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California Institute of the Arts Data & Information Overview

Fair Price Value for Your Money
32% Acceptance Rate
4% Student Loan Default Rate

This overview covers the essential stats on California Institute of the Arts, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more.

Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

* Rankings

How Does California Institute of the Arts Stack Up?

2026 College Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Overall Ranking

CalArts was not ranked in College Factual’s 2026 Best Overall Colleges report. This could be for a number of reasons, including lack of data.

See all of the rankings for California Institute of the Arts.

Is It Hard to Get Into California Institute of the Arts?

32% Acceptance Rate
32% Of Accepted Are Women

Admission Selectivity

California Institute of the Arts has an acceptance rate of 32%, which means the school is serious about who it admits. Take your time in putting together a strong application that highlights why you are a good fit for CalArts.

Learn more about California Institute of the Arts admissions.

Faculty at California Institute of the Arts

7 to 1 Student to Faculty
47% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

At CalArts, the student to faculty ratio is an excellent 7 to 1. That’s much better than the national average of 15 to 1. This indicates that many classes will probably be small, and students will have ample opportunities to work closely with their professors and classmates.

Full-Time Instructors

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at California Institute of the Arts is 47%. This is comparable to the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  47 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at California Institute of the Arts

86% Freshmen Retention
64% On-Time Graduation Rate

First-Year Student Retention

California Institute of the Arts has a freshmen retention rate of 86%. 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  86 out of 100
0
100

Academic Completion

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At CalArts the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 64%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  64 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at California Institute of the Arts.

Diversity Profile of California Institute of the Arts

881 Undergraduate Students
39.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
59.6% Percent Women

In the current academic year, there are 881 undergraduates at CalArts.

Get more detailed information on the diversity at California Institute of the Arts.

What Does California Institute of the Arts Cost?

$16,772 Net Price
36% Take Out Loans
$26,864 Total Student Loans

The overall average net price of CalArts is $16,772. 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 CalArts

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$33,802 $37,082 $35,788 $44,448 $59,106

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 price for a school. For more information on the sticker price of CalArts, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student 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 CalArts, approximately 36% of students took out student loans averaging $6,716 a year. That adds up to $26,864 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 4.1%. 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 Institute of the Arts.

How Much Money Do California Institute of the Arts Graduates Make?

$41,198 Avg Salary of Grads
Low Earnings Boost

Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor’s degree recipients from California Institute of the Arts make around $41,198 per year during the early years of their employment. Unfortunately, this is 16% less than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year. However, graduates in your major field may make more.

See which majors at California Institute of the Arts make the most money.

Location of California Institute of the Arts

California State
881 Undergraduate Students
Suburb Campus Setting

California Institute of the Arts is an private not-for-profit institution found in Valencia, California. Valencia is a good match for students who enjoy the safety and convenience of the suburbs. Get more details about the location of California Institute of the Arts.

Location of California Institute of the Arts

Contact information for California Institute of the Arts are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 24700 W McBean Pky, Valencia, CA 91355-2397
Phone: 6612551050
Website: www.calarts.edu
Facebook: facebook.com/calarts

California Institute of the Arts Majors

7 Majors With Completions
830 Undergraduate Degrees

In the most recent reporting year, students from 7 majors graduated from California Institute of the Arts. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Completions Average Salary of Graduates
Multi-Disciplinary Studies 415 NA
Drama & Theater Arts 78 $24,521
Graphic Communications 72 NA
Film, Video & Photographic Arts 64 $24,869
Music 62 $16,962
Fine & Studio Arts 41 $16,796
Dance 21 $22,773
Computer Software Applications 20 NA
Writing Studies 15 NA
Design & Applied Arts 13 NA

Learn more about the majors offered at California Institute of the Arts along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Similar InstitutionsWant to see how other colleges compare to CalArts? Match them up using College Combat, a free interactive tool for comparing colleges on the features you care about.

Data Sources 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

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