Cal Poly accepted local students at a higher rate in 2026. See the breakdown
Students from the greater San Luis Obispo County area were admitted to Cal Poly at a higher rate this year compared to non-local applicants — underscoring the university’s role in creating local college-to-career pipelines on the Central Coast.
According to an April selection review report from Cal Poly Strategic Enrollment Management, the university accepted 60.2% of local applicants in 2026, compared to 30.2% of non-local applicants.
And both groups saw an increase in the percentage of accepted students compared to 2025.
“Non-local selected applicants increased to 30.2% (26.8% in 2025), and local selection rose to 60.2% (58.5% in 2025), reflecting both growing geographic diversity and a continued commitment to serving local students,” the report said.
Of the local applicants who were accepted, transfer students were admitted at a higher rate than freshman applicants.
The report showed that 58.7% of local first-year applicants were sent acceptance letters, while 63.5% of local transfer applicants were accepted.
The report also broke down transfer admissions by the two closest community college campuses — Cuesta College and Allan Hancock College.
In total, the university received 556 transfer applications from Cuesta College students and accepted 50.5% of those — or 281 students. Allan Hancock saw a slightly better admission rate, with Cal Poly accepting 258 of the 390 students who applied as transfers from the Santa Maria campus.
Overall, Hancock students saw a 66.2% transfer admission rate compared to Cal Poly’s 22.4% admission rate for all transfer applicants, local and non-local, the report showed.
Additionally, 85% of qualified applicants from Cuesta who also attended local high schools were admitted, the university said. Meanwhile, 89% of qualified applicants from Allan Hancock who went to high school locally were accepted.
San Luis Obispo High School, Arroyo Grande High School and Santa Maria High School were among the schools with the highest rate of confirmed students for Cal Poly SLO and the Solano maritime campus combined, the report showed.
The percentages were different for non-local applicants, where non-local transfers represented the lowest acceptance rate.
According to the report, 32% of non-local freshman applicants were admitted, while just 17% of non-local transfers received acceptance letters.
A separate report showed that of the 295 Cuesta applicants accepted to Cal Poly, 243 confirmed they would attend the university in the fall — and 150 of those students hailed from local high schools.
Similarly, 215 of the 265 admitted transfers from Allan Hancock confirmed they would attend Cal Poly — and 195 of those students attended local high schools, the report said.
Of the total 7,066 students who confirmed for the fall, 5,886 were from California, a slight 0.65% year-over-year increase from 2025.
Overall, Cal Poly was once again competitive this year, with some majors reporting seats available for less than 3% of applicants and thousands of students with 4.0 GPAs or above getting rejected. The university received around 79,400 applicants, and accepted 24,267 of those, reflecting a 7.7% year-over-year increase from 2025, the report said.
About 22,148 of those accepted were first-year students, while 2,119 were transfers, the report showed. About 1,607 accepted applicants hailed from Cal Poly’s local service area.
Search datasets for every available major
Using data provided by the university, The Tribune created a database showing the numbers for all available majors, both for freshman and transfer applicants.
You can search the data for each major using the charts below.
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