All CSUN graduate students earning a degree are required by the CSU to satisfy the Graduate Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) prior to full classification.  Graduate students who completed an undergraduate degree at any CSU since 1982 have automatically met this requirement because they were required to demonstrate writing proficiency in order to graduate.  All other graduate students have been required to take the Upper Division Writing Proficiency Exam (UDWPE) and score an 8 or higher.

There are three paths to satisfy the GWAR requirement.

Students can:

1. Demonstrate that they earned an undergraduate degree at a CSU since 1982, or
2. Take the UDWPE and earn a score of 8 or higher, or
3. Take the GRE-A and earn a score of 3 or higher.

Graduate programs with existing requirements of higher GRE or UDWPE scores may continue to enforce those requirements.