by our College Data Analytics TeamThis overview covers the essential stats on Santa Monica College, 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.
Santa Monica College was awarded 14 badges in the 2026 rankings.
SMC is ranked #1,455 out of 3,449 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual’s 2026 Best Colleges list.
SMC also holds the #159 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.
The student to faculty ratio at Santa Monica College 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.
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 Monica College is 29%. 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 Monica College this rate is 60%, which is a bit lower than the national average of 68%.
The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor’s degree within four years. At SMC this rate is 36%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Santa Monica College.
During the most recent academic year, there were 21,194 undergraduates at SMC.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at Santa Monica College.
The average net price of SMC 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 SMC
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2,796 | $3,672 | $5,695 | $7,662 | $8,622 |
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 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 3% of students took out student loans averaging $7,144 a year. That adds up to $28,576 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 5.5%. 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 Santa Monica College.
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor’s degree recipients from Santa Monica College make around $42,193 per year during the early years of their employment. This is about 14% less than the average pay for college graduates overall. However, graduates with your major may make more.
See which majors at Santa Monica College make the most money.
Santa Monica College is an public institution found in Santa Monica, California. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life. Get more details about the location of Santa Monica College.
Get in touch with Santa Monica College are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1900 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405-1628 |
| Phone: | 3104344000 |
| Website: | www.smc.edu |
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 25 majors graduated from Santa Monica 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 | 13,753 | NA |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 9,669 | NA |
| Business Administration & Management | 405 | NA |
| Biological & Physical Science | 374 | NA |
| Child Development & Family Studies | 288 | NA |
| Communication & Media Studies | 254 | NA |
| Accounting | 244 | NA |
| Design & Applied Arts | 222 | NA |
| General Psychology | 198 | NA |
| Cosmetology | 182 | 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.
17,666 students took at least one online class at Santa Monica 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.