by our College Data Analytics TeamThis overview covers the essential stats on San Francisco State University, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more.
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.
San Francisco State University was awarded 478 badges in the 2026 rankings.
College Factual ranked SFSU as #160 out of 3,449 colleges and universities in the country on its 2026 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation.
Within the state, SFSU holds the #31 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.
San Francisco State University has an acceptance rate of 96%, so it is easier to gain admission to this school than some others. Still, the admissions staff will examine your application closely to make sure you’re a good fit for SFSU.
The student to faculty ratio at San Francisco State University is 19 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.
In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at San Francisco State University is 50%. This is comparable to the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 84% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like San Francisco 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.
Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At SFSU the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 50%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at San Francisco State University.
The current enrollment includes 20,033 undergraduates at SFSU.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at San Francisco State University.
The typical net cost at SFSU 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 SFSU
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $9,307 | $10,251 | $12,916 | $16,944 | $22,813 |
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 SFSU, 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 SFSU, approximately 23% of students took out student loans averaging $6,672 a year. That adds up to $26,688 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 6.7%. 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 San Francisco State University.
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University make about $68,077 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is good news for future San Francisco State University graduates since it is 38% more than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year.
See which majors at San Francisco State University make the most money.
San Francisco State University is a public institution located in San Francisco, California. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life. Get more details about the location of San Francisco State University.
Contact information for San Francisco State University can be found below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1600 Holloway Ave, San Francisco, CA 94132 |
| Phone: | 4153381111 |
| Website: | www.sfsu.edu |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/sanfranciscostate |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/SFSU |
In the latest year of available data, students from 25 majors graduated from San Francisco 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 | 6,395 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 1,043 | $48,242 |
| General Psychology | 475 | $29,678 |
| Computer Science | 410 | $55,088 |
| General Biology | 396 | $38,903 |
| Communication & Media Studies | 222 | $42,620 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 210 | $38,565 |
| Nursing | 208 | $101,367 |
| Film, Video & Photographic Arts | 205 | $24,940 |
| Design & Applied Arts | 200 | $37,384 |
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.
12,540 students took at least one online class at San Francisco State University.
Learn more about online learning at San Francisco 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.
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