by our College Data Analytics TeamThis overview covers the essential stats on San Diego State University, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more.
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 304 badges in the 2026 rankings.
College Factual ranked SDSU as #101 out of 3,449 colleges and universities in the country on its 2026 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.
SDSU also holds the #21 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.
San Diego State University has an acceptance rate of 36%, which means the school is serious about who it admits. Take your time in putting together a strong application that highlights why you are a good fit for SDSU.
The student to faculty ratio at San Diego State University 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.
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 San Diego State University is 49%. This is comparable to the national average of 47%.
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.
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 78%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at San Diego State University.
The current enrollment includes 33,654 undergraduates at SDSU.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at San Diego State University.
The overall average net price of SDSU 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 SDSU
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $9,655 | $10,241 | $14,205 | $18,176 | $24,913 |
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 SDSU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 23% of students took out student loans averaging $6,497 a year. That adds up to $25,988 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 4.2%. 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.
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University make about $64,909 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is good news for future San Diego State University graduates since it is 32% more than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year.
See which majors at San Diego State University make the most money.
San Diego State University is an public institution located in San Diego, California. 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.
Contact information for San Diego State University can be found below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 5500 Campanile Dr, San Diego, CA 92182-0001 |
| Phone: | 6195945200 |
| Website: | www.sdsu.edu |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/SanDiegoState |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/sdsu |
In the most recent reporting year, students from 26 majors graduated from San Diego State University. 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 | 10,928 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 2,399 | $43,383 |
| General Psychology | 707 | $26,702 |
| Criminal Justice & Corrections | 547 | $31,547 |
| Health & Physical Education | 414 | $24,520 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 397 | $37,857 |
| Communication & Media Studies | 337 | $34,509 |
| Fine & Studio Arts | 290 | $22,994 |
| Public Health | 288 | $53,580 |
| Computer Science | 281 | $62,997 |
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.
22,173 students took at least one online class at San Diego State University.
Learn more about online learning at San Diego State University.
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