Cal Poly Student Portal: A Comprehensive Guide

The Cal Poly Student Portal is a centralized online hub designed to provide students with easy access to essential academic, financial, and personal information. This guide offers a detailed overview of how to navigate and utilize the portal's various features and resources effectively.

Accessing the Portal

To access your My Cal Poly Portal, search for my.calpoly.edu in your browser. You will be prompted to select a method for multi-factor authentication. The Home page of your My Portal will then open.

Key Features and Functions

1. Student Center

To access Student Center, click on Student Center under My Apps on the Cal Poly portal.

Finances Section

The "Finances" section within the Student Center is crucial for managing tuition, fees, and financial aid.

Account Inquiry: To access this feature, once you access your Student Center, scroll to the middle of the page to a section titled "Finances," and click on Account Inquiry. Here, you can see your fees due per term as well as your pending Financial Aid. If your Pending Aid is greater than or equal to your Outstanding Charges, then you do not need to make a payment for that term. If the Pending Aid is less than your Outstanding Charges, you will need to pay the difference to avoid getting dropped from your classes.
Charges Due: To view charges due, access your Student Center, scroll to the middle of the page to the "Finances" section, and click on Charges Due. Here, you can see when your fees are due, and how much. This page will NOT show your pending financial aid, only fees that have been charged to your account.
Account Activity: Access your "Account Activity," by accessing your Student Center, go to the right of the webpage and you will find a section for "To-Do List.", select Account Activity, and click the arrow beside it to continue. On the page for "Account Activity," you will be shown all of the charges, and payments to your account, as well as refunds. This chart will also show the breakdown of your student fees, and how much financial aid is posted to your account.
Make a Payment: Select "Make a Payment" from your student center and then select the yellow "Make a Payment" button on the next screen.
Student Payment Portal: Select "Activity Detail" from the lefthand menu in the Student Payment Portal. The page will display a snapshot of the student account broken up into different segments. "BALANCE SUMMARY" shows an overall summary of all past term nonpaid charges, the current term nonpaid charges (with anticipated aid), and future term nonpaid charges (without anticipated aid). "BALANCE DETAIL", consists of a more detailed summary of the nonpaid charges from the current term (and future terms) broken up between charge types (tuition and fees, housing, payment plans, etc.). There is also a line for "Remaining Term Balance Owed" which indicates the out-of-pocket amount due after financial aid has paid the charges. "CHARGES BY DUE DATE" shows all of the remaining nonpaid charges on the account sorted by the due date to indicate how much is due and when.
Opting Out of Student Involvement Fee: Once you have accessed your "Account Activity," you can find the Student Involvement fee. To the right of the $2.00, you will see the option to opt-out. Click on the Opt Out text and you will be asked to fill out a short questionnaire. Once that is completed, you see a new line appear showing -$2.00 (which cancels out the original fee).
Direct Deposit Enrollment: Enroll in Direct Deposit by accessing your Student Center, scroll down to locate the section titled "Finances." Locate the link for Enroll in Direct Deposit. The next page will ask for your banking information. The account and routing number can be found on the bottom of a blank check. Once you are enrolled in direct deposit, you will get refunds automatically sent to your bank instead of having to pick up a check at the Cashier's Office.
Payment Plans: The student must self-enroll (from the Student Center) in the payment plan each quarter after their charges have posted and prior to the Class Cancellation date for the quarter. The Term Payment plan will split the current quarter's Registration and Tuition fees into three monthly payment amounts.
- Term Payment Plan: The Term Payment Plan affords a student the opportunity to spread out most Tuition-Registration and Mandatory Campus Based Fees into three installments with due dates one month apart. To be in a Term Payment Plan for the quarter, you MUST ENROLL in the plan following a four step process, during the period from when charges post for the quarter until the Class Cancellation date for that quarter.
Send a Payer Invitation: Log into your myHumboldt portal and select "Student Center" . Under the Finances section select "Make a Payment". Once the student payment portal has loaded, select "My Account" from the left-hand menu and then select "Send a payer invitation" under the Payers section.

"To-Do List" Section

Once you have accessed your Student Center, go to the right of the webpage and you will find a section for "To-Do List." Click on "More" and you will find pending tasks that various departments may need you to complete. When you click on the item in the list, it will give you more details on how to complete the task. Check this section often in case there are things you need to do!

Personal Information Section

Once you access your Student Center, scroll down to locate the section titled "Personal Information." You can give Humboldt consent to release one or more of your educational records (financial, housing, enrollment) to a parent, guardian, or other family members with a single online form. You will see a page that describes the different types of authorization you may release. You will give the name of who will have authorization and the Expiration date for the designee. They can have access to your information for up to one calendar year, and you will need to update their expiration date each year. Select the Department and the Records you wish to share. Enter a brief reason for the release of information. If you want to add more records to share, click the plus button. Click Save when you are done.

Enrollment Agreement

The Enrollment Agreement must be completed EACH semester before you can register for classes.

2. Academics Tab and Faculty Center

To access your Faculty Center, first go to the Academics tab on your My Portal. For more information about accessing your Portal, please see the Faculty Portal User Guide.

Faculty Center allows access to class and weekly schedules, class rosters, grade rosters, class search, and the ability to lookup students. What you can see in your Faculty Center will depend on your role and security access.

Lookup Student: To view information about a student, first use the "Lookup Student" function. Once you have selected the "Lookup Student" function, search for the student by their name or EMPL ID (searching by EMPL ID is much faster). A pop-up will appear with a FERPA reminder. While in student view, the message “Acting As: [Student’s Name]” will appear at the top of each page. To exit student view and return to Lookup Student, click “Exit” to the right of this message.
View Students: On the "View Students" page, you are able to view an individual's personal information by clicking the carrot directly to the left of the student's name. Also on this page, you can download an Excel file or print a PDF of your Class Roster using the download and print icons in the top right corner.

3. Degree Progress Report (DPR)

The upgraded DPR has a compact structure and mobile-friendly interface. Click on the requirement box to view more details about requirement areas in the right-hand column.

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Expanding and Viewing Requirements: To expand requirements or areas, click on the boxes or carrots to "open" details. To see what course(s) are counting toward the satisfaction of a requirement, click the "View Courses" button.
Comprehensive Information: All degree requirements found in the "classic view" of the Degree Progress Report (GWR, USCP, 60 upper division units, etc.) are still reflected in the upgraded Degree Progress Report.
Hiding Satisfied Requirements: In the left-hand column is a "Hide Satisfied Requirements" button. Clicking said button will hide all "Satisfied" and "Satisfied-IP" (in progress) requirements.
Course Credits Not Used: In the upgraded DPR, Course Credits Not Used appear after General Education Requirements and before Major requirements.
PDF View: Users also have the option of viewing the student’s DPR as a PDF. Click “View PDF” button at the top of the left-hand column. The PDF is also the fastest way to determine if a substitution or exception was completed.

4. Class Search and Enrollment

Class Search: Class Search allows students to search for classes by specific course attributes, including Modes of Instruction (online, in person, hybrid, etc.), General Education areas, US Cultural Pluralism, and Graduation Writing Requirement.
Schedule Builder: Schedule Builder allows students to plan their schedules for the upcoming term. Create and save multiple schedule options prior to your registration appointment. The tool is accessible through the Student Center.
Adding a Class: In Student Center, click Enrollment and then Shopping Cart. On this page, you will select "Add by class number." You can enter the class number and then permission number. Click save. You will then select the check box next to the class and click enroll. Carefully read enrollment results and verify your schedule.
- NOTE: You cannot have pushed your course from Schedule Builder to the Shopping Cart.
Swapping Classes: Click on the Swap Classes. Choose the class you wish to swap out of and enter the class number you wish to swap into and click swap. If the class you want to swap into has a waitlist, you will receive the option to waitlist. Click “wait list if class is full” to be added to the waitlist.
Dropping Classes: Classes can be dropped through the eighth day of instruction. It is the student's responsibility to verify their schedule and drop unwanted courses before the drop deadline via Student Center.
- If you are enrolled in the wrong class or section at the end of the term, you will receive a failing grade of “F” or “WU”. Following the end of the drop period, if you wish to withdraw from a class, you must do so by submitting a course withdrawal petition with approval signatures.
Permission Numbers: Permission numbers are special “codes” departments or class instructors may choose to issue so a student can enroll in the class. Permission numbers are “exceptions” and are not issued easily or frequently.
- The following guidelines apply to the majority of the courses offered at Cal Poly. The top section contains information about the selected class. The middle section indicates if the permission numbers have been used and by whom**. The bottom section contains duplicates of all unused permission numbers from the middle section in a format intended to be copied and pasted for distributing to students. Students should be reminded to use both the class number and permission number to complete their enrollment in the class. The 'Yes' or 'No' with the permission number indicates whether the permission will override requisites (Yes) or will not override requisites (No).
- Enrollment section classes are the primary component of the course, generally. **Permission numbers are valid until used in a successful enrollment by an individual student.
- Students may encounter problems when attempting to use permission numbers if: 1) the student does not meet the requisites of the course, 2) the student attempts to enroll in excess units, or 3) the student may have a time conflict. If an error occurs, the student will receive a message indicating why they are unable to successfully enroll in the course. After resolving the restriction, the permission number can be reused to attempt enrollment again.
- NOTE: Classes that have been set up with Student Specific Permissions will remain from the beginning of registration and throughout the add/drop period.
Waitlists: When a class is full, students can choose to waitlist for that class. If a certain number of seats in a class are reserved for a specific student population, students who meet the criteria for the reserved seats can enroll in the class and others are added to the waitlist.
- The waitlist process (i.e., adding students into the class if seats opens up) runs nightly starting the first day of registration through the first day of instruction. During the first 4 days of instruction, the waitlist process runs at noon and once at night.
- Once the term begins, if the student chooses to remain on the waitlist of a class, he or she should attend all class sessions in case they are enrolled through the waitlist process. Some faculty require attendance in the first class session and may choose to drop students who fail to attend without forewarning, even if they are enrolled in the class through the waitlist process.
- Students can waitlist for multiple sections of the same class if it does not have a component. Students should remove themselves from the waitlist(s) of the class(es) they are no longer interested in enrolling.
- Once the class is in your shopping cart check the “wait list if class is full” box under Class Preferences section before hitting the NEXT button.
- You can observe your waitlist position in your Student Center (in the "My Schedule" section, the "View Wait List" section, the "Drop Classes" section, and the "Edit Enrollment" section).
- If you are waitlisted for multiple sections of the same class and are enrolled in one of those sections, the system will automatically drop you from the other waitlisted sections.
- If a class has a lecture component and a lab component, the waitlist position displayed in the Student Center under "My Class Schedule" is the position number for the enrollment section of the class. For many classes, the enrollment section is the lecture component. With classes that have one lecture and multiple labs, the waitlist for the lecture and the lab may be different.
- When you are registering for a class that has a waitlist, you may choose to "Swap" a class that you are already enrolled in. Once you are waitlisted for the class, the system will create a "Drop if Enrolled" scenario.
Credit/No-Credit Selections: Students must make their credit/no-credit selections by the deadline. Maximum of four units towards GE courses. It is the student's responsibility to ensure that these limitations are met.
- If a student is not qualified to take a class for credit/no-credit based on the above requirements, but has incorrectly selected credit/no-credit grading (e.g., a second GE course) the actual letter grade earned for the class will be reinstated by the Evaluations Unit.
Excess Units: Students can register for 18 units during the first round of registration. If a student wishes to enroll in more than the maximum number of units allowed, permission must be obtained from the student's major advisor. The student must submit an Excess Unit Petition to the Office of the Registrar before the deadline to add classes for that term. The Office of the Registrar will process the form as soon as it is received to facilitate the student's enrollment in the additional class(es)/unit(s).
First Class Meeting Attendance: If you are unable to attend the first class meeting, prior arrangements should be made with the instructor. If you do not contact the instructor, you could be dropped. The instructor can drop student from class if a student is not present at the end of the first class meeting of a lecture, laboratory or activity class.
- If enrolled in a lab/lecture combination, be sure to attend both courses during the first session. If you attend the lecture on the first day but miss the laboratory session, or vice versa, you may be dropped from both.Do not assume that you will be dropped from a class.
Failure to Meet Course Requirements: Some classes have special pre-requisites or restrictions, require department or instructor consent, or are reserved for majors only.

5. Share My Information

Share My Info lets students create different groupings of information, called reports.

Create a report by naming your report and enter an expiration date. You can change the expiration date (extend or expire) at any point in the future.
Select a Template report. There are three suggested templates based on what students typically share with different groups. When you select a template, you will notice that specific items will be selected to share. You can use the template as-is, or you can customize the selections (dropping or adding items) as you prefer. You can also choose not to use a template and select the information you want to include in the report.
Types of information include:
- Student Account Information - includes your account and payment summaries (charges by due date, recent payments, and financial aid postings). It also includes links to important dates in the academic calendar.
- Financial Aid Information - includes your awards accepted and declined, holds and warnings, estimated costs to attend Cal Poly each quarter, and items in your Financial Aid To-Do list. You don't have to share everything; you choose what information you want to share.
- Academic Information - includes your GPA and grades.
Specify who will see your report Reports can be shared with one or more people or organizations. The person or people chosen are your recipients. You can review the information shared, the people you designated to view the reports, and the report expiration date. You can also modify when the reports expire, in case you need to extend or revoke access.
Report access history You have the option to see who has viewed your reports.

6. Additional Resources and Information

Academic Catalog: This link will take you to the current catalog. From here, you can search for programs, courses, flowcharts, etc.
Academic Calendar: This link will take you to all Calendars and Deadlines.
Current Final Exam Schedule: This link goes to the same page as Academic Calendar.
Grade Change Form: A grade may be changed to correct a clerical error or the error in the calculation of a grade. Grade changes cannot be processed for additional work performed or examination beyond the established course requirements.
Variable Unit Correction Form: Some courses have variable units, meaning students select how many units in which they would like to enroll. For example, ART 200 is 1-2 units.
Holds: On their Student Center, Students can see if they have a hold for academic or other university obligations that have not been met. Holds can prevent registration, ordering official transcripts, and use of facilities, services, and materials until cleared.
- Failure to pay within the required time-frame will result in a hold being placed on your account and classes being dropped.
Course Repeats: Undergraduate students that earn C- or less may repeat up to a maximum of 16 units for one time grade forgiveness and an additional 18 units for GPA improvement. Repeat adjustments are made automatically at the end of the term in which the course is repeated.
Portal Access After Graduation: The portal is available to students one year (four terms) after their last enrolled term at Cal Poly.
Auditing a Course: An auditor is a student who attends a course and receives no credit for the course.