by our College Data Analytics TeamCalifornia Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo is a public institution in San Luis Obispo, California enrolling 21,996 undergraduates. It accepts 31% of applicants and has an on-time graduation rate of 86%, above the national average of 33%. College Factual ranks it #25 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in its 2027 Best Colleges ranking (top 1%), and its Value for Your Money analysis rates it a Fair Price.
Source: IPEDS 2025; College Scorecard July 2026; College Factual rankings 2027. Data as of: July 2026.
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo ranks #25 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges ranking, placing it in the top 1%.
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 Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo was awarded 822 badges in the 2027 rankings.
According to College Factual’s 2027 analysis, Cal Poly is ranked #25 out of 5,159 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation!
Cal Poly is also ranked #5 on the Best Colleges in California list.
See all of the rankings for California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo has an acceptance rate of 31%, 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 Cal Poly.
Learn more about California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo admissions.
The student to faculty ratio at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo is 19 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1. This may indicate that some of your classes will be larger in size than they would be at other schools. However, upper level classes will probably be smaller.
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 Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo is 69%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 96% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo 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.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor’s degree is typically four years. This rate at Cal Poly for first-time, full-time students is 86%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
During the most recent academic year, there were 21,996 undergraduates at Cal Poly.
The typical net cost at Cal Poly is $17,140. 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.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $7,529 | $7,253 | $9,896 | $15,786 | $27,772 |
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 Cal Poly, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Cal Poly, approximately 25% of students took out student loans averaging $5,900 a year. That adds up to $23,600 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 2.0%. 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 Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor’s degree recipients from California Polytechnic State U-San Luis Obispo make around $90,768 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future California Polytechnic State U-San Luis Obispo graduates since it is 84% more than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year.
See which majors at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo make the most money.
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo is a public institution situated in San Luis Obispo, California. San Luis Obispo is a good match for students who enjoy the safety and convenience of the suburbs. Get more details about the location of California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.
Contact details for California Polytechnic State U-San Luis Obispo are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 |
| Phone: | 8057561111 |
| Website: | calpoly.edu |
| Wikipedia: | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Polytechnic_State_University |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/CaliforniaPolytechnic |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/calpoly |
In the latest year of available data, students from 28 majors graduated from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo. 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 | 5,899 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 818 | $63,926 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 351 | $77,650 |
| Computer Science | 322 | $91,351 |
| General Biology | 204 | $33,466 |
| Electrical Engineering | 171 | $84,050 |
| Civil Engineering | 165 | $73,188 |
| General Psychology | 163 | $29,831 |
| Agricultural Economics | 161 | $55,329 |
| Animal Science | 158 | $30,350 |
Online courses are a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
Learn more about online learning at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.
Interested in comparing Cal Poly? Compare them side by side using College Combat, our free tool for head-to-head college comparisons.
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.
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