Here are the best colleges and universities in California. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you.
California’s higher education institutes span across the entire state, allowing students to study by the beach, in the forest, in small towns, and in large cities. The largest university, the University of California, Los Angeles, serves nearly 44,000 students and offers a tuition rate around $13,000. This isn’t the only school with a large student body though. California is home to 23 colleges and universities with student populations of over 20,000 students.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
However, more than half of the state’s schools serve smaller student populations, offering plenty of options for students who crave a more intimate campus experience. Additionally, California boasts 50 religiously affiliated schools. Many of these schools have high graduation rates, though tuition costs can range greatly, from $8,000 at Bethesda University up to $54,000 at Pepperdine University.
Additionally, many of California’s colleges and universities boast influential faculty and alumni, including Neil Armstrong, Jerry Lewis, and Weird Al
Yankovic. In addition to famous alumni and professors, California’s schools are also home to some of the country’s top degree programs, including nursing, business, religious studies, education, literature, and law.
Though Hollywood has given an inside look into California’s most popular landmarks and attractions, these one-of-a-kind places aren’t the only reason people flock to The Golden State. With hundreds of colleges and universities to choose from, students have countless opportunities to further their education in California.
To learn more about earning your degree in California, check out some of the state’s top programs and career paths.
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Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we “Concentrated Influence”. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.
Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.
If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Find out more about our ranking methodology here.
Less Every fall, more than 2 million high-school graduates will enroll in colleges and universities across the United States. Finding the best college for your educational, personal, and professional goals may be challenging. The purpose of this ranking is to help you manage this challenge with an accurate, objective, and up-to-date ranking of the best colleges and universities in California for earning a bachelor’s degree.
We’ve identified a total of 113 colleges and universities in California that meet our criteria. This list of the top 25 schools below focuses on schools that offer four-year undergraduate degrees, must be fully accredited, and includes both public and private colleges and universities.
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
92%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1545/35
View profile
California Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
5%
Graduation
95%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/33
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Stanford University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
92%
Student body
42K
Median SAT/ACT
1430/33
View profile
University of California, Berkeley’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
94%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1465/33
View profile
Pomona College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
18%
Graduation
93%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1530/34
View profile
Harvey Mudd College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
13%
Graduation
92%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/32
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Claremont McKenna College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
16%
Graduation
92%
Student body
40K
Median SAT/ACT
1445/32
View profile
University of Southern California’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
14%
Graduation
91%
Student body
44K
Median SAT/ACT
1415/32
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University of California, Los Angeles’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
41%
Graduation
84%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1390/30
View profile
Occidental College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
83%
Student body
1K
View profile
Pitzer College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
37%
Graduation
87%
Student body
38K
Median SAT/ACT
1370/30
View profile
University of California, San Diego’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
42%
Graduation
89%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1340/29
View profile
Pepperdine University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
35%
Graduation
88%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1411/31
View profile
Scripps College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
37%
Graduation
84%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1355/30
View profile
University of California, Santa Barbara’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
76%
Student body
20K
Median SAT/ACT
1290/29
View profile
University of California, Santa Cruz’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
51%
Graduation
92%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1360/30
View profile
Santa Clara University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
46%
Graduation
86%
Student body
36K
Median SAT/ACT
1290/28
View profile
University of California, Davis’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Student body
1K
View profile
Golden Gate University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
65%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1147/24
View profile
Mills College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
30%
Graduation
85%
Student body
37K
Median SAT/ACT
1295/28
View profile
University of California, Irvine’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
66%
Graduation
77%
Student body
24K
Median SAT/ACT
1230/26
View profile
University of California, Riverside’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
50%
Graduation
83%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1320/29
View profile
Loyola Marymount University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$49K
Acceptance
72%
Graduation
63%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1129/23
View profile
Whittier College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
69%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1090/22
View profile
University of California, Merced’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$51K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
71%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/25
View profile
University of Redlands’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
What are Custom College Rankings?
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