Registration Process

Understanding your Curriculum Sheet

Your Curriculum Sheet displays all of your degree course requirements in a one to two page snapshot. 

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How to access your Curriculum Sheet

1. Go to the Academics Tab of your Cal Poly portal and click on "curriculum".

The Curriculum Sheet is broken down into four main sections that are described below:

Major Courses

Major courses are the courses that make up your major curriculum. In some majors, this includes technical electives or concentrations.

Support Courses

Support courses are courses chosen by your department to provide foundational support for your Major Courses. These courses sometimes double count as General Education Courses.

General Education (GE) Courses

General Education courses are broken down into several areas. You may notice some of these areas are completed through your Support Courses. In most cases, transfers still need to complete some GE courses at Cal Poly including the Upper Division GE courses. 

Free Electives

If your major has Free Electives, you should have already fulfilled this requirement with transfer credit.

Understanding your Degree Progress Report

Your Degree Progress Report

Your Degree Progress Report (also known as your DPR) is the most important tool to understand as a Cal Poly student. Like the Curriculum Sheet, the Degree Progress Report displays all of your degree requirements to graduate. The Evaluations Unit uses the Degree Progress Report to post your degree so it is important to make sure the courses you have and will be taking are fulfilling the requirements you expected in your DPR.

Your DPR should be checked by you, the student, at least once per quarter to track your progress to degree.

The Degree Progress Report is also broken down into sections that are described below.

As a reminder, your Degree Progress Report will not be accurate until you receive an email from the Office of the Registrar letting you know that your Transfer Evaluation is complete.

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How to access your Degree Progress Report

1. Log in to my.calpoly.edu
2. Go to your Student Center under My Apps on the left hand side
3. Click on Degree Progress Report under the drop-down menu and then click on the arrows

 

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It is so important that you READ all the notes for each section in the DPR. Not reading the notes may mean you miss important information and take a class that is not necessary. If you have any questions, let us know at CAFESadvising@calpoly.edu. We are here to help!

Your Transfer Credit

While reviewing your Curriculum Sheet or Degree Progress Report, you may ask how certain courses transferred to Cal Poly. You can see further details about your transfer credit in your Poly Profile under "Higher Ed Credits Detail."

Transfer credit will continue to be evaluated and processed by Cal Poly until registration on Aug 14th. When your transfer evaluation is complete, you will receive an email from the Office of the Registrar - Evaluations Unit. At that time, you will be able to view your transfer credit transcripts in PolyProfile, and how those classes apply towards your degree in your Degree Progress Report.

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Steps on how to find your transfer credit

1. Access PolyProfile through your Cal Poly Portal under your Academics Tab. 
2. Click on the Higher Ed Credits Detail link located on the right side of the page.
3. Under Additional Higher Education Credits Detail, you will find the transcripts we received from you. 
4. On the right side, you will find the courses you took and on the left side, you will see how they transferred over to Cal Poly.
5. After reviewing your courses, you can access your Degree Progress Report to view your overall degree requirements.  You can then see what you have completed and what you still need to graduate.

IF YOU BELIEVE YOU SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED CREDIT FOR A COURSE AND DID NOT:

Please email us at CAFESAdvising@calpoly.edu if you have any questions.

Graduate Writing Requirement (GWR) & United States Cultural Pluralism Requirement (USCP)

There are two requirements that are important for you to know about. Since you may be transferring in a majority of your General Education (GE) courses, you will want to review both requirements below so you are not adding extra work while completing your degree. 

Graduation Writing Requirement (GWR)

The Graduation Writing Requirement (GWR) is a CSU-mandated program designed to ensure that student can write proficiently before they enter the professional workforce. All Cal Poly students who are seeking a degree must fulfill the GWR before a diploma can be awarded.

• Undergraduate students with 90 or more completed units should attempt to fulfill the GWR before their senior year.

There are two ways to fulfill the GWR:

1. 1. Pass a GWR-certified upper-division course with a C or better on a major writing assignment and a final course grade of C or better with at least 35% of the final grade based on the cumulative grade of all writing projects; OR,
   2. Earn a passing score on a GWR Portfolio (*Note: the GWR Portfolio has replaced the Writing Proficiency Exam in response to the March 2020 CSU suspension of in-person GWR testing).

GWR Information for Transfer Students

IF YOU TRANSFERRED TO CAL POLY FROM A COMMUNITY COLLEGE:
You will need to fulfill the GWR at Cal Poly even if you were GEcertified at your community college because the GWR is an upper-division University degree requirement and students must complete the requirement at the CSU campus at which they are matriculated.

IF YOU TRANSFERRED TO CAL POLY FROM ANOTHER CSU CAMPUS:
You may receive GWR credit if you fulfilled the requirement while enrolled at another CSU campus. Ask a representative from the GWR office at your former CSU campus to send to the Writing and Learning Initiatives office (writingandlearning@calpoly.edu) an official letter verifying GWR completion.

IF YOU TRANSFERRED TO CAL POLY FROM A 4-YEAR INSTITUTION OUTSIDE OF THE CSU SYSTEM:
You will need to fulfill the GWR at Cal Poly because students must earn GWR credit from the CSU campus at which they matriculate.

For more information about the GWR, please visit the GWR website. 

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United States Cultural Pluralism (USCP) Requirement

Students are required to complete one USCP course. This course also fulfills a requirement for Major, Support, General Education, or Free Elective category.

What are USCP courses? 

USCP courses must fulfill all of the criteria according to AS-836-17 and they must also address the Diversity Learning Objectives (DLOs). You can explore what courses count for the USCP requirement on the Catalog website. 

How this will look in your DPR:

 

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Understanding Schedule Builder

Check out this video to learn how to use Schedule Builder as a student.

We encourage you to practice using Schedule Builder and explore the schedule builder FAQs.