<p>Hello, I was just wondering what the admission requirements to get into Cal Poly SLO were. Like what GPA should I have for an engineering major (industrial engineering) and what SAT scores should I have? My native language is not English so I don’t know if it counts towards my curriculum that I know three languages, Spanish, which is my native language, English, and French. I’ll start my senior year (high school) next year and I don’t know what I need to go to Cal Poly.
My SAT scores are: 510 reading, 550 Math, and 530 writing adding up to a total of 1590, I know it’s not very good; what is the average SAT scores people need to get into Cal Poly SLO and also, what kind of community service do I need to take? </p>
<p>You did not give us enough information. However, Cal Poly is a rather easy school to get in to. Work very hard to improve SAT. Or, try ACT. I started with a 1600ish and ended up with a 33 on ACT, which is a 2190 on SAT. Do lots of prep and try taking SAT IIs in Math and Physics or something. For extracurriculars, I would do internships or jobs that somehow relate to engineering. I myself am applying for mechanical engineering, and I work at a gas station with mechanics fixing up cars and have an internship with a company in biomechanics. Try to take hard classes next year as well. Although, I do not know too much about industrial engineering.</p>
<p>Thank you for your reply; what other information should I provide? I will be taking three AP classes next year as well as one Honors class. My Weighted GPA is like 4.1 and my unweighted GPA is like 3.9. Does the SAT really matter that much? Like could I not get into Cal Poly for having a score of 1590 on my SAT even though I know three languages and have a high GPA (plus all the internships and jobs)?</p>
<p>Stop boasting trevorc94. Cal Poly might be easy for you to get into, but for lots of others it is rather challenging, especially for engineering and architecture. A 33 ACT is not going to get you into Cal Berkeley/Harvey Mudd/Any Ivy engineering either, so don’t pat yourself on the back too hard.</p>
<p>You need a stronger SAT or ACT score to ensure comfortable margin of getting in. Also, Cal Poly reduced the number of total students population starting Fall 2011. So it might get even more competitive for admissions.</p>
<p>Thank you for your reply; what about the unweighted GPA? And do you think a SAT score of 1700-1800 would be ok? And, would be easier for me to apply as an international student? (I don’t have US citinzenship but I do have a California residence so I guess I could apply as both, an international student or a “regular” student)?</p>
<p>your GPA looks good. But your SAT score is off the mark. Cal Poly does not care about the writing score, they only want CR + MATH. </p>
<p>So you should not ask whether 1800 SAT is good enough. Rather you need to go with the CR +Math scale.</p>
<p>Given all that, you need to raise your test score solidly in order to be comfortably competitive for admissions. If you do that, you should have no problem at all.</p>
<p>Since you have CA residency, you can apply as an in-state student for a cheaper tuition. However, this will make the process more competitive. </p>
<p>If you are applying as an international or an out of state, you will have a substantial advantage because Cal Poly is recruiting for OSS and intl. students heavily.</p>
<p>^ Thanks for the reply! It’s harder for me to get a “good” reading score on the SAT test because of language barriers (English is not my native language) do they take that fact into consideration? Am I still on time to get good SAT scores? The next SAT date is on October 1st, 2011 but I will begin gathering all the required documents these upcoming months; if I don’t improve my SAT score a lot on the October test and the deadline to turn the applications in is on November, how am I supposed to retake it?</p>
<p>Cal Poly wants all testing completed by November test date (test score can arrive shortly after Nov 30 application deadline). Cal Poly also states a preference for the ACT, see [How</a> to Apply - Admissions - Cal Poly](<a href=“Cal Poly Admissions”>Cal Poly Admissions), so you might consider taking it (test dates in Sep and Oct) if you are not doing so well on SAT.</p>
<p>@Discobiscuits I have not tried the ACT yet because it seems harder since it has trigonometry in the math section as well as a science part and the overall questions look a lot harder. So I just have one more try to get my SAT scores up?</p>
<p>Tervor’s post would have been meaningful if his comments were actually right or useful. </p>
<p>Cal Poly does not accept SAT IIs nor does it really care much about ECs. The majority of the admission decision is based on Test Scores + GPA + and some tiny bit of ECs. </p>
<p>And I hold to my original comment, Cal Poly is NOT “rather easy school to get into”. Any comment to that sort is rather facetious.</p>
<p>My son was accepted to Cal Poly engineering and we felt that the ACT was much better for him than the SAT. In fact, we did not even bother to send the SAT scores in as the ACT was so much better. Also, Cal Poly does not seem to care about community service at all. In fact, I do not recall any space to even report it on the online application.</p>
<p>I agree with all the folks above. You GPA is OK for Cal Poly – not great but OK. But the test scores will need improvement. Remember there were 44,000 applicants to Cal Poly this year and only 4,000 got in. Now that enrollment will be limited to 16,000 students it will be more competitive for sure. Use a reputable tutor and increase your scores dramatically. My kid’s first round with the ACT practice test in the English section was an abysmal 25. After using a tutor, on the real exam he got a 34!! (Math was no problem, but beware the Science section is very tricky and not really science at all – really weird).</p>