Fall 2009 Transfer Students

The College of Engineering highly encourages and recommends that all new students attend SOAR (Student, Orientation, Advising and Registration). We have worked hard to coordinate an event that will prepare you for your first quarter at Cal Poly. Students who attend SOAR will be able to meet with an academic advisor, register for Fall Quarter and attend invaluable sessions to prepare them for Cal Poly. Transfer SOAR days will be held on August 14th and 17th. For more information about SOAR please refer to http://www.studentlife.calpoly.edu/ori/soar/. For students who are unable to attend SOAR please read the following carefully before registering:

Getting Started

You will need access to the following materials to prepare for registration:

• A current Cal Poly Catalog (available on-line at http://www.calpoly.edu/~acadprog/) that provides a list of the required courses for your major, course descriptions including prerequisites, and university academic policies.
• Your curriculum sheet and flow chart (you can access these materials on-line at http://www.eadvise.calpoly.edu/dept/). Note: You will most likely be following the 09-11 catalog.
• PASS (Plan a Student Schedule) provides information on registration, the student planning calendar, current GE courses, instructions for registering, and a schedule of courses offered. Before your scheduled registration time, it is important that you use PASS which is available from the Registration & Enrollment tab on the www.my.calpoly.edu portal. Find the courses you want to take, use the program to find all available schedules, and then save several schedules that meet your needs. You may not get your first choice of classes or times, so it is important to have alternative schedules that work.
• Cal Poly Registration (CPReg) available through the Registration & Enrollment tab on the my.calpoly.edu portal. You will use CPReg to register for your courses. For questions regarding how to register please watch the demo on your my.calpoly.edu portal and carefully read http://www.ess.calpoly.edu/_records/registration/add_dropps2.html.
• Transfer evaluation (see below)
• Unofficial transcripts (if you have not been mailed your transfer evaluation prior to registration).

Scheduling

All new transfer students will be able to register on August 14th at 2:00p.m.

Prior to registering, you should study these materials and attempt to piece together a schedule and several alternate schedules. You are competing with other New Students, so creating a schedule (with alternate schedules) in advance will save you time on the day of registration.

Transfer Evaluations

If you are a transfer student, we recommend that on the flow chart for your major, you cross out the courses that you have completed at another institution. Consult your transfer evaluation (this should be mailed or emailed to you by Cal Poly sometime during Summer or Fall Quarter) and www.assist.org to verify your what courses you have completed and those you still need to complete at Cal Poly.

Note: It is highly unlikely that you will receive the Transfer Evaluation prior to registration, so prepare accordingly.

If you have not yet received your transfer evaluation by the time you are scheduled to register, you will want to use the following website: http://www.assist.org.

Assist.org

This website has the articulation agreements between California community colleges, CSU and UC schools. If a course you took at your community college articulates to a course at Cal Poly, then you can assume that you will be awarded credit for that course. Courses not articulated can in some cases be petitioned for course credit. Once you are at Cal Poly, you can pick up the required forms from the Engineering Advising Center. Also, refer to http://www.ess.calpoly.edu/_records/Degree_Progress/Assist_help.pdf for help with assist.org.

How many units?

Engineering students are advised to enroll in 16 units your first quarter at Cal Poly. Full-time status is 12 units or more. Generally, every one unit of class is equal to two hours of study outside of class each week (For example, 16 units = 32 hours of study each week). Prepare for a full schedule when taking labs: They can seem like more work than the one unit value suggests!

Curriculum Sheets

Curriculum sheets contain all the courses you need to complete in order to graduate. These sheets are handy for monitoring your progress especially when used with your flow chart. You can download your curriculum sheet at http://www.eadvise.calpoly.edu/dept/.

Flow Charts

You will use this tool as a guide to determine what classes to take, in what order, and how to follow prerequisites. You can download your flowchart at http://www.eadvise.calpoly.edu/dept/.

Course Offerings

The list of course offerings is a tentative schedule of what classes your department plans to offer over the next academic year. Refer to http://www.eadvise.calpoly.edu/dept/ for tentative course offerings by major.

Academic Expectations (Minimum Progress)

In the Cal Poly Catalog, the degree requirements are separated into four categories: major, support, general education, and free electives.

College of Engineering students are required to meet these minimum academic expectations in order to remain in satisfactory administrative standing, student's schedules are checked every quarter to verify these requirements are met:

• Complete with passing grades a minimum of 45 degree applicable units per academic year (an academic year runs from summer through spring) in order to stay on track for a timely graduation. Degree applicable units are those units required for your major as outlined on your curriculum sheet.
• Complete 15+ degree applicable units per quarter (with the requisite number of major/support units) in order to stay on track for graduation.
• Enroll and complete (with passing grades) a minimum of 6 units of degree applicable major and/or support coursework each quarter with no more than 4 units that are not degree applicable.
• Complete your lower-division math and science courses as early as possible. Engineering students are expected to be enrolled in a math course each quarter until the sequence is completed.

Please refer to http://www.eadvise.calpoly.edu/policy/probation.php for additional progress information.

To determine which courses are major, support, general education, and free electives, you should refer to the Cal Poly Catalog or the major curriculum sheet. Students who keep track of their progress on the curriculum sheets typically do not have any problems determining which courses are major courses, support courses, general education courses, and free electives courses.

Choosing Courses

Once you have determined which courses you have credit for at Cal Poly and crossed off these courses on your flowchart, you will want to select the lowest-numbered courses that you have not yet completed on your flowchart. Remember the "Academic Expectations" when registering! It is also important to look to take courses that are prerequisites for other advanced major courses, these will open up more course options for subsequent quarters. Also, make sure that you complete all of your math and science courses left outstanding as soon as possible.

Prerequisites

When choosing courses, you should be mindful of the prerequisites. Prerequisites (listed in the current Cal Poly Catalog and usually noted on your flow chart and on PASS) are strictly enforced for all major courses. It is your responsibility to have your final transcript sent to the Admissions Office to ensure that you receive the proper course credit. Failure to due so could prevent you from enrolling in >major courses and delay your progress toward graduation. Transfer students often have trouble with prerequisites due to the system not recognizing transfer coursework. If this happens to you, please contact the department offering the course you wish to enroll in.

• Aerospace Engineering (AERO): 805-756-2562
• Biomedical Engineering (BMED): 805-756-6400
• Civil Engineering (CE): 805-756-2947
• Computer Engineering (CPE): 805-756-1229
• Computer Science (CSC): 805-756-2824
• Electrical Engineering (EE): 805-756-2781
• Environmental Engineering (ENVE): 805-756-2947
• General Engineering (GENE): 805-756-6400
• Industrial Engineering (IE): 805-756-2342
• Manufacturing Engineering (MFGE): 805-756-2342
• Materials Engineering (MATE): 805-756-2568
• Mechanical Engineering (ME): 805-756-1334
• Software Engineering (SE): 805-756-2824

Area C4 Requirement

If you completed general education courses at a community college, one of the only remaining courses you might not have fulfilled in your GE column is the C4 requirement. This is an upper-division class (300-400 level) and therefore could not have been completed at a community college. Many students attempt to fulfill one and sometimes two additional graduation requirements through their C4 course. These additional requirements are listed below. Typically, the prerequisites to the C4 requirement include: completion of Area A (ENGL 134, COMS 101/102, and ENGL 149) and C1 Literature. Do not enroll in a C4 course if you are missing one of the prerequisites. Instead, enroll in the missing prerequisite course (i.e. ENGL 149 or C1 Literature).

United States Cultural Pluralism (USCP)

Refer to http://www.catalog.calpoly.edu/2009pubcat/uscp.pdf for a complete description of what this requirement encompasses and a list of Cal Poly GE courses that fulfill this requirement. USCP courses are also designated on PASS. They are also in parentheses next to the title of the courses listed in the GE Requirements Chart at http://ge.calpoly.edu. There are a few courses that meet both the C4 requirement and the USCP requirement. If you do not meet the USCP requirement through a C4 course, you must meet it through another course. See "GE Conversion Chart" below for another tip.

Graduate Writing Requirement (GWR)

This is a writing requirement that assures that students have maintained the ability to write proficiently at the time of graduation and before they enter the professional work force. Refer to http://www.calpoly.edu/~wrtskils/gwr/ for more details about meeting this requirement through a C4 GE course that offers GWR credit, a non-GE course that offers GWR credit, or by paying to take the WPE test. See "GE Conversion Chart" below for another tip.

GE Conversion Chart

Go to http://www.ge.calpoly.edu/ and click on the "ALL GE Courses" link to pull up the most current GE Class Offerings. Go to AREA C4. These are the GE courses at Cal Poly that count for this area. Classes that count for GWR and USCP have these notations next to them. Note: There are a few classes that will count for both requirements! These classes fill up fast, so if you want to meet three requirements with one course, your first quarter at Cal Poly might be the time to get this done. (All prerequisites apply).

Where Can I Get Advice?

The Engineering Advising Center

If you have specific questions, you can call the Engineering Advising Center at 805-756-1461 or email us at eadvise@calpoly.edu. The Engineering Advising Center may not be open during the SOAR (Student, Orientation, Advising and Registration) days: July 29th, 30th, August 4th, 5th, 11th, 12th, 14th, and 17th. For more information about the Advising Center please refer to our website, www.eadvise.calpoly.edu. Do not wait until the last minute on your registration date to examine your transfer evaluation or to use Assist.org if you have not received your transfer evaluation.

CENG Faculty Advisors

Each student within the College of Engineering is assigned a faculty advisor. Faculty advisors are assigned through each department office. Faculty advisors are responsible for providing information on the following:

• Technical advice
• Course scheduling
• Course content questions
• Career planning
• Graduate schools
• Coops

Please contact your department office to determine who your faculty advisor is.