What were the hardest majors to get into at Cal Poly? Take a look at the top 10

Kaytlyn Leslie
·2 min read

Many majors at Cal Poly are severely impacted, with thousands of students applying for only a small number of spots each year.

That’s the case again for fall 2024, with the 10 most competitive programs for first-time freshman and transfer students having room for less than 5% of applicants.

In psychology, the single most impacted major for first-time freshmen, it means the department will enroll only one in every 50 applicants, a meager 2%.

The major with the fewest spaces available compared with applicants for transfer students was biochemistry, which had room for only 1.3% of the applicant pool, according to the data. In raw numbers, that’s 78 applicants competing for one single spot.

How hard is it to get into Cal Poly by major? See how programs compare

Across the entire university, Cal Poly has space available for just 7.9% of first-time freshman applicants and 9.2% of new transfer applicants, according to data provided to The Tribune. In all, the university is aiming to enroll 5,400 first-time freshman students and 956 transfers, out of a total of 79,015 applications.

The largest number of seats is available in the College of Engineering, which has room for an anticipated 1,383 first-time freshmen in the fall. The fewest number of available spots is in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, which has space for just 427 new freshman students.

Of the nearly 69,000 freshmen who applied to Cal Poly for fall 2024, more than one-third were vying for a spot in just 10 of the university’s 65 available majors.

Here’s a look at the top 10 most competitive majors for freshman applicants:

  • Psychology: 3,657 applicants, 73 spaces available — 2%

  • Computer science: 6,304 applicants, 202 spaces available — 3.2%

  • Marine sciences: 746 applicants, 24 spaces available — 3.2%

  • Software engineering: 758 applicants, 25 spaces available — 3.3%

  • Biological sciences: 4,787 applicants, 159 spaces available — 3.3%

  • Aerospace engineering: 2,305 applicants, 85 spaces available — 3.7%

  • Kinesiology: 2,056 applicants, 78 spaces available — 3.8%

  • Biochemistry: 1,611 applicants, 72 spaces available — 4.5%

  • Microbiology: 525 applicants, 24 spaces available — 4.6%

  • Political science: 1,837 applicants, 86 spaces available — 4.7%

And here are the top 10 for transfer applicants:

  • Biochemistry: 78 applicants, 1 space available — 1.3%

  • Public health: 124 applicants, 2 spaces available — 1.6%

  • Political science: 274 applicants, 8 spaces available — 2.9%

  • Statistics: 89 applicants, 3 spaces available — 3.4%

  • Physics (BS): 56 applicants, 2 spaces available — 3.6%

  • Psychology: 835 applicants, 32 spaces available — 3.8%

  • Construction management: 78 applicants, 3 spaces available — 3.9%

  • Kinesiology: 284 applicants, 12 spaces available — 4.2%

  • Software engineering: 105 applicants, 5 spaces available — 4.8%

  • Communication studies: 459 applicants, 22 spaces available — 4.8%

To view all of the majors, see The Tribune’s complete database of applications and space by major.