How many students get admitted to Cal Poly from the waitlist? See historic data
Thousands of students have been admitted to Cal Poly this admissions cycle, but there’s still time for more to possibly be selected.
Every year, Cal Poly places eligible students on a waitlist, meaning they weren’t accepted during the first round of admissions, but may be considered as space in certain programs opens up.
But the size of the waitlist and the number of students who are selected off of it can vary drastically from year to year.
According to university spokesperson Keegan Koberl, the waitlist depends on enrollment behavior, available space in each major and institutional needs. The waitlist is designed to fill any remaining spaces after the initial admissions process, as some accepted students choose not to attend Cal Poly.
“Because those factors change each admission cycle, historical waitlist figures can easily be misinterpreted as predictive of future admission opportunities when they are not,” Koberl said.
Cal Poly’s waitlist is not ranked, meaning all students on the list have an equal chance of being admitted depending on when and where a spot opens up.
“If additional space becomes available in a specific major after the enrollment deadline, we may extend offers to waitlisted applicants in that major,” Koberl said. “Because it is impossible to predict whether openings will occur in any given major, we encourage students to continue pursuing other enrollment options while remaining on the waitlist.”
Already this year, 481 students have been admitted off the waitlist, Koberl said — and it’s possible that enrollment behavior will allow more to be admitted.
The final deadline for waitlist admissions is July 15.
How many freshmen are admitted from the waitlist each year?
Though past waitlists don’t predict future admissions, The Tribune collected and analyzed university data on the annual first-year-freshmen waitlist admissions every year since 2016 to get an idea of how the size of the list and number of students selected from the list can range from one year to the next.
Last year, the total number of students admitted from the waitlist was 599, compared to the 8,237 total freshman applicants who were placed on the list.
Over the last decade, admissions for fall 2023 saw the longest waitlist at 13,176 — though only 193 of those students were ultimately admitted, the data showed.
Meanwhile, fall 2020 saw the most people accepted off the waitlist during the last decade, with 4,032 of the total 8,816 students admitted. Fall 2017 saw the fewest students admitted off its waitlist at only 15 students out of the 3,168 who were placed on the waitlist, data showed.
Here’s a complete look at how the waitlist data compared going back to 2016.
What to know about Cal Poly admissions for fall 2026
Overall, around 79,400 students applied to Cal Poly for 2026 — a notable shift down from the record-breaking 81,910 applications received in 2025.
This year was the first year since the 2020 admissions cycle that the number of Cal Poly applications did not break a record.
Still, the university remained highly competitive — with some majors showing room for less than 3% of applicants, according to Tribune analysis of the latest data published by Cal Poly’s Office of Institutional Research.
And the university once again rejected thousands of applicants with 4.0 GPAs, according to Koberl. Additionally, the university continued its trend of admitting local applicants at a higher rate than non-local applicants.
Of the total 79,400 applicants, Cal Poly sent acceptance letters to 24,267 students during the initial admissions phase, equating to around 30.5% of applicants.
But enrollment targets showed that the university aimed to actually enroll around 6,522 students between the fall and summer 2026 semesters, including 5,526 first-time freshmen and 996 new transfer students.
Additionally, all of Cal Poly’s majors remain impacted, meaning they receive more qualified applicants than they can accept.
While the applications did falter slightly this year, Koberl told The Tribune in May that Cal Poly is still going strong.
“As higher education institutions nationwide experience demographic enrollment pressures and increased competition for students (trends that are expected to continue) Cal Poly continues to outperform broader industry trends and sustain exceptionally strong student demand,” he said.
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