Liberal arts colleges are a great option for students seeking a well-rounded education in an intimate campus setting. The best liberal arts colleges in California offer a diverse selection of degree programs with opportunities for a highly individualized educational experience.
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 call “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 A liberal arts college is a school that puts a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree. We’ve identified a total of 65 liberal arts colleges and universities in California. The list below of the 25 best liberal arts schools in the state satisfies the following three conditions:
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
94%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1465/33
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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
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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
$57K
Acceptance
41%
Graduation
84%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1390/30
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Occidental College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
83%
Student body
1K
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Pitzer College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
35%
Graduation
88%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1411/31
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Scripps College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Student body
1K
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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
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Mills College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$49K
Acceptance
72%
Graduation
63%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1129/23
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Whittier College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$51K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
71%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/25
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University of Redlands’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
55%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1045/20
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San Francisco State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
74%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/22
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Dominican University of California’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
72%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1215/25
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Westmont College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$41K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
60%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1080/22
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Woodbury University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
59%
Graduation
51%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1060/21
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Pacific Union College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
66%
Student body
29K
Median SAT/ACT
1140/22
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San Jose State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
57%
Graduation
52%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1030/20
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La Sierra University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
100%
Graduation
49%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
985/18
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Notre Dame de Namur University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
52%
Student body
24K
Median SAT/ACT
985/17
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California State University, Los Angeles’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
66%
Graduation
55%
Student body
33K
Median SAT/ACT
1020/19
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California State University, Northridge’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
42%
Graduation
73%
Student body
32K
Median SAT/ACT
1145/23
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California State University, Long Beach’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
60%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1062/20
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California State University, Monterey Bay’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
69%
Student body
34K
Median SAT/ACT
1115/21
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California State University, Fullerton’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$49K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
73%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1150/25
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Saint Mary's College of California’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
38%
Graduation
83%
Student body
21K
Median SAT/ACT
1340/29
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California Polytechnic State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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