<p>REJECTED</p>
<p>Major: Mech E
4.4GPA (weighted)
9 APs by grad
SAT: 2090
SAT II: Math II -790, Physics -730
ACT: 32
EC’s very strong</p>
<p>thought I would have gotten in easily but I guess not lol. friend with similar stats also got rejected.</p>
<p>not really sad because cal poly was pretty far down my list but I’m a little confused. </p>
<p>also this process sucked wiener. they should send all decisions within a week.</p>
<p>norcalparent – you are correct. Up to a third of the class is selected during early decision. Another 10-15% is slated for international and out-of-state students (They’d like more if they can get them.). And I have no idea what kind of commitment Poly has to local high school seniors. There just aren’t that many slots left by the time you get to the regular decision process. </p>
<p>2018 Dad…it’s a regional university for a reason. It’s a good, solid education at a terrific price point for what you are getting but it is not elite. I think ED decision is a crock for kids and a boon for the schools because they get kids who perhaps don’t have the confidence to believe in themselves at elite institutions or who simply can’t risk not having an affordable back up school so they go ahead and do ED. Those kids should have the chance at something special but get backed into applying ED. </p>
<p>My respect goes out to those of you who reached as high as possible and took a risk with CP and ended up rejected with amazing stats. I bet the average ED stats are much lower then many I have read here. You guys are kids just once and should be shooting for the stars. I understand some people’s stars are CP and if that’s really all you ever wanted, I am glad for those that got in.</p>
<p>I process is very very poor. ED is bad for kids everywhere, not just at CP. Early Action or rolling admittance are far better plans. Schools across the nation open admissions and have been accepting kids for months before our State and UC Aps even open. It’s ridiculous. </p>
<p>Employers have realized it for years Cal Poly grads are in high demand. Prospective students are lining up, but Cal Poly has remained smaller. CP selected 13,939 students in 2013, UCSD for example selected 24792!. That’s over 10000 less students admitted! I don’t have the numbers for selected BME, ME, BIology but the numbers are small. Hopefully and unfortunately they will remain small. I remember my freshman year the Aero majors were thinking it came down to not only the max Gpa, near perfect SAT’s, but also those who had hs that have the poss to earn 64 semesters of a-g and 8 semesters offered in middle school, then summer CC too. My hs has 20 Ap’s and 5 honor classes. Yes it is that competive for some high demand majors, with small class sizes and almost all professor taught classes. </p>
<p>@Texasbound My son didn’t even consider UCB or UCLA. He wanted to study Mechanical Engineering. CP SLO is ranked #2 nationwide for ME against schools that don’t offer PhDs. What makes the “top” schools you refer to “elite,” at least for engineering is their graduate programs, not the quality of their undergraduate teaching, which in many cases is known to be poor. He excluded ALL schools, including Cal Tech and MIT that didn’t have great reputations for UNDERGRADUATE education. Call it what you will, but he applied because that’s where he felt he’d get the best education and he had the stats to get into the “elites.”</p>
<p>Rejected, and a little embarrassed… but definitely not sad, Cal poly was not in my top choices (i want to go out of state).
Also, I was accepted to Purdue Engineering last month, and they are ranked much higher than cal poly in engineering, so I am slightly confused. </p>
<p>Stats:
4.3 GPA
33 ACT</p>
<h1>1 in my class (out of 165)</h1>
<p>800 Math 2 SAT Subject test
740 SAT math section (2090 overall)
Both parents graduated college
upper middle class<br>
white female, applied for civil engineering.
instate, from central valley </p>
<p>Good luck to the rest, and congratulations to those who got in. It’s a good school. </p>
<p>@eyemgh: Completely agree with your assessment of the high quality UG education at SLO. D - an accounting major graduating in June has a wonderful employment position lined up for this coming Fall. And, as much as I think my own D is just the cat’s meow - she was NOT a top student in the program, and did not get an offer from a top 4 firm. However, even those students in the middle of the class are getting excellent offers from a wide range of companies.</p>
<p>D’s BF graduated SLO ME. He has been accepted to grad programs at UCB, UCSB and CalTech - with a very very nice offer from Caltech. </p>
<p>S was rejected for ME last year and decided to go to that other place just a bit south. Turns out - they have an amazing UG program also. His current school is similar to SLO in that there are about 18K UG’s and 2K Grad students. With those numbers the UG’s are simply going to get more time and respect from the profs.</p>
<p>When evaluating programs (especially for engineering) we considered the UG to Grad student ratio. We concluded it was better to be at a place where UG’s were the driving force. And, so far our methodology has been validated.</p>
<p>@beachball101 Cal Poly is not rated on the same rating as the colleges that have PhD programs, it is however ranked first on the ranking it is on. You need to look at majors, or best buy, or hiring type reports to see how Cal Poly ranks compared to the PhD schools, before you start attacking people you need to learn to read the criteria of the rankings you use. Others have also shown you other rankings. Funny how most people are getting accepted at schools I said are ranked close to or below Cal Poly, but haven’t seen any that I remember at the schools above. As hard as it is to believe as Cal Poly wins more and more awards and the OOS people learn about Cal Poly articles are reporting it to be a top destination college, one analysis named it as a non ivy league equivalent. I highly recommend looking at non PhD schools for undergraduate work, you get taught by professors and have huge opportunities for research against PhD schools, even ivy leagues, and you often win. Recently Cal Poly teams beat Berkeley, UCLA, USC, and Stanford teams at a construction management contest. There are other Master’s only universities to choose from but I have become a convert to preferring a good Master’s college over a PhD college where they usually focus on their PhD students and mainly try to ready their undergraduates for post graduate programs.</p>
<p>@Norcalparent ED would never accept that many students, the information is available for earlier years, in 2012 32/167 were admitted ED. If you have fairly high stats and are sure you want CP ED is the way to go, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.</p>
<p>@Texasbound: Wrong stats for ED at Cal Poly (trying to remember where I found it maybe the fact book) are higher unlike the privates. Here are stats for one ED I know: gpa 4.0/4.2 (maxxed out), SAT 2310/1520 taken once, work and EC related to major, maxxed out for extra courses, 60+ units 4.0 at CC, Alg 2 8th grade, equivalent of 9 APs all CC A’s or AP 5s. It is a regional university because they don’t rank Master’s universities nation wide, that is the only reason. </p>
<p>eyemgh, It sounds like CP was exactly what your son wanted and I am not minimizing the many benefits of CP nor disagreeing that here in CA it has a great reputation. Additionally, I personally find it to be a convincing value proposition as a parent! There are many great things about it. My opinion is however if you want to perhaps be more global then California, many schools offer more prestige on a national basis. We can find a ranking for so many things that almost every school can stake a claim to some obscure stat! US New and World Report ranks CP as the #9 Regional University in the West. That’s very good and where my value statement comes from. It isn’t however the best. </p>
<p>There are many kids who will be great educations and live a great college life in SLO which also is part of the equation. There are also kids who want something with a more national reputation like I’ve seen mentioned here multiple times, Purdue not to just go to the Stanford and Ivy’s etc. UC’s are better known, perhaps because of sports programs that provide name recognition etc but that also is a part of college life that is significant to some. </p>
<p>I am not sure what you are disagreeing with as I am giving CP lots of respect. But I am also not under the illusion it’s the best university anyone could ever attend! I hope everyone’s kids find their personal best because everyone isn’t cut from the same cloth. CP is the very best for some and those parents are lucky!</p>
<p>Personally, I would have had a hard time not trying hard to convince my son not to attend UCB or UCLA if given that choice as regardless of a #2 ranking for schools without PhD programs in the west, nobody (not many anyway) know that statistic but everyone through out the country recognizes Cal and UCLA as impressive schools to have a degree from and they do set you apart. I am offering my opinion as I have nothing to gain from that, neither of my kids attend a UC! There is life beyond Cal Poly…and beyond California for that matter! </p>
<p>Last, the admission process is a frustrating mystery at CP. Lot’s is claimed and I doubt any of us know the reality so I won’t purport to. I can say it’s odd that so many super qualified students (my own included) have gotten into far more selective institutions in the nation and been turned away at a regional #9. It’s not a complaint, it’s an opinion. No reason the mass of rejections couldn’t have gone out before say housing opened and alleviated at least that stressor the the kids who believed they still had a chance of being admitted and were missing out on housing. Notifying OOS before In State is a slap in the face to those of us whose tax dollars support the university. </p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is arguing that Cal Poly is the “best.” There is no best. It is highly individual for each student.</p>
<p>The problem is that most rely on a heavily flawed ranking system that in this case isn’t even comparing apples to apples to determine fit rather than digging into the particulars that will best benefit the student. </p>
<p>I can tell you that my son got into the 37th ranked national university, the highest that he applied to, ranked above all but 7 public institutions. He was awarded $100K in merit aid and turned it down to go to Cal Poly as an out of state student, full pay, with no aid. So much for rankings.</p>
<p>Bash it all you want, but maybe it should have never been on the list in the first place if it’s as inferior as you claim.</p>
<p>I’m no fan of the Cal Poly registration rotation process. If you check out the Sacramento Bee’s California state employee salary by employee database you have to reach a long way down from Armstrong at the top of the list before you find a classroom professor. Lots of indirect labor there. With that many administrative salaries on the payroll it’s hard to understand that the kids have to put up with such a mess at registration time. One or two of those folks making in excess of $250K should be working on a better way. That being said, the school is surely in high demand and all the students I know love the place. From the 2014-2015 Targets & Projections posted above you get something like this for engineering Fall 2013 acceptances;</p>
<p>BME 5.0%
CS 8.1%
Env 8.5%
ME 8.6%
Aero 10.1%
CE 11.0%
GE 13.7%
Civil 14.4%
EE 15.9%
SE 23.5%
MatE 27.1%
MFGE 38.3%
IE 39.5%</p>
<p>The top half of that list was a surprise to me & no fun for those applying unless the were fortunate enough to slip in during ED. Much more selective than the school as a whole, harder to be admitted than most of the UC’s and many privates. Limited resources distributed by the numbers. Clearly many excellent students will be looking elsewhere. Good luck to all of them and their supporters.</p>
<p>Will you review your math. I just did ME, but didn’t come up with the same number.</p>
<p>I am using Fall 2013 Targets/Projections vs Fall 2013 Actuals for First Time Freshmen (ME)
8.56% = (2013 FTF Actual =240)/(2013 FTF Apps = 2803)</p>
<p>
This is wrong. You are assuming that all 240 that were accepted enrolled. The average yield last year is 33%. The better estimate s/b:
240/0.33=727 accepted
727/2803=25.9% acceptance rate</p>
<p>I used the '14 projections and got 5.8%, for first time freshmen and new transfers. That’s the difference. Remember those are applications and admissions, not acceptances. If you assume a 33% yield, roughly the average of '12 and '13, you’d get a Mechanical Engineering acceptance rate of 17.4% based on their projections for the incoming class. That puts ME in the range of Cornell if they hold to predictions. That’s hardly a safety! 
</p>
<p>Wow… I can’t believe I got in
3.6 UW GPA/ 3.8 W GPA
33 ACT
No class ranking but not in top 20%
730 Math 2 and 710 Physics SAT Subject test
upper class
White female applied to computer engineering
OOS from Michigan
Attends Private Boarding School
Decent Extracurriculars (Have won international awards for robotics)
Having been accepted to UofM already though, it’ll be a tough decision.</p>
<p>Nice email Texasbound. Agree, ya tell anyone, including employers you went to Cal or CP. See what makes the best impression. Cal, every time with everybody, especially employers. UCLA too. There is a reason twice as many apply to UCLA and Cal. To imply a school with a PhD program doesn’t pay attention to undergrads is a naive defensive opinion. They are the ones innovating the world. To claim “gosh oh golly my CP student got an internship, job after graduating…etc.” Well, I would hope so. All good schools, but CP is cheap which is bringing everyone in during this economy. The point table changes they are making are a big concern. It will make this school much more average in 5 years. That is the shame. But CP is still a good value for what you get.</p>
<p>Fair enough, I understand there are ~ 200 ME’s enrolled each year, and some multiple of that are admitted, 3 to 1 sounds like a fair estimate. That being said, in the worst case the school has something like 68-75 seats for BME each year and something like 1653-1924 apps. Not very good odds whether accepted or enrolled. That pattern looks pretty much the same for the top 5 on the list. SLO is a safety for lots of accepted kids who will go elsewhere, however as we have seen many kids with terrific numbers will get waived off if they want into these majors. 3000 apps for 200 ME seats makes it hard to hard to get in any way you figure it.</p>
<p>Cal Poly is a great school and the UC System is the best university system in the world. Most of us won’t be lucky enough to get into all of these great schools but we are pretty lucky to have access to them (especially those of us in state). One way to measure the quality of an education (there are many more) is salary of the schools graduates. Below is a list of schools with the highest paid graduates on the west coast. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014/best-schools-by-region/west-coast”>http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014/best-schools-by-region/west-coast</a></p>
<p>Now granted that Cal Poly’s most popular department by far is engineering and engineering grads tend to make more money (especially at first). Therefore, you can’t really derive if Cal Poly engineers make more money than UC engineers. However, it is clear that Cal Poly grads do very well (at least financially). Congrats to all those that got in and good luck to the rest who will no doubt end up in a very good school. We have a lot of choices here in California.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014/majors-that-pay-you-back”>http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014/majors-that-pay-you-back</a></p>
<p>FWIW, CalPoly SLO is a “safety” for my D and she will attend UCLA/UCB/UCSD first before SLO. She was lucky to be accepted. But what we learned this year and hopefully kids that are applying next year are reading this is for some majors (CS, BME, Mechanical, Biochem, Biological Sciences, Kinesiology) SLO is hardly a “safety” since the acceptance rate are very low. </p>
<p>From the target report (<a href=“IR Home - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo”>IR Home - Institutional Research - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo) assuming 33% yield, here are the estimated acceptance rate for selected majors:</p>
<p>Major Apps FTF Accep. Rate
Aerospace 1281 100 303 24%
Biomed 1924 75 227 12%
Civil 1292 153 464 36%
Computer 1558 126 382 25%
CS 2751 140 424 15%
EE 1129 150 455 40%
Env. 524 44 133 25%
General 451 27 82 18%
Industrial 248 65 197 79%
Manufacturing 48 15 45 95%
Materials 260 35 106 41%
Mechanical 3120 185 561 18%
Software 294 44 133 45%
Archi. Engg 447 80 242 54%
Architecture 1034 142 430 42%
Business Adm. 5400 555 1682 31%
Biochem 1044 44 133 13%
Biological Sc 4000 184 558 14%
Kinesiology 1738 68 206 12%</p>
<p>By College<br>
CAFES 4319 890 2697 62%
CAED 1792 405 1227 68%
CENG 14880 1159 3512 24%
CLA 7297 716 2170 30%
OCOB 6183 640 1939 31%
CSM 9332 528 1600 17%
CalPolySLO 43803 4338 13145 30%</p>