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California State University - Chico Data & Information Overview

285 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
85% Acceptance Rate
Want the scoop on California State University - Chico? We’ve put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors Chico State offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more.
All you need to do to learn more about a stat is click on its tile, and you’ll be taken to another page that analyzes that data more closely. Also, you can use the links below to scroll to any section of this page.

How Well Is California State University - Chico Ranked?

#453 Best Colleges in Nation
#79 Best Colleges in CA
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

California State University - Chico was awarded 285 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is parks, recreation & leisure studies.

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Overall Quality

According to College Factual's 2024 analysis, Chico State is ranked #453 out of 2,217 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Chico State held the #483 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Chico State is also ranked #79 out of 168 schools in California.

See all of the rankings for California State University - Chico.

Is It Hard to Get Into Chico State?

85% Acceptance Rate
60% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

California State University - Chico has an acceptance rate of 85%, so it is easier to gain admission to this school than some others. Still, the admissions staff will examine your application closely to make sure you're a good fit for Chico State.

Learn more about California State University - Chico admissions.

California State University - Chico Faculty

22 to 1 Student to Faculty
56% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

At California State University - Chico, the student to faculty ratio is 22 to 1. Compared to the national average of 15 to 1, this is somewhat high. This could mean that class sizes may be larger than they are at other colleges or universities or that professors may be required to teach more classes.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at California State University - Chico is 56%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  56 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at California State University - Chico

81% Freshmen Retention
30% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

California State University - Chico has a freshmen retention rate of 81%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  81 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor's degree with four years. At Chico State this rate is 30%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  30 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at California State University - Chico.

California State University - Chico Undergraduate Student Diversity

14,228 Full-Time Undergraduates
50.8% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
54.7% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 15,747 undergraduates at Chico State with 14,228 being full-time and 1,519 being part-time.

How Much Does California State University - Chico Cost?

$16,218 Net Price
30% Take Out Loans
$20,148 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Chico State is $16,218. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Chico State

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$11,754 $13,040 $16,738 $20,708 $24,220

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Chico State, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Chico State, approximately 30% of students took out student loans averaging $5,037 a year. That adds up to $20,148 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Chico State is 4.0%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for California State University - Chico.

How Much Money Do Chico State Graduates Make?

$56,270 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Chico State with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $56,270 in their early years. This is good news for future Chico State graduates since it is 32% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at California State University - Chico make the most money.

Location of California State University - Chico

California State
14,228 Full-Time Undergraduates
Midsize City Campus Setting
California State University - Chico is a public institution located in Chico, California. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

Get more details about the location of California State University - Chico.

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Contact details for Chico State are given below.

Contact Details
Address: First And Normal Sts, Chico, CA 95929-0150
Phone: 530-898-6116
Website: www.csuchico.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/californiastateuniversitychico
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chicostate

California State University - Chico Majors

69 Majors With Completions
4,637 Undergraduate Degrees
301 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 69 majors graduated from California State University - Chico. Of these students, 4,637 received undergraduate degrees and 301 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Business Administration & Management 661 $45,056
General Psychology 335 $26,025
Liberal Arts General Studies 234 $21,120
Health & Physical Education 216 $23,129
Sociology 186 $31,487
Writing Studies 175 NA
Criminal Justice & Corrections 171 $33,845
Other Engineering 150 $68,803
Design & Applied Arts 143 $21,425
Nursing 119 $94,107

Learn more about the majors offered at California State University - Chico along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Chico State

90% Take At Least One Class Online
21% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2020-2021, 14,138 students took at least one online class at California State University - Chico. This is a decrease from the 16,733 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 14,138 3,334
2019-2020 16,733 15,669
2018-2019 5,213 568
2017-2018 5,332 529
2016-2017 5,207 514

Learn more about online learning at California State University - Chico.

If you’re considering California State University - Chico, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against Chico State? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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