If you were looking for guides on how to write the Cal Poly SLO appeal letter, you might notice that there really aren’t many guides out there on the topic. There may be a few guides out there on forums like Reddit and College Confidential; though, this may leave well-meaning advice subject to arbitrary assumptions and conjecture.

Despite this, we will try to provide the most comprehensive guide to writing the Cal Poly SLO appeal letter.

We’ll also be covering some of the most common questions about appeal processes that you should know before writing the appeal letter. So, please consider each section of this guide carefully.

Table of Contents

1. Should I Bother With a Letter of Appeal to Cal Poly SLO?
2. Cal Poly SLO Appeal Chances
3. Important Notes
   • Filling Out the Appeal Form
   • Cal Poly SLO Appeal Deadline
4. How Do I Write an Appeal Letter to Cal Poly SLO?
   • Cal Poly SLO Appeal Prompt
   • What Should I Add in My Appeal Letter?
   • If Other People Are Appealing to SLO, How Do I Stand Out?

Should I Bother With a Letter of Appeal to Cal Poly SLO?

Most of the people who apply to Cal Poly SLO plan to major in Business, Management, Engineering, Marketing, and Agriculture/Vet Science. Many of the people we’ve worked with had plans to work in Computer Science with the hopes of one day gaining a position in FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google).

Hey, fair enough! Who wouldn’t want a strong high-paying tech position with good benefits straight out of college?

So, we know that most people have a fair reason to appeal to Cal Poly SLO. It’s understandable and reasonable to appeal after getting rejected because who wouldn’t do everything they could for a bright future?

With that in mind, you may be thinking this: if it’s normal to want to appeal to Cal Poly SLO, should I even bother writing a letter of appeal?

More often than not, it is worth it. In fact, in most cases, it’s worth writing a letter of appeal to most schools you were rejected from. The admissions office provides you with a second chance at acceptance; so, it shouldn’t be wasted.

Now, this is just a general blanket rule. For a certain number of people, appealing to Cal Poly SLO may not be worth it. To know which category you fall under, consider these two points.

1. Do you have “appeal appropriate” reasons to write about in the letter?
   • Appeal letters typically require explanations for your reasons for the appeal. This includes mistakes made in the application that were severe such as errors in the transcript, parts you forgot to add in your application that may demonstrate significant academic achievement that may otherwise have gone unnoticed, and any other details that warrant reconsideration for your application. Note that minor mistakes generally don’t warrant an appeal decision.
2. Do you have enough time to write a letter of appeal?
   • Most if not all applicants have enough time to write a letter of appeal. It can be done quickly and swiftly. At max, it takes a few days of brainstorming and a few days of writing or editing. The only exceptions we can see for this are people struggling with personal projects like developing very important startups or emergencies like the death of a family member. If you don’t fall under any of these categories, you most probably have the time to write a letter of appeal.

If you have valid reasons to write the appeal letter and you have the time, then yes. It is in fact worth it to write the Cal Poly SLO appeal letter. Some people don’t know whether they have valid reasons for the appeal. In fact, some people don’t know if they should apply because they think there is nothing worth writing about in their appeal letter at all! If you’re one of these people, check out this section of our article below.

Cal Poly SLO Appeal Chances

We’ll keep it brief: sadly, no one knows!

Yup! There don’t seem to be any stats showing the appeal chances for Cal Poly SLO. The only sources we could scour were that students have occasionally been accepted through writing about experiences they failed to add in their original application.

Other than that, the chances of getting accepted through appeals to Cal Poly SLO are a mystery.

However, we won’t leave you empty-handed. We can generally guesstimate what number the acceptance rate through appeals is through other data.

Cal Poly SLO has an undergraduate admissions rate of about 29.3% for the Fall of 2022. The average GPA was 4.08-4.25. We’ve provided a deeper breakdown in this chart below.

On average, most schools accept about 20% of their waitlisted students. For more competitive schools, that number is even smaller. The appeals process typically accepts an even smaller number than what they accept from the waitlist.

Thus, it’s safe to say that the acceptance rate for the appeals process at Cal Poly SLO is in the single digits range. This wouldn’t be a surprise, as many other schools also have single-digit acceptance rates for their appeals process.

This can seem like quite the dreary conclusion; and, well, it is! However, it’s important to note that the appeals process is still infinitely worth it.

We don’t mean this in a sunshine and rainbows sort of way. Here at PenningPapers, we don’t try to be naively optimistic for the sake of making students feel better. We just try to be as honest and truthful as possible.

It’s very much worth it to apply for the appeals still because, despite the low acceptance rate, most applicants actually don’t know how to write their appeal letters. In fact, many applicants we come across who share their appeal letters actually have rather insufficient appeal letters that certainly would not get accepted. We don’t mean this in a mean way; but, we just want to point out that most people get rejected from the appeal process at Cal Poly because they do not know how to formulate their appeal letters.

Thus, your chances of acceptance can jump from the single digits to perhaps even the double digits so long as you know how to formulate the proper appeal letter and stand out. We will show you how to do exactly that below.

Important Notes

Filling Out the Appeal Form

Here’s a link to the form you will need to fill out when appealing to Cal Poly.

Cal Poly SLO Appeal Deadline

“The entry must come from you (the applicant) and be submitted no later than 15 days after receipt of your original admission decision.”

Cal Poly SLO Official Website

How Do I Write an Appeal Letter to Cal Poly SLO?

Cal Poly SLO Appeal Prompt

“We review every application for maximum consideration. 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...

Your submission must clearly outline your reasons for appealing the initial decision, and the information you present should be new and compelling. Do not simply repeat information that had already been presented in your application.”

Cal Poly SLO Official Website

What Should I Add in My Appeal Letter?

Before you consider what to write about in the appeal letter, remember to consider some of the rules Cal Poly SLO put in their website on writing appeal letters.

“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“

Now, this is not to say severe changes to the transcript or missing information does not make you a suitable candidate. If there were mistakes in the application process or information that you failed to put forth originally, which is often the main reason to write out a letter of appeal, then you should write them in the appeal letter.

Now, don’t write about minor issues such as a change in a chemistry grade that was supposed to be rounded up. Those typically are far too minuscule for consideration.

What would normally be appropriate for the appeal process is writing about extenuating circumstances which should have been mentioned or further clarified to show you are a stronger candidate than once thought.

Here are a few examples.

1. The grades reported in the original transcript did not show the most up-to-date marks for grades 10-11. This is important because the most up-to-date version shows the upward trend of your academic performance in your major-related classes.
2. You went through unusual circumstances such as the illness of a family member or severe clinical depression that accounted for the downward trend of your grades from 10-11. Thus, the grades you earned when taken in context with your unique circumstances demonstrate that you are more than capable of succeeding at Cal Poly SLO.

If Other People Are Appealing to SLO, How Do I Stand Out?

One of the great things about the appeal letter prompt is that it’s not as specific as most other college application essay prompts. This leads to many students making crippling mistakes in their appeal letters that clearly break the rules.

So, why is this good? Well, so long as you’re following the rules of the appeal letter prompt, you’ll be able to stand out amongst a good chunk of the application pool because you can demonstrate your ability to follow instructions.

This sounds kind of unbelievable, right? After all, you’d imagine most people at the high school to undergraduate level would be able to follow instructions for prompts. However, from what we’ve seen of people coming in for help at our site, there are more people who make mistakes in answering the prompt than one would think.

Now, this also means you have to make sure you’re properly writing your appeal letter and not writing things they don’t want to see. This means reading through the prompt and going through the Cal Poly SLO website. If you aren’t sure whether you’ve done this and you’re afraid you’re one of many who missed the mark, don’t be afraid to contact us for a free 30-minute phone consultation.

So, once you’ve answered the prompt correctly and didn’t break any of the rules, the next step to writing a Cal Poly SLO appeal letter that actually stands out is predicting what the most common topics would be. Then, divert from it.

Here are some very common topics that people will write about in their Cal Poly SLO appeal letters.

1. I earned high marks throughout grades 10-11; many of these classes were much more difficult to perform in than originally expected.
2. I didn’t mention why I did not apply for more APs in my related field.
3. There were clubs that I founded but did not write about because I was afraid of writing about them in the original application.
4. I had depression and anxiety during my academic years.
5. My family had undergone hardships that required my immediate attention for a long period of time.

Having these topics isn’t exactly bad. In fact, if you have any one of these common topics in your Cal Poly SLO appeal letter, you should remember that your particular experience is unique from what others go through. That means not everyone’s depression, family hardships, unspoken clubs, or academic hardships are created equal. There are unique elements to yours that make you special amongst the rest of the applicants.

So, if you struggled with both depression and helping your mother through cancer treatment, you can make a case that your slight downtrend in academic performance is actually rather impressive considering the circumstances presented to you.

Your experiences may fall under the same category as what someone else has, but it’s up to you to write how your particular circumstances were special. Did your particular circumstances demand you take more time away from school and dedicate yourself to family? Did you have unique clubs you wanted to talk about but the environment did not allow you to grow them to their fullest potential? How does this show that your application is deserving of reconsideration?

Getting into Cal Poly SLO is no joke. The decision process can determine just how many opportunities you’ll have to “make it” in big corporations like FAANG, or have the resources you need to create your own startup. If you want to be one of these people, if you want to do everything you can to secure a position at Cal Poly SLO, you should consider speaking with a college admissions appeals expert. Contact us for a free 30-minute phone consultation, and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.