College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
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San Diego State University Data & Information Overview

435 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
38% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about San Diego State University, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is San Diego State University Ranked?

#141 Best Colleges in Nation
#22 Best Colleges in CA
Liberal Arts General Studies Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 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.

San Diego State University was awarded 435 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is liberal arts general studies.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

SDSU is ranked #141 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when SDSU held the #193 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

SDSU also holds the #22 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.

See all of the rankings for San Diego State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into SDSU?

38% Acceptance Rate
63% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at San Diego State University is a competitive 38%, 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.

Learn more about San Diego State University admissions.

San Diego State University Faculty

26 to 1 Student to Faculty
52% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

At San Diego State University, the student to faculty ratio is 26 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 San Diego State University is 52%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  52 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at San Diego State University

90% Freshmen Retention
39% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 90% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like San Diego State University 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  90 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at SDSU for first-time, full-time students is 39%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  39 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at San Diego State University.

San Diego State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

28,084 Full-Time Undergraduates
58.3% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
57.0% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 31,491 undergraduates at SDSU with 28,084 being full-time and 3,407 being part-time.

How Much Does San Diego State University Cost?

$13,845 Net Price
19% Take Out Loans
$26,432 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of SDSU is $13,845. 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 SDSU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$7,169 $9,274 $14,698 $18,957 $22,318

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 SDSU, 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 SDSU, approximately 19% of students took out student loans averaging $6,608 a year. That adds up to $26,432 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at SDSU is 2.2%. 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 San Diego State University.

How Much Money Do SDSU Graduates Make?

$59,027 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 SDSU make about $59,027 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is good news for future SDSU graduates since it is 39% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at San Diego State University make the most money.

Location of San Diego State University

California State
28,084 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
Located in San Diego, California, San Diego State University is a public institution. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

Get more details about the location of San Diego State University.

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Contact details for SDSU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 5500 Campanile Dr, San Diego, CA 92182-0001
Phone: 619-594-5200
Website: www.sdsu.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SanDiegoState
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sdsu

San Diego State University Majors

94 Majors With Completions
8,979 Undergraduate Degrees
1,790 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 94 majors graduated from San Diego State University. Of these students, 8,979 received undergraduate degrees and 1,790 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
Business Administration & Management 1,770 $38,950
Health & Physical Education 601 $24,520
General Psychology 601 $25,695
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 399 $28,861
Criminal Justice & Corrections 391 $31,547
Computer Science 295 $62,997
General Biology 282 $33,006
Economics 240 $42,818
Nursing 237 $89,225
Liberal Arts General Studies 237 $25,662

Learn more about the majors offered at San Diego State University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at SDSU

64% Take At Least One Class Online
5% Take All Classes Online

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 2020-2021, 23,442 students took at least one online class at San Diego State University. This is a decrease from the 35,821 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 23,442 1,785
2019-2020 35,821 30,790
2018-2019 12,932 813
2017-2018 16,434 646
2016-2017 14,159 524

Learn more about online learning at San Diego State University.

If you’re considering San Diego State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against SDSU? 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

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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