What are the 10 hardest majors to get into at Cal Poly?

Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo has 64 programs to choose from across its six colleges.

But each major has a different number of seats available for hopeful applicants — and not all receive the same number of applications.

The demand varies widely, with the most-applied-to program at the university being business administration and the least being Spanish for freshmen and agricultural systems management for transfers.

For freshmen applying to Cal Poly, “the selection criteria are the same across the board, (but) competition certainly can be different from one major to the next,” said Terrance Harris, the university’s vice president for strategic enrollment management.

Transfer students applying to Cal Poly typically see different selection criteria — meaning the university is looking for them to have completed specific courses at their previous college or university in order to be considered or admitted, Harris said.

Cal Poly is also at capacity, meaning it cannot admit all of its applicants to each program.

“We know we have a lot of really talented students who apply,” Harris said. “But we have limitations based on that capacity.”

Some majors at Cal Poly are more impacted by this limited capacity than others.

The 10 programs at the university for freshmen that have the least amount of space for the number of applicants for fall 2022 are:

1. Psychology: 3,700 applicants, 71 spaces available (1.9%)
2. Computer science: 6,784 applicants, 210 spaces available (3.1%)
3. Software engineering: 692 applicants, 25 spaces available (3.6%)
4. Marine sciences: 678 applicants, 25 spaces available (3.7%)
5. Aerospace engineering: 1,885 applicants, 80 spaces available (4.2%)
6. Kinesiology: 1,757 applicants, 75 spaces available (4.3%)
7. Biological sciences: 4,094 applicants, 175 spaces available (4.3%)
8. Political science: 1,493 applicants, 82 spaces available (5.5%)
9. Biochemistry: 1,251 applicants, 70 spaces available (5.6%)
10. Art & design: 878 applicants, 53 spaces available (6.0%)

And for transfer students:

1. Statistics: 42 applicants, 1 spot available (2.4%)
2. Biological sciences: 330 applicants, 10 spots available (3.0%)
3. Architectural engineering: 30 applicants, 1 spot available (3.3%)
4. Marine sciences: 54 applicants, 2 spots available (3.7%)
5. Computer science: 931 applicants, 35 spots available (3.8%)
6. Communication studies: 413 applicants, 18 spots available (4.4%)
7. Psychology: 735 applicants, 40 spots available (5.4%)
8. Mathematics: 89 applicants, 5 spots available (5.6%)
9. Construction management: 70 applicants, 4 spots available (5.7%)
10. Kinesiology: 258 applicants, 15 spots available (5.8%)

Here’s a table with all the majors and the spots available:

This story was originally published May 24, 2022 at 11:35 AM.

Mackenzie Shuman

The Tribune

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Mackenzie Shuman primarily writes about SLO County education and the environment for The Tribune. She’s originally from Monument, Colorado, and graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in May 2020. When not writing, Mackenzie spends time outside hiking and rock climbing.