California State University - Northridge Data & Information Overview
Find out more about how California State University - Northridge ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below. 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
- Admission and Acceptance
- Faculty
- Retention and Graduation Rates
- Diversity
- Cost
- Student Debt
- Average Earnings
- Location
- Majors
- Online Learning
- Related Schools
How Well Is California State University - Northridge Ranked?
2023 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.
California State University - Northridge was awarded 1,812 badges in the 2023 rankings.
Overall Quality
College Factual ranked CSUN as #387 out of 2,241 colleges and universities in the country on its 2023 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when CSUN held the #495 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Out of the 170 colleges in California, CSUN is ranked at #51.
See all of the rankings for California State University - Northridge.
Is It Hard to Get Into CSUN?
Acceptance Rate
The acceptance rate at California State University - Northridge is a competitive 66%, so make sure you take your application seriously when putting it together. Even leaving out a minor detail could be a reason to move you to the rejection pile.
Average Test Scores
About 95% of students accepted to CSUN submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 460 and 560. Math scores were between 440 and 550.
Learn more about California State University - Northridge admissions.
California State University - Northridge Faculty
Student to Faculty Ratio
At California State University - Northridge, the student to faculty ratio is 28 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
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 State University - Northridge is 47%. This is comparable to the national average of 47%.
Retention and Graduation Rates at California State University - Northridge
Freshmen Retention Rate
The freshmen retention rate of 83% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like California State University - Northridge 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.
Graduation Rate
The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full time students who obtain their bachelor's degree in four years or less. This rate is 14% for first-time, full-time students at CSUN, which is lower than the national rate of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at California State University - Northridge.
California State University - Northridge Undergraduate Student Diversity
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 34,916 undergraduates at CSUN with 29,191 being full-time and 5,725 being part-time.
How Much Does California State University - Northridge Cost?
The overall average net price of CSUN is $8,523. 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 CSUN
$0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
---|---|---|---|---|
$6,266 | $7,103 | $10,780 | $15,380 | $18,714 |
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 CSUN, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
Student Loan Debt
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 CSUN, approximately 26% of students took out student loans averaging $5,119 a year. That adds up to $20,476 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at CSUN is 3.7%. 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 - Northridge.
How Much Money Do CSUN Graduates Make?
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from CSUN with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $53,360 in their early years. This is good news for future CSUN graduates since it is 26% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.
See which majors at California State University - Northridge make the most money.
Location of California State University - Northridge
California State University - Northridge is a public institution located in Northridge, California. The location of CSUN is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.Get more details about the location of California State University - Northridge.

Contact details for CSUN are given below.
Contact Details | |
---|---|
Address: | 18111 Nordhoff St, Northridge, CA 91330 |
Phone: | 818-677-1200 |
Website: | https://www.csun.edu/ |
Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/pages/Northridge-CA/California-State-University-Northridge/6684699242 |
Twitter: | http://twitter.com/csunorthridge |
California State University - Northridge Majors
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 73 majors graduated from California State University - Northridge. Of these students, 9,572 received undergraduate degrees and 1,650 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 | 864 | $27,524 |
Business Administration & Management | 806 | $39,961 |
Sociology | 492 | $29,883 |
Health & Physical Education | 458 | $26,612 |
Radio, Television & Digital Communication | 427 | $25,896 |
Marketing | 406 | $37,432 |
Public Health | 401 | $34,066 |
Teacher Education Grade Specific | 400 | NA |
Finance & Financial Management | 399 | $43,894 |
Communication & Media Studies | 336 | $33,193 |
Online Learning at CSUN
Online courses area 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.
In 2019-2020, 39,376 students took at least one online class at California State University - Northridge. This is an increase from the 21,755 students who took online classes the previous year.
Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
---|---|---|
2019-2020 | 39,376 | 34,499 |
2018-2019 | 21,755 | 1,506 |
2017-2018 | 20,755 | 1,304 |
2016-2017 | 20,127 | 1,112 |
2015-2016 | 17,384 | 369 |
Learn more about online learning at California State University - Northridge.
Find Out More About California State University - Northridge
Related Schools
If you’re considering California State University - Northridge, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
- California State University - Bakersfield
- California State University - Chico
- California State University - Fullerton
- California State University - Stanislaus
- San Francisco State University
Curious on how these schools stack up against CSUN? 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
- National Center for Education Statistics
- College Scorecard
- Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
- Image Credit: By Cbl62 under License
More about our data sources and methodologies.