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Sonoma State University Data & Information Overview

456 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
94% Acceptance Rate
Get the facts about Sonoma State University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more.
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How Well Is Sonoma State University Ranked?

#503 Best Colleges in Nation
#83 Best Colleges in CA
Liberal Arts Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Sonoma State University was awarded 456 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is liberal arts.

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked SSU as #503 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when SSU held the #689 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

SSU is also ranked #83 out of 168 schools in California.

See all of the rankings for Sonoma State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into SSU?

94% Acceptance Rate
61% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

Sonoma State University has an acceptance rate of 94%, so it is easier to gain admission to this school than some others. Still, the admissions staff will examine your application closely to make sure you're a good fit for SSU.

Learn more about Sonoma State University admissions.

Sonoma State University Faculty

20 to 1 Student to Faculty
51% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used as a measure to gauge how much access students will have to their professors - the lower the number, the better. At Sonoma State University, this rate is 20 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

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 Sonoma State University is 51%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  51 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Sonoma State University

83% Freshmen Retention
33% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Sonoma State University has a freshmen retention rate of 83%. 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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  83 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor's degree with four years. At SSU this rate is 33%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  33 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Sonoma State University.

Sonoma State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

6,419 Full-Time Undergraduates
52.2% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
64.0% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 7,255 undergraduates at SSU with 6,419 being full-time and 836 being part-time.

How Much Does Sonoma State University Cost?

$17,563 Net Price
21% Take Out Loans
$20,148 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of SSU is $17,563. 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 SSU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$12,803 $13,983 $17,985 $22,254 $25,623

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 SSU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At SSU, approximately 21% of students took out student loans averaging $5,037 a year. That adds up to $20,148 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at SSU is 2.9%. 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 Sonoma State University.

How Much Money Do SSU Graduates Make?

$58,788 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from SSU make around $58,788 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future SSU graduates since it is 38% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Sonoma State University make the most money.

Location of Sonoma State University

California State
6,419 Full-Time Undergraduates
Suburb Campus Setting
Sonoma State University is a public institution located in Rohnert Park, California. Rohnert Park is a good match for students who enjoy the safety and convenience of the suburbs.

Get more details about the location of Sonoma State University.

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Contact details for SSU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1801 E Cotati Ave, Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
Phone: 707-664-2880
Website: https://sonoma.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sonomastateuniversity
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ssu_1961

Sonoma State University Majors

44 Majors With Completions
2,046 Undergraduate Degrees
187 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 44 majors graduated from Sonoma State University. Of these students, 2,046 received undergraduate degrees and 187 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Business Administration & Management 403 $48,133
General Psychology 202 $30,931
Sociology 148 $36,544
Liberal Arts General Studies 117 $39,101
Other Education 92 $32,292
Health & Physical Education 91 $30,104
General Biology 89 $28,787
Student Counseling 87 NA
Criminal Justice & Corrections 79 $34,504
General English Literature 74 $21,389

Learn more about the majors offered at Sonoma State University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at SSU

93% Take At Least One Class Online
36% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2020-2021, 6,825 students took at least one online class at Sonoma State University. This is a decrease from the 7,905 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 6,825 2,679
2019-2020 7,905 7,382
2018-2019 998 90
2017-2018 1,294 26
2016-2017 1,147 39

Learn more about online learning at Sonoma State University.

If you’re considering Sonoma State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against SSU? 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!

Notes and References

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.

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