Beginning in Fall 2026 Cal Poly will operate on a semester schedule, not a quarter schedule.  While the updated MS curriculum has not been officially approved it will be 30 semester-units with a 3 semester sequence culminating in your thesis (research methods course, independent research, and thesis), 7 units from a specific list of course(s), and the remaining units as a mix of 4000- and 5000- electives.  The transition plan also hasn’t been finalized, however it is anticipated that students working on their MS or BMS during the transition will have the option to remain on the quarter catalog or switch to the semester catalog.  Given that the semester curriculum will likely be a bit more restrictive it will be best for most students to remain on the quarter catalog.

 

The updated research methods course (CSC 5590) will be 3 semester-units, which is more than the current course’s 1 quarter-unit (CSC 590).  It has not yet been decided how the extra units will be made up if you took 590 prior to the transition.

 

Prior technical elective quarter-units will be converted to semester-units by dividing by 1.5.  For example, a 4 quarter-unit elective will be counted as a 2.67 semester-unit elective.  Conversely new semester-units be converted to quarter-units by multiplying by 1.5.  You can find the official conversation table by clicking here.  In some cases this may result in rounding errors.  It is currently unclear how these will be handled but there will be a small amount of margin so you do not need to hit the exact unit total.

 

If you complete your degree requirements prior to the transition (Summer 2026 or earlier), or you first enroll Fall 2026 or later, the transition will have negligible impact on your graduate degree.