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College of San Mateo Complete Information Guide

Fair Price Value for Your Money
8% Student Loan Default Rate

Find out more about how College of San Mateo ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.

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* Rankings

How Does College of San Mateo Stack Up?

#121 Best Colleges in Nation
#11 Best Colleges in CA
College of San Mateo ranking badge

2026 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.

National Standing

CSM is ranked #121 out of 2,043 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual’s 2026 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation.

Within the state, CSM holds the #11 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.

See all of the rankings for College of San Mateo.

Is It Hard to Get Into College of San Mateo?

Acceptance Rate

Learn more about College of San Mateo admissions.

Faculty at College of San Mateo

24 to 1 Student to Faculty
42% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

At College of San Mateo, the student to faculty ratio is 24 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.

Full-Time Instructors

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 College of San Mateo is 42%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  42 out of 100
0
100

Academic Performance at College of San Mateo

77% Freshmen Retention
57% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshman Success

The freshmen retention rate of 77% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like College of San Mateo 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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  77 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At CSM the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 57%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  57 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at College of San Mateo.

Diversity Profile of College of San Mateo

7,359 Undergraduate Students
70.2% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
52.0% Percent Women

During the most recent academic year, there were 7,359 undergraduates at CSM.

Get more detailed information on the diversity at College of San Mateo.

How Much Does College of San Mateo Cost?

$16,772 Net Price
1% Take Out Loans
$25,976 Total Student Loans

The average net price of CSM 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 CSM

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$127 $646 $3,951 $6,489 $7,818

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 CSM, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At CSM, approximately 1% of students took out student loans averaging $6,494 a year. That adds up to $25,976 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 8.5%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you’ll still want to keep this in mind when taking out student loans. Get more details about paying for College of San Mateo.

How Much Money Do College of San Mateo Graduates Make?

$54,172 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost

The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree from College of San Mateo make about $54,172 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. That’s great news for College of San Mateo students since it is 10% more than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year.

See which majors at College of San Mateo make the most money.

Location of College of San Mateo

California State
7,359 Undergraduate Students
Midsize City Campus Setting

College of San Mateo is an public institution situated in San Mateo, California. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life. Get more details about the location of College of San Mateo.

Location of College of San Mateo

Contact information for College of San Mateo are listed below.

Contact Details
Address: 1700 W Hillsdale Blvd, San Mateo, CA 94402-3784
Phone: 6505746161
Website: www.collegeofsanmateo.edu

College of San Mateo Areas of Study

28 Majors With Completions
2,570 Undergraduate Degrees

In the most recent reporting year, students from 28 majors graduated from College of San Mateo. 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 1,285 NA
Liberal Arts General Studies 213 NA
General Social Sciences 153 NA
Business Administration & Management 145 NA
General Psychology 77 NA
Economics 68 NA
Criminal Justice & Corrections 54 NA
Mathematics 52 NA
Communication & Media Studies 49 NA
Nursing 42 $56,787

Learn more about the majors offered at College of San Mateo along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Study Options at CSM

96% Take At Least One Class Online
54% Take All Classes Online

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.

7,089 students took at least one online class at College of San Mateo.

Learn more about online learning at College of San Mateo.

Comparable CollegesCurious how schools stack up against CSM? Match them up using College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare colleges on the features that matter most to you.

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

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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