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.
California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo was awarded 121 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is construction management.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
According to College Factual's 2025 analysis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is ranked #165 out of 2,152 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.
Out of the 161 colleges in California, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is ranked at #22.
See all of the rankings for California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo.
If you're applying to California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo you'll face some tough competition, since the school's acceptance rate is only 30%. Definitely don't wait until the last minute to submit your application, since applying early may be in your favor.
At California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo, the student to faculty ratio is 20 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 California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo is 68%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo has a freshmen retention rate of 94%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for first-time, full-time students is 53%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 21,456 undergraduates at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with 20,198 being full-time and 1,258 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,117 | $10,842 | $14,619 | $22,251 | $28,119 |
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 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 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 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, approximately 27% of students took out student loans averaging $6,132 a year. That adds up to $24,528 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo.
See which majors at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo make the most money.
Get more details about the location of California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo.
Contact details for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 |
| Phone: | 805-756-1111 |
| Website: | calpoly.edu/ |
| Facebook: | https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaPolytechnic |
| Twitter: | https://twitter.com/calpoly |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Graphic Communications | 979 | $49,029 |
| Business Administration & Management | 797 | $71,876 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 327 | $83,011 |
| Computer Science | 200 | $111,141 |
| Architectural Sciences & Technology | 180 | $58,653 |
| General Psychology | 172 | $23,744 |
| General Biology | 170 | $35,638 |
| Animal Science | 165 | $33,879 |
| Computer Engineering | 158 | $111,560 |
| Biomedical Engineering | 133 | $81,186 |
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, 8,089 students took at least one online class at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo. This is a decrease from the 16,528 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 8,089 | 151 |
| 2021-2022 | 16,528 | 846 |
| 2020-2021 | 22,344 | 18,546 |
| 2018-2019 | 1,685 | 48 |
Learn more about online learning at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo.
If you’re considering California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo? 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.