In a previous article, we analyzed the easiest colleges to get into in the University of California system. This time around, we are analyzing the easiest colleges to get into in the California State University System, often simply called the Cal State system.
The California State University college system is home to many public four-year colleges, 23 individual campuses in total. Based on the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the 23 schools that comprise the Cal State system have a combined student population of 492,920, with 428,486 of them being undergraduates. Taken together, these 23 schools have an average graduation rate of 61%, while the average admission rate is 82%. However, both of these averages disguise major variations between colleges that make up the Cal State system. The easiest college to get into in the Cal State system has an undergraduate acceptance rate of 98%, while the hardest college to get into has an acceptance rate of 30%.
In order to find out the easiest colleges to get into in the Cal State system, BrokeScholar analyzed all the schools in the Cal State system in terms of their admission rates. Read on to find out the easiest colleges to get into in the Cal State college system.
How Many Schools Are in the Cal State System?
There are 23 schools in the California State University system that offer both undergraduate and graduate education, all are four-year public universities. These 23 schools are spread across all parts of California, northern California, southern California, and the interior of the state. And in terms of undergraduate populations, these 23 schools run the gamut from more than 35,000 students, down to just around 800. The colleges and universities that make up the Cal State system include:
- California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
- California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt
- California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
- California State University Maritime Academy
- California State University-Bakersfield
- California State University-Channel Islands
- California State University-Chico
- California State University-Dominguez Hills
- California State University-East Bay
- California State University-Fresno
- California State University-Fullerton
- California State University-Long Beach
- California State University-Los Angeles
- California State University-Monterey Bay
- California State University-Northridge
- California State University-Sacramento
- California State University-San Bernardino
- California State University-San Marcos
- California State University-Stanislaus
- San Diego State University
- San Francisco State University
- San Jose State University
- Sonoma State University
The Easiest Colleges to Get Into In the Cal State System
These 23 colleges have many shared characteristics, including a system-wide base tuition rate. However, the costs of tuition ultimately vary from university to university because of each school’s own additional required fees that must be paid along with tuition. And then, of course, students who are not residents of California, have significantly higher costs of tuition to pay than in-state students.
Below is a table ranked in order of Cal State colleges with the highest admission rate to the lowest. Data comes from the NCES and individual college sites:
Thus, currently, the easiest college to get into among the schools in the Cal State system is Cal Poly Humboldt University, with an undergraduate acceptance rate of 98%. This is followed by California State University, Stanislaus (Stanislaus State), which has an undergraduate acceptance rate of 97%. The hardest college to get into in the Cal State system is currently California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), which has an undergraduate acceptance rate of 30%.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the hardest college to get into in the Cal State system — California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) — also has the highest graduation rate at 85%. The easiest college to get into in the Cal State system — Cal Poly Humboldt University — has a graduation rate of 46%.
The Bottom Line on the Easiest Colleges to Get Into in the Cal State System
Looking at the easiest colleges to get into in the Cal State system, 14 schools have undergraduate acceptance rates of 90% or higher. Another 6 schools in the Cal State system have undergraduate admission rates of 50% or more, leaving just 3 schools in the Cal State system with admission rates of less than half of applicants.
If you’re thinking about which colleges to apply to, considerations such as cost of tuition and graduation rates must be included, alongside admission rate. For California residents, the costs of tuition and required fees at most Cal State system schools are very comparable and affordable; only Cal Poly has an in-state tuition that’s over $10,000 per academic year. For out-of-state applicants, however, the costs of tuition can be much greater compared to in-state applicants. Fortunately, BrokeScholar has a huge library of scholarships and student discounts that can help bring down the financial burden on students, whether they are in-state or out-of-state students.
