by our College Data Analytics TeamCuesta College is a public institution in San Luis Obispo, California enrolling 7,180 undergraduates. It has an on-time graduation rate of 48%, above the national average of 33%. College Factual ranks it #996 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in its 2027 Best Colleges ranking (top 19%), 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.
Cuesta College ranks #996 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges ranking, placing it in the top 19%.
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.
Cuesta College was awarded 145 badges in the 2027 rankings.
According to College Factual’s 2027 analysis, Cuesta College is ranked #996 out of 5,159 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation.
Cuesta College also holds the #117 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.
See all of the rankings for Cuesta College.
Learn more about Cuesta College admissions.
The student to faculty ratio at Cuesta College is 27 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 Cuesta College is 32%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at Cuesta College is 73%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Cuesta College the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 48%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Cuesta College.
In the current academic year, there are 7,180 undergraduates at Cuesta College.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at Cuesta College.
The overall average net price of Cuesta College 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 + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,414 | $10,905 | $15,150 | $16,620 | $18,448 |
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 Cuesta College, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 Cuesta College, approximately 2% of students took out student loans averaging $7,153 a year. That adds up to $28,612 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 7.2%. 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 Cuesta College.
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree from Cuesta College make about $46,047 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is in the same neighborhood of the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year. However, certain majors may produce higher-paying graduates.
See which majors at Cuesta College make the most money.
Cuesta College is an public institution found in San Luis Obispo, California. Students who love country life may enjoy the rural location of Cuesta College. Get more details about the location of Cuesta College.
Contact details for Cuesta College are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | Highway 1, San Luis Obispo, CA 93403-8106 |
| Phone: | 8055463100 |
| Website: | www.cuesta.edu |
In the latest year of available data, students from 32 majors graduated from Cuesta College. 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 | 3,713 | NA |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 1,550 | $31,966 |
| Child Development & Family Studies | 208 | NA |
| Mental & Social Health Services | 200 | $64,744 |
| Business Administration & Management | 195 | NA |
| Allied Health Professions | 166 | NA |
| Business & Commerce | 134 | NA |
| Health Sciences & Services | 104 | NA |
| General Psychology | 97 | NA |
| General Education | 79 | NA |
6,610 students took at least one online class at Cuesta College.
Online learning options are becoming more and more popular at American colleges and universities. Online classes are great for students who have busy schedules or for those who just want to study on their own time.
Learn more about online learning at Cuesta College.
Want to see how other colleges compare to Cuesta College? Pit them head to head with 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.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.