James MellorThe numbers for 2005 are in.
Cal Poly’s Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis released the 2005 “Factbook” of student characteristics at the university and for the 12th straight year, Cal Poly has received an increased number of applicants.
A record 28,840 incoming freshman and transfer students applied to Cal Poly for Fall 2005. The 3,420 incoming freshman averaged 1204 on the SAT’s and had a 3.73 high school GPA. The 898 incoming transfer students’ GPA averaged 3.27.
The number of applicants increased 5 percent from last year’s statistics, 41.6 percent from 2000 and has nearly tripled since 1993.
As of fall 2005, 1.1 percent of Cal Poly students are black, 11.3 are Asian, 10 percent are Hispanic, 8 percent are Native American, 3.1 percent are of “other” non-white ethnic origin, 8.3 percent did not specify their ethnicity and 64.7 percent are white.
Of Cal Poly’s 18,475 students, 10,365 (55 percent) are male and 8,100 (44 percent) are female. The average Cal Poly student’s age is 21 years old. Ninety-four percent of Cal Poly’s 17,488 undergraduate students are age 25 or younger.
Almost one-third (32.3 percent) of new freshman were from the San Francisco Bay Area, 18 percent were from the greater Los Angeles area, nearly 10 percent were from the San Joaquin Valley, 8.5 percent from San Diego county, 8.5 percent came from out-of-state, just over 8 percent from the Central Coast area, 7.1 percent from the Sacramento area and 6.9 percent from other California counties.
The public schools that sent the most new freshmen to Cal Poly were California High School in San Ramon, Monte Vista High School in Danville, Campolindo High School in Moraga, San Ramon High School in Danville, Poway High School and Atascadero High School and San Luis Obispo High School.
Forestry freshman Blake Wyatt, a San Ramon Valley High School graduate, lives in Tenaya with six other freshmen from his high school.
“It’s nice to have the people you are comfortable around to hang out with,” Wyatt said, “but at the same time you want to branch out.”
The leading private schools that send incoming freshmen to Cal Poly were St. Francis High School in Mountain View; Jesuit High School in Carmichael; and Archbishop Mitty, Bellarmine College Prep and Valley Christian High schools in San Jose.
Civil engineering senior Ryan King, a 2001 Jesuit High School graduate, said he didn’t mind having so many of his high school friends around in college.
“It helps your freshman year because you’re not so scared,” he said. “In my case, (my best friend and I) were in the dorms together and we were able to go into a new experience together.”
King also said it is a positive reflection for his high school to send so many students to a highly competitive university.
“It reflects their education and I was prepared coming in here- I think (Jesuit) does a good job preparing you to take that next step into college,” he said.
Community colleges that sent the most transfer students to Cal Poly were Cuesta College, Allan Hancock College, Santa Rosa Junior College, Ventura College and Diablo Valley College.
Cal Poly students in 2004 had a 91.3 retention rate after their freshman year, and 68.9 percent of the freshman class from 1999 have graduated within six years.