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California State University - Monterey Bay Data & Information Overview

425 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
93% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about California State University - Monterey Bay, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is California State University - Monterey Bay Ranked?

#707 Best Colleges in Nation
#102 Best Colleges in CA
Multi / Interdisciplinary 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 - Monterey Bay was awarded 425 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is multi / interdisciplinary studies.

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Overall Quality

CSUMB is ranked #707 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when CSUMB held the #835 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Out of the 168 colleges in California, CSUMB is ranked at #102.

See all of the rankings for California State University - Monterey Bay.

Is It Hard to Get Into CSUMB?

93% Acceptance Rate
63% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 93%, California State University - Monterey Bay is easier to get into than many other schools. But that doesn't mean you can slack off on your application. Make sure to treat this school like any other when submitting requested materials and documents.

Learn more about California State University - Monterey Bay admissions.

California State University - Monterey Bay Faculty

23 to 1 Student to Faculty
48% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used as a measure to gauge how much access students will have to their professors - the lower the number, the better. At California State University - Monterey Bay, this rate is 23 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1.

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 - Monterey Bay is 48%. This is comparable to the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  48 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at California State University - Monterey Bay

81% Freshmen Retention
30% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 81% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like California State University - Monterey Bay enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  81 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor's degree from CSUMB have a four-year graduation rate of 30%. This is comparable to the national average 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 - Monterey Bay.

California State University - Monterey Bay Undergraduate Student Diversity

5,703 Full-Time Undergraduates
67.1% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
64.3% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 6,509 undergraduates at CSUMB with 5,703 being full-time and 806 being part-time.

How Much Does California State University - Monterey Bay Cost?

$13,597 Net Price
25% Take Out Loans
$16,456 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of CSUMB is $13,597. 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 CSUMB

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$9,192 $10,711 $14,319 $18,412 $21,728

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 CSUMB, 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 CSUMB, approximately 25% of students took out student loans averaging $4,114 a year. That adds up to $16,456 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at CSUMB is 2.9%. 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 - Monterey Bay.

How Much Money Do CSUMB Graduates Make?

$53,190 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from CSUMB with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $53,190 in their early years. This is good news for future CSUMB graduates since it is 25% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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

Location of California State University - Monterey Bay

California State
5,703 Full-Time Undergraduates
Suburb Campus Setting
California State University - Monterey Bay is a public institution located in Seaside, California. Seaside is considered a suburb and offers tranquility and safety near the excitement of a city center.

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

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Contact details for CSUMB are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 100 Campus Center, Seaside, CA 93955-8001
Phone: 831-582-3000
Website: https://csumb.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CSUMB
Twitter: https://twitter.com/csumb

California State University - Monterey Bay Majors

33 Majors With Completions
1,805 Undergraduate Degrees
322 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 33 majors graduated from California State University - Monterey Bay. Of these students, 1,805 received undergraduate degrees and 322 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
General Psychology 252 $28,861
Business Administration & Management 242 $45,999
Liberal Arts General Studies 227 $29,259
Computer Science 170 $59,412
Health & Physical Education 154 $26,320
Human Services 115 $35,158
General Biology 111 $31,700
General Social Sciences 87 $31,594
Nursing 74 $109,260
Natural Resources Conservation 73 $28,908

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

Online Learning at CSUMB

84% Take At Least One Class Online
16% 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, 6,310 students took at least one online class at California State University - Monterey Bay. This is a decrease from the 7,379 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 6,310 1,228
2019-2020 7,379 7,061
2018-2019 1,555 469
2017-2018 2,692 487
2016-2017 2,126 206

Learn more about online learning at California State University - Monterey Bay.

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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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