by our College Data Analytics TeamGet the facts about Santa Barbara City College. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much 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.
Santa Barbara City College was awarded 20 badges in the 2026 rankings.
SBCC is ranked #916 out of 3,449 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, SBCC holds the #101 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.
At Santa Barbara City College, 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.
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 Santa Barbara City College is 33%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate is a sign of how many full-time students like a college or university well enough to come back for their sophomore year. At Santa Barbara City College this rate is 61%, which is a bit lower than the national average of 68%.
When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor’s degree from SBCC have a four-year graduation rate of 36%. This is comparable to the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Santa Barbara City College.
During the most recent academic year, there were 10,070 undergraduates at SBCC.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at Santa Barbara City College.
The average net price of SBCC 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 SBCC
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $8,061 | $9,211 | $12,625 | $15,555 | $18,111 |
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 SBCC, 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 SBCC, approximately 4% of students took out student loans averaging $6,262 a year. That adds up to $25,048 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 11.9%. This is higher than the national default rate of 10.1% so you should proceed with caution when taking out student loans. Get more details about paying for Santa Barbara City College.
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree from Santa Barbara City College make about $47,647 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is right on par with the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year. Also, graduates in your major field may make more.
See which majors at Santa Barbara City College make the most money.
Santa Barbara City College is an public institution located in Santa Barbara, California. Santa Barbara is a great location for students who prefer city over country life. Get more details about the location of Santa Barbara City College.
Contact details for Santa Barbara City College are listed below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 721 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109-2394 |
| Phone: | 8059650581 |
| Website: | www.sbcc.edu |
In the latest year of available data, students from 30 majors graduated from Santa Barbara City 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 | 4,074 | NA |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 1,816 | NA |
| Biological & Physical Science | 340 | NA |
| Communication & Media Studies | 216 | NA |
| Economics | 215 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 161 | NA |
| General Psychology | 122 | NA |
| Health/Medical Admin Services | 103 | $39,669 |
| Mathematics | 94 | NA |
| Child Development & Family Studies | 83 | NA |
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.
8,491 students took at least one online class at Santa Barbara City College.
Learn more about online learning at Santa Barbara City College.
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.