CSU will be the only option. Thanks.</p>
<p>I don’t know a lot about CSU’s, but I do know that admissions is based on a student’s eligibility index, and you probably know that she met the criteria for admittance into the school. </p>
<p>Also, because of the number of students applying to architecture, the eligibility index for the school of architecture is much higher than that for other majors. You should call to find out what this year’s eligibility index for the school of architecture was. I saw another post where a mother did that only to discover that her daughter had made an error in self-reporting her GPA.</p>
<p>An impacted school like Pomona gives priority to students who go to school in what is considered the local area. Is her HS school on the list?</p>
<p>jjcddg, thanks for your feedback. It’s starting to make more sense now. We in CA but far away from the area where Pomona is located. My guess is that the gpa must be pretty high for architecture, but I call Monday to know what the stats are. Also, after reading the letter again, I also found out that the acceptance rate for architecture was 5.8%. Does it sound right? the acceptance rate is so low that it resembles more one from a highly selective college.</p>
<p>
It could have been something simple like missing the UC visual performing arts coursework - four semesters, at least two have to be consecutive semesters, or the eight semesters of the same foreign language. Also, they are very strict about the deadline. </p>
<p>You can calculate her eligibility index by multiplying her gpa using a bonus point on any approved honors classes, by 800 and adding that to her SAT score, - just the math and reading total. There is conflicting info as to exactly what coursework from what gradeyears they use to re-calculate the ei gpa. I recall the website says 9th-12th, (they couldn’t possibly use 12th), yet elsewhere it said 10th & 11th only. My son’s hs GC was concerned enough over this to call Pomona but never did get that straight from them, but did confirm that despite what the website says the arch department does indeed make the admissions decisions for arch admits, not the general admissions office, and that’s where things may get a little fuzzy.</p>
<p>Oh, and what jjcddg said is true,
Those school districts know this and have a better pipeline to admissions. I read somewhere that OOS students have to have an additional 600 ei points over those local applicants.</p>
<p>As a follow up to my earlier reply, D was just admitted to 1 of the reach schools. So, it can happen.</p>
<p>momoftwins, thanks for your post. I think D can get in to the private colleges she applied. We just need to wait and see.
Asking in other section of the this forum, I learned that the 5.8% acceptance rate is not a mistake. Besides, this year Pomona priorities are students within the area as jjcddg mentioned. With this extremely low acceptance rate, of course my D had no chance to get in. I learn something new every day.</p>
<p>aliasforparent, my D is waitlisted at CalPoly SLO. She has a 4.17 CSU GPA, so go figure. We found out SLO only sent out 98 acceptances. Even though she is above their acceptance average, they probably took people form ED. We are also shocked as we thought SLO is her backup school. What other school is your D applying?</p>
<p>Correction to my post #11;
A student I know who applied to Cal Poly Pomona arch this year told me today the website clearly stated they were only taking applications from CA residents this year.</p>
<p>
Way to go momoftwins D!</p>
<p>Thanks - What a difference a day makes! 
We were both worried that there would be no acceptances. Now we’re just waiting to hear from the others.</p>
<p>I appreciate your frustration. Getting into competitive highschools (who lack of grade inflation locks you out of merit scholarships), paying all that tuition, S/D working their butts off to take the most aggressive classes available - and yet not getting into decent schools. </p>
<p>We played by the rules and we played hard. And now this. Its cruel.</p>
<p>golflover, being wait listed is a good sign. At least you may have one more option. we didn’t consider Cal Poly SLO as a back up because it has very high ranking. I think SLO rank is #3 or 4. D apply to the nice architecture programs -Pratt, Syracuse, RISD, RD, and some others that I don’t recall. I only helped my D to select the back ups, but it seems I didn’t do a good job about it.</p>
<p>toadstool - thanks a lot for your post. You said exactly how I feel. We lost almost all the savings for college in the stock market (who didn’t), and now there is no $$ to pay for private college. And, of course, D doesn’t have the perfect gpa, so I doubt that she’ll get any merit scholarships. At this point, the only option is CSU, which as far as I know doesn’t offer architecture. I’m trying to put a positive outlook for my D about this situation, but I’m still trying to figure out what to tell her. If one gets lemons make lemonade as the say goes.</p>
<p>aliasforparent (and others who read this): My advice for most parents (unless your income is 250,000+) is to apply for financial aid. At a minimum, all parents should go to college board website and go to their financial aid calculator. It will give you an estimate of you EFC (Expected Family Contribution). Then you will have a good idea of where you stand financially. Worst case—it says your EFC is too high for financial aid. READ books on financial aid. Key point–any savings in parents name, FAFSA (and colleges) usually only expect 5% to be used for college costs. It turned out the college board estimate of EFC for us was only $100 difference from the EFC calculated from FAFSA.</p>