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 86 badges in the 2025 rankings.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
College Factual ranked Chico State as #481 out of 2,152 colleges and universities in the country on its 2025 Best Colleges list.
Out of the 161 colleges in California, Chico State is ranked at #64.
See all of the rankings for California State University - Chico.
The acceptance rate at California State University - Chico is 95%, which is higher than many other schools to which you may be applying. But don't think getting into Chico State is a sure thing. The admissions staff is still going to review your application to see if you are a good fit for the school.
The student to faculty ratio at California State University - Chico is 20 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.
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%.
The freshmen retention rate of 80% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like California State University - Chico 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.
When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor's degree from Chico State have a four-year graduation rate of 29%. This is comparable to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at California State University - Chico.
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.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,716 | $11,375 | $14,988 | $19,506 | $23,714 |
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.
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 38% of students took out student loans averaging $5,538 a year. That adds up to $22,152 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for California State University - Chico.

See which majors at California State University - Chico make the most money.
Get more details about the location of California State University - Chico.

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/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Business Administration & Management | 647 | $46,145 |
| General Psychology | 374 | $31,827 |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 216 | $27,196 |
| Health & Physical Education | 202 | $28,236 |
| Sociology | 162 | $36,992 |
| Criminal Justice & Corrections | 139 | $36,045 |
| Nursing | 127 | $113,181 |
| Public Health | 120 | $45,339 |
| Communication & Media Studies | 119 | $38,421 |
| Social Work | 109 | $36,840 |
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 2022-2023, 10,229 students took at least one online class at California State University - Chico. This is a decrease from the 14,138 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 10,229 | 1,703 |
| 2021-2022 | 14,138 | 3,334 |
| 2020-2021 | 16,733 | 15,669 |
| 2018-2019 | 5,332 | 529 |
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!
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.