Did you get rejected from Cal Poly SLO? You can still get in — here’s how
Cal Poly is a highly competitive university that, this year, has space for about 11% of the more than 68,000 hopeful students who applied.
That means almost nine in 10 applicants will not get the answer they were hoping for and will receive a rejection email instead.
“Admission to Cal Poly is highly selective,” said Terrance Harris, the university’s vice president for strategic enrollment management. “The size and strength of our applicant pool means that we are unable to advance all qualified candidates.”
But, you don’t necessarily have to take that first no for an answer.
Harris said there is an option to students who want to try and reverse the rejection: Appeal.
“Students who are not admitted do have a two-week window to appeal an admissions decision,” he said.
That’s the option some students might want to consider now that Cal Poly has sent out its acceptances, which were slated to be complete by April 1.
To be fair, the likelihood of the rejection being overturned, while hard to predict, is very low, Harris noted.
“But every appeal that comes through will get a thorough review, and then a final decision is made,” he said.
The appeal process is labor-intensive for staff, Harris said, and the university doesn’t reserve extra space for the number of students they expect to appeal the decision. Additionally, the application to appeal a rejection decision isn’t necessarily simple.
“We review every application for maximum consideration,” Cal Poly’s website describing the appeal process says. “For an appeal to have merit, it must contain new, serious and compelling information that clearly shows you to be academically stronger than had been earlier evidenced. Neither grades received in the current academic year nor mistakes made on the application are a basis for an appeal or the reversal of a decision.”
Rejected students who appeal the university’s decision will hear back within three weeks of Cal Poly receiving their appeal application, according to the website.
