by our College Data Analytics TeamCalifornia State University-San Marcos is a public institution in San Marcos, California enrolling 14,877 undergraduates. It accepts 95% of applicants and has an on-time graduation rate of 55%, above the national average of 33%. College Factual ranks it #255 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in its 2027 Best Colleges ranking (top 5%), 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 State University-San Marcos ranks #255 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges ranking, placing it in the top 5%.
College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.
California State University-San Marcos was awarded 529 badges in the 2027 rankings.
College Factual ranked CSUSM as #255 out of 5,159 colleges and universities in the country on its 2027 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation.
Within the state, CSUSM holds the #49 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.
See all of the rankings for California State University-San Marcos.
With an acceptance rate of 95%, California State University-San Marcos 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-San Marcos admissions.
The student to faculty ratio at California State University-San Marcos is 24 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-San Marcos is 46%. This is comparable to the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 79% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like California State University-San Marcos 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 CSUSM for first-time, full-time students is 55%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at California State University-San Marcos.
During the most recent academic year, there were 14,877 undergraduates at CSUSM.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at California State University-San Marcos.
The typical net cost at CSUSM 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 + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $6,230 | $7,240 | $8,928 | $12,525 | $18,734 |
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 CSUSM, 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 CSUSM, approximately 28% of students took out student loans averaging $6,540 a year. That adds up to $26,160 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 5.3%. 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-San Marcos.
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor’s degree recipients from California State University-San Marcos make around $62,908 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future California State University-San Marcos graduates since it is 28% more than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year.
See which majors at California State University-San Marcos make the most money.
California State University-San Marcos is a public institution found in San Marcos, California. CSUSM is located in a safe and convenient suburb. Get more details about the location of California State University-San Marcos.
Contact details for California State University-San Marcos are listed below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 333 S Twin Oaks Valley Rd, San Marcos, CA 92096-0001 |
| Phone: | 7607504000 |
| Website: | www.csusm.edu |
| Wikipedia: | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_State_San_Marcos |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/csusm |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/csusmnews |
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 24 majors graduated from California State University-San Marcos. 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 | 3,864 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 661 | $47,655 |
| General Psychology | 317 | $29,075 |
| Nursing | 309 | $91,867 |
| Health & Physical Education | 248 | $29,198 |
| Sociology | 221 | $30,477 |
| Criminology | 209 | $31,316 |
| Computer Science | 175 | $58,962 |
| General Biology | 162 | $32,192 |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 161 | $23,647 |
6,768 students took at least one online class at California State University-San Marcos.
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.
Learn more about online learning at California State University-San Marcos.
Want to see how other colleges compare to CSUSM? 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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