by our College Data Analytics Team
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 Monica College was awarded 4 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is nursing.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
SMC landed the #1,059 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.
Out of the 161 colleges in California, SMC is ranked at #117.
Since Santa Monica College has an open admissions policy, being accepted to the school isn't that hard. However, a full basic things - such as a high school diploma or equivalent - may be required. Also, go over your application to make sure it is complete before you submit it.
At Santa Monica College, 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.
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 be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at Santa Monica College is 30%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 25,948 undergraduates at SMC with 10,005 being full-time and 15,943 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $3,390 | $4,139 | $6,369 | $7,354 | $6,598 |
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 SMC, 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 SMC, approximately 1% of students took out student loans averaging $4,807 a year. That adds up to $19,228 over four years for those students.
See which majors at Santa Monica College make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Santa Monica College.
Contact details for SMC are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1900 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405-1628 |
| Phone: | 310-434-4000 |
| Website: | https://www.smc.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 4,643 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 415 | NA |
| Human Development & Family Studies | 411 | NA |
| Biological & Physical Science | 382 | NA |
| Accounting | 231 | NA |
| General Psychology | 181 | NA |
| Political Science & Government | 177 | NA |
| Communication & Media Studies | 160 | NA |
| Cosmetology | 147 | NA |
| Design & Applied Arts | 128 | NA |
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.
In 2022-2023, 18,105 students took at least one online class at Santa Monica College. This is an increase from the 16,444 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 18,105 | 10,229 |
| 2021-2022 | 16,444 | 6,187 |
| 2020-2021 | 11,800 | 3,570 |
| 2018-2019 | 9,591 | 3,415 |
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.