by our College Data Analytics Team
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.
Santa Clara University was awarded 80 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is computer engineering.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
SCU landed the #53 spot in College Factual's 2025 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,152 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country.
Out of the 161 colleges in California, SCU is ranked at #9.
If you're applying to Santa Clara University you'll face some tough competition, since the school's acceptance rate is only 52%. Definitely don't wait until the last minute to submit your application, since applying early may be in your favor.
About 34% of students accepted to SCU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 640 and 720. Math scores were between 650 and 760.
At SCU, the student to faculty ratio is an excellent 12 to 1. That's much better than the national average of 15 to 1. This indicates that many classes will probably be small, and students will have ample opportunites to work closely with their professors and classmates.
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 Clara University is 66%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 92% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Santa Clara 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 SCU the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 88%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Santa Clara University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 5,608 undergraduates at SCU with 5,478 being full-time and 130 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $29,302 | $19,515 | $24,744 | $30,188 | $54,634 |
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 SCU, 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 SCU, approximately 28% of students took out student loans averaging $7,778 a year. That adds up to $31,112 over four years for those students.
See which majors at Santa Clara University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Santa Clara University.
Contact details for SCU are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053 |
| Phone: | 408-554-4000 |
| Website: | www.scu.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Computer Engineering | 244 | $103,804 |
| Business Administration & Management | 228 | NA |
| Law | 221 | NA |
| Finance & Financial Management | 160 | $79,929 |
| Communication & Media Studies | 137 | $51,720 |
| Marketing | 136 | $58,493 |
| General Psychology | 122 | $38,587 |
| Economics | 108 | $76,606 |
| Mathematics & Computer Science | 107 | $91,851 |
| Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology | 105 | NA |
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 2022-2023, 399 students took at least one online class at Santa Clara University. This is a decrease from the 417 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 399 | 399 |
| 2021-2022 | 417 | 417 |
| 2020-2021 | 299 | 299 |
| 2018-2019 | 84 | 84 |
If you’re considering Santa Clara University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against SCU? 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!
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.