Fees Viewable - at time of registration 04/26/2021 - 04/30/2021
Students WITHOUT Financial Aid — Past due: 05/24/2021, Class Cancellation: 06/08/2021
Students WITH Financial Aid — Past due: 06/21/2021, not subject to class cancellation
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Welcome to Cal Poly! The Student Accounts Office has prepared the following videos and this guide as a general overview of the charge and payment activity you should expect to see on your Student Account. Specific amounts and due dates can be found on referenced web and portal pages.
Watch the following videos put together by our Student Solutions Support team to learn about Money Matters in your Cal Poly portal and how to access and/or share financial information with your Supporters.
Here our Student Solutions Support Specialists introduce themselves and the video series.
A few quick tips on basic charges for Registration-Tuition, Housing and Dining ... and how those balances may appear on Money Matters.
A few quick tips on Housing and Dining Charges and their payment schedule (which is different from Registration-Tuition).
A quick overview of the Financial Aid Process - Aid is Offered, Accepted and then Disbursed. What does that all mean? We explain.
How to access the Student Payment Portal and make payments for Tuition-Registration, Housing or Dining.
When you go into the Payment Portal (Student or Parent), you don't have to pay the full balance. Here's how to make a partial payment towards Tuition-Registration, Housing or Dining.
A few quick tips on how to keep your Mustang Supporter connected to what's going on in your Student Account - so they can see what's due when and make payments.
How to set up Share My Information Reports so your Mustang Supporter(s) can see Charges, Due Dates, Financial Aid and more - just like what you see in Money Matters and your Cal Poly portal.
How to Set Up your Mustang Supporter with a Parent Username and Password so they can make payments through their own Parent Payment Portal.
When a financial obligation is past due, a Registration Hold is placed on the Student Account preventing the student from adding or changing classes.
If you do NOT have Financial Aid and have a past due balance prior to the beginning of the term, you may be subject to Class Cancellation - and have all your enrolled classes dropped.
We have put together a full outline of everything you need to know to be an awesome Mustang Supporter and help your student with the financial part of their university education at Cal Poly. There are four videos in the set presented by our Solutions Support Facilitator in Student Accounts.
If you only have time to watch one video, this is the one to watch. We outline great resources available to both students and their supporters as well as the one, very important Rule of the Road when it comes Cal Poly and Student Accounts.
This video presents an overview of payment options, how charges post to the account and how to manage due dates.
An overview of the Financial Aid process and how Financial Aid is applied to Student Account Balances.
A quick review of some of the more unique terms used in Student Accounts and Financial Aid and a punch-list of important dates and tasks to start off the fall quarter in good standing.
For specific amounts and due dates, please refer to Money Matters, Share My Information reports and cited web pages.
Balances, sytem-wide due dates and amounts are viewable on the 'Money Matters' tab of your Cal Poly portal (my.calpoly.edu). Cal Poly does not invoice or send paper statements for current charges. Therefore, you will need to monitor your Student Account via Money Matters regularly (we recommend visiting once a week) and after self-service activity such as class registration.
If you have a Mustang Supporter helping you, we recommend that you set up Share My Information reports for them so they can have access to similar information to what you see in Money Matters. Any outbound notifications from us will go to you, the student. It will not go to your parent, supporter or anyone else unless you forward that message to them.
| 2020 | Important Financial Items for New Students |
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| March - May |
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| August |
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| September |
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The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student records and prohibits university staff from disclosing certain information to parents or other individuals without the permission of the student. Once students are enrolled in classes, regardless of age, they are covered under FERPA. The Student Accounts Office takes student privacy seriously. Records created and maintained by our office are considered education records and cannot be disclosed to a third party without the student's prior expressed consent.
We understand that in many cases, payment is ultimately coming from the parent and not the student. However, we cannot release details of a student’s account to anyone, including their parents or person sending us money, unless that student has authorized the release of their federally protected information. Without permission, we can’t even answer a question as basic as “what is our balance due.”
To grant consent, a student will need to go to the Student Center in their Cal Poly portal, scroll down to the Personal Information section and click on the 'Authorize to Release' link, enter each supporter's name and grant them a four-digit access code. More information is available at 'Authorize to Release'.
Charged quarterly based upon enrollment. All students (including California resident students) pay Base Registration and Tuition fees that are charged either at a half-time or full time rate based upon enrolled units, Undergraduate or Graduate career and college.
The half-time rate is charged for 6 units or less and full time is 7 or more units. (Note: Full time fee status and financial aid eligibility have different unit requirements.)
Fee amounts are published on Fees and Payment Schedules for each academic year or term and available online at Learn more.
Non-residents are charged a Non-Resident Tuition Fee per unit per quarter in addition to Base Registration and Tuition Fees.
A voluntary Student Involvement and Representation Fee (SIRF) is charged in fall and spring terms only. Students may choose to opt out of the SIRF fee via their Student Center's Account Activity. Last day to opt out is the term's census date. More information available at our fees section.
Charged annually (Fall thru Spring term) in August based upon completed housing contract. Amount determined by housing assignment. Initial charges/payments paid earlier in the year (usually spring) will reduce the annual balance due in August. Charges are spread across monthly due dates and amounts at time of posting. You can view details through the 'Unpaid Charges' sub tab of Money Matters (Cal Poly portal) or the 'Account and Payment Summary' in Share My Information reports.
Charged annually in August based upon completed combined housing/dining contract. Amount determined by dining plan chosen by student during housing application. Initial charges/payments made earlier in the year (usually spring) reduce the annual balance charged in August. Charges are spread across monthly due dates and amounts at time of posting. You can view details through the 'Unpaid Charges' sub tab of Money Matters (Cal Poly portal) or the 'Account and Payment Summary' in Share My Information reports.
Charged quarterly based upon enrollment in specific courses with lab or material fees.
Note: Students who have a financial aid award for the current quarter may have select charges deferred until financial aid disbursement dates. See section below titled “How do I apply my Financial Aid," the Financial Aid Primer video (Part 3 of Money Matters for Mustang Supporters above) or the "Financial Aid Overview" video in Money Matters for New Students (also above).
Charged and due at time of registration, past due if not paid by the due date viewable in the portal and published on the fee schedules. Exception for Fall term. Fall term fees are charged in July for continuing students and August for First Years with a due date in the latter part of August. Specific term dates as well as fee planning calculators are available at SA.CalPoly.edu.
Annual balance due either in full by September 1st or paid by monthly due dates from September 1st to May 1st. Specific amounts and due dates available on the 'Unpaid Charges' sub tab of Money Matters (Cal Poly portal) or the 'Account and Payment Summary' in Share My Information reports.
Annual balance due either in full by September 1st or paid by monthly due dates from September 1st to May 1st. Specific amounts and due dates available on the 'Unpaid Charges' sub tab of Money Matters (Cal Poly portal) or the 'Account and Payment Summary' in Share My Information reports. A $21 convenience fee may apply to all Dining plans not paid in full for the year by Septemeber 1st.
Housing and Dining charges (when applicable) are charged on an annual basis in August. Annual charges, less any payments or credits applied, are viewable on the 'Money Matters' tab of the student portal on the 'Housing' and 'Dining' lines. Details by monthly due date are viewable by clicking the 'Unpaid Charges' sub tab of Money matters or the 'Account and Payment Summary' in Share My Information reports.
The 'Money Matters' tab of the student portal reflects the annual housing and/or dining charges remaining to be paid for the remainder of the housing contract. As payments are posted, the balance on the 'Money Matters' tab will decrease. If the status of your payments is current, your account will not have a hold for the remaining housing and/or dining balance as the balance is due on future 1st of the month due dates.
Cal Poly does not auto debit or process reoccuring charges to credit cards or bank accounts even if you have saved your payment method information. You must manually go in and make the payment every time you want to pay the university.
Payments can be made online through the 'Money Matters' tab of the student's Cal Poly portal by clicking on the gold 'Make A Payment Now' button. This will open up the CASHNet Online Payment system. The Payments screen shows all Account Balances - all charges that have been posted to the student account but have not yet been paid, regardless of when those amounts are due – will appear at the top of the screen. You can make a partial payment to any item type (Registration and Other Fees, Housing or Dining) by clicking on the words associated with that balance and then editing the amount before you 'Add to Basket'.
Online payment can be made by eCheck or Credit Card. There is no convenience fee for payments made by eCheck. A 2.65% convenience fee will be charged for any credit card or debit card payment.
The online payment system may be accessed outside of the student portal through the links at SA.CalPoly.edu. There are two payment portal types - a student payment portal and a parent payment portal. They both show the same information. The only difference between the two is that saved banking information in one is not viewable or useable in the other.
Anyone can access the Student Payment portal using the student's EMPL ID and month and day of birth. To access the Parent Payment portal, the supporter will need a separate Username and Password. The Student is the only one who can set up this login access. The setup guide is available on our Parent Username Setup Guide.
More information regarding Online Payments and International Wire Transfers available at: Online Payments
Registration and Tuition Fees not paid by due date or deferred by financial aid ('Deferred by Financial Aid' will appear in Money Matters or Share My Information reports next to any charges that are deferred) are considered past due and may result in class cancellation. Class cancellation drops students from all enrolled classes for the term. The Class Cancellation date for the upcoming quarter is published on all pages at SA.CalPoly.edu.
Housing and/or Dining balances not paid at least by monthly due date and amount are considered past due on the 2nd of each month and may result in a hold applied to the student account.
Student accounts with past due charges are subject to holds that prevent transcript requests and registration activities such as adding, swapping or advancing from a wait list. Holds are often a precursor, but not required, to class cancellation or collection efforts, so it’s vital that you routinely check the ‘Holds and Warnings’ section of your ‘Student Center’. Links to the ‘Student Center’ are on the ‘Money Matters’ tab and in 'Single Click Links' of your student portal.
Your annual financial aid award is divided, usually into thirds, for Fall, Winter and Spring terms. Each term your aid will disburse/post to your student account and apply like a payment to approved charges (see requirements below). Any financial aid not applied to charges will automatically refund to the student for student aid and to the parent for Parent PLUS Loans. It is important to check your balance after financial aid disburses/posts to ensure that all fees were paid. A refund to your bank account does not guarantee that all charges have been paid.
Financial Aid applies in the following order:
If your charges are approved for payment by financial aid, the due dates are extended or ‘deferred’ until the term’s financial aid disbursement date (usually the week before the term begins).
Review your amount of ‘accepted’ financial aid from the link on the ‘Money Matters’ tab for comparison to required amounts. Non-disbursable aid such as Federal Work Study or Outside Scholarships not yet received by Cal Poly are excluded for comparison purposes as the funds are not accessible to apply directly to charges. Outside Scholarships become disbursable once Cal Poly's Financial Aid Office has recorded the check or transfer of funds as received.
Complete required ‘To Do’ list items for your financial aid to prevent delays in aid disbursement and holds.
Financial aid is ‘earned’ based upon enrollment, so changes in enrolled units or withdrawals may impact financial aid amounts.
Direct deposit is required for student financial aid refunds. New students can setup direct deposit after they are enrolled via the ‘Direct Deposit’ link on the ‘Money Matters’ tab of the student portal.
With the exception of summer term, the first direct deposit refunds for each term (the date that you will receive the funds in your bank account) is the day before the term begins. Refunds are processed twice a week thereafter.
Registration and Tuition Fees are automatically deferred for students with disbursable aid awarded at Cal Poly. No formal request required. Non-disbursable aid such as Federal Work Study or Outside Scholarships not yet received by Cal Poly are excluded and do not defer fees or exclude students from Class Cancellation.
In order for your Financial Aid to defer any of your Housing costs for the quarter, you must have been offered and accepted enough aid to cover all of your Registration and Tuition fee balances first. Financial Aid can only be used to defer Dining charges if you have been offered and accepted enough aid to cover All Registration and Tuition balances and 100% of Housing balances for that quarter. If you want to receive a Financial Aid Refund, you must have been offered and accepted financial aid in excess of ALL Registration and Tuition fees as well as 100% of both Housing and Dining charges for that quarter.
Once Housing and Dining Charges have posted (in early August), the phrase 'Deferred by Financial Aid' will appear next to each balance amount (on both Money Matters and Share My Information) once you have accepted enough disbursable financial aid. This will indicate that the Due Date for the first payment of that quarter is extended until financial aid disburses. For Fall 2019, that would mean that the September 1st installment on Housing or Dining would not have to be paid until after your aid has applied to those charges for that quarter.
Financial aid will not apply to Health Center charges, housing miscellaneous charges, library fines or other non-instructional related charges. These charges require personal payment.
Share My Info is an electronic tool for students to give parents or supporters access to reports on their student account and financial aid information on line. The student creates a report and selects the information to be shared with the parent/supporter. The student can choose a number of different areas to be part of the report. Just a few of those areas are:
The student creates the Share My Info report from their Cal Poly portal and includes the parent's email address in the recipient listing. An email is sent to the parent explaining how to create a login to the Share My Information system. Once the parent has confirmed the login information, they will be able to view the report.
