A faculty advisor is a professor in the CPE Program with whom you can speak with about your academic courses and progress at Cal Poly.

Students can choose any CPE faculty member to be their faculty advisor. However, if a student is unsure who to speak with, she can refer to the faculty advisor roster.

The current Faculty Advisor Roster can be found on the Student Forms section of our website. 

You can check on your AP and/or IB scores via your My Cal Poly Portal.

There’s no real right answer to this question. Students who have eligible credits can certainly apply them. However, each person should be honest with themselves about how well they actually know the material. Will you be prepared to take the courses that follow the classes you’ve received AP credit? Or will you be doing yourself a disservice because you won’t be fully prepared? It’s a personal choice for each student.

You can start by looking up courses at assist.org, but it’s a good idea to also speak with someone in the Engineering Advising Center to verify that the course will matriculate properly.

For more information about transfer credits from California colleges and universities, see assist.org

Cal Poly Engineering Student Services – Advising: https://eadvise.calpoly.edu/

You do not need to know a programming language prior to coming to Cal Poly. However, having a familiarity with them is certainly beneficial. For incoming freshman, learning about Python and Java would be helpful since CPE 101 uses Python and CPE 102/103 uses Java.

Registration issues come up from time to time. Read through the most common registration issues below to troubleshoot your situation.

Class has available seats, but you are restricted from registering:

• You haven’t met course requisites: Be sure you’ve taken all the prerequisites prior to enrolling. If you are certain that you are eligible to enroll, but the system isn’t recognizing that you’ve met course requisites, contact the department/program offering the course for instructions on how to proceed.
• You are taking the course off-flow chart: You will need to fill out an off-quarter enrollment form at the Electrical Engineering Department Office to request a permission number to enroll.
• Your registration rotation is passed: If your rotation has passed, you will have to wait until the Open Enrollment period begins to register.

Class is full and you cannot register:

• Get on the wait list: You will need to get on the wait list if the course is full. Departments use wait list information to determine if there’s a need to open an extra section or create additional seats in a class.
• Email the instructor or the department/program offering the course: You can contact the instructor of the class directly to inquire about seating availability.
• Come see the CPE director: If you cannot enroll in a class that will delay your graduation, come into the CPE Office asap to make an appointment with the CPE Director.

Other technical issue with registration:

• If you are having a technical issue with registration it’s best to contact the Office of the Registrar directly.

Taking courses in order on the flowchart is ideal, but sometimes not possible. The impact of missing a class depends on which course it is and if it affects the prerequisite chain to EE 306. Students who are concerned about missing a course should make an appointment to see the CPE director as soon as possible.

EE 306 is a class CPE students take in their junior year. Every class up to that course is a prerequisite. To ensure you’ll hit graduation in a timely manner, be sure that you are planning to take EE 306 fall of your junior year. 

Depending on the course, you may need to check with the Office of the Registrar or Engineering Advising Center.

• Is the course listed on your curriculum sheet or as an approved technical elective? For instance, you took CPE 123 but it doesn’t appear in your progress toward degree. For courses like this you need to check with the Office of the Registrar.
• Did you take a course that was a substitution for another course? For example, you took CPE 400 to satisfy a technical elective credit. Or because you were a transfer student, you are applying units you took previously to satisfy one of the CPE required courses. In this instance, you need to go to the Engineering Advising Center and pick up a Substitution Form. Fill out the form and have the advising center route it for signature.

For more information about changing majors, see the Engineering Student Services Changing Majors section.