California State University - Chico Overview

Located in Chico, California, California State University - Chico is a public institution. The location of Chico State is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

What Is California State University - Chico Known For?

• Students at Chico State have an easier time paying back their loans. The school's student loan default rate is only 3%, compared to the national rate of 10.1%.
• The highest award offered at Chico State is the master's degree.
• In 2017-2018, 56% of the faculty were full-time.
• Students who graduate from Chico State with a bachelor's degree make about $48,100 a year. That's 18% more than those who graduate from other schools.

California State University - Chico Rankings

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Chico State.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#2	Best Value Other Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Value Natural Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#5	Best Value Nutrition Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best General Agriculture Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#16	Best Value Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#18	Best Value Computer Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#27	Best Value Journalism Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#28	Best Value Electrical Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#43	Best Value Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#128	Best Nursing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Chico State has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#8	Best General Agriculture Schools	College Factual
#8	Best Agriculture Schools	College Factual
#96	Best Nursing Schools	Nursing Degree Search
#207	Best Business Administration & Management Schools	College Factual
#211	Best Nursing Schools	College Factual
#288	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual

Where Is California State University - Chico?

Contact details for Chico State are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	First And Normal Sts, Chico, CA 95929-0150
Phone:	530-898-6116
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/californiastateuniversitychico
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/chicostate

How Do I Get Into Chico State?

You can apply to Chico State online at: https://www2.calstate.edu/apply

Admission Requirements for Chico State

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	neither required nor recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	neither required nor recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	neither required nor recommended

How Hard Is It To Get Into Chico State?

Chico State has the high acceptance rate of 90%, which means it is fairly easy to gain admittance as long as you submit a complete application with requested materials.

Approximately 39% of accepted students are men and 61% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 88%, and the acceptance rate for women is 91%.

Average Test Scores

About 90% of students accepted to Chico State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 490 and 590. Math scores were between 480 and 580.

Chico State received ACT scores from 24% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 16 and 24. Math scores were between 17 and 24. Composite scores were between 18 and 24.

Can I Afford California State University - Chico?

The overall average net price of Chico State is $27,084. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

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 Chico State, approximately 43% of students took out student loans averaging $5,619 a year. That adds up to $22,476 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Chico State is 3.3%. 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.

California State University - Chico Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 15,747 undergraduate students at Chico State, with 14,228 being full-time and 1,519 being part-time.

There are also 999 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 14,228 full-time undergraduates at Chico State, 45% are male and 55% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of California State University - Chico students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	781
Black or African American	401
Hispanic or Latino	5,164
White	6,117
International Students	350
Other Races/Ethnicities	1,415

Geographic Diversity

California students aren't the only ones who study at California State University - Chico. At this time, 17 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 50 countries are represented at Chico State. The most popular countries sending students to the school are Saudi Arabia, India, and China.

Online Learning at California State University - Chico

In 2019-2020, 16,733 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Chico State has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 63rd most popular in California for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of Chico State

The following table shows how Chico State is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Other Health Professions	#4	#13
General Social Sciences	#13	#19
Religious Studies	#13	#34
Philosophy & Religious Studies	#25	#55
Sociology	#31	#58
Teacher Education Subject Specific	#64	#117
Education	#72	#166
Nursing	#73	#154

Online Affordability Rankings of Chico State Rankings

The following table shows how Chico State is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Teacher Education Subject Specific	#19	#45
Nursing	#27	#90
Health Professions	#37	#185
Education	#40	#115
Business Administration & Management	#55	#169
Business, Management & Marketing	#57	#135

Online Growth Rankings of Chico State

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at California State University - Chico was 673.9%. This is the #136 largest growth rate of all schools that are mostly online. This refers to all students at Chico State regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of Chico State majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Nursing	6%
Teacher Education Subject Specific	56%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Chico State ranks compared to all other mostly online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at Chico State.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Teacher Education Subject Specific	#9
Nursing	#14
Health Professions	#34
Business Administration & Management	#37
Education	#46
Business, Management & Marketing	#58

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

California State University - Chico Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Master’s	TOTAL
Business Administration & Management	648	22	670
General Psychology	342	27	369
Health & Physical Education	220	17	237
Liberal Arts General Studies	210	0	210
Criminal Justice & Corrections	173	0	173
Sociology	144	0	144
Communication & Media Studies	122	5	127
Design & Applied Arts	124	0	124
Nursing	117	4	121
Construction Engineering Technology	115	0	115
Social Work	74	41	115
Mechanical Engineering	102	0	102
Health Sciences & Services	90	0	90
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies	87	2	89
Computer Information Systems	88	0	88
Political Science & Government	81	5	86
General Biology	69	6	75
Communication Sciences	51	24	75
General English Literature	64	10	74
Nutrition Science	64	10	74
Animal Science	72	0	72
Teacher Education Grade Specific	72	0	72
Agricultural Economics & Business	71	0	71
History	68	3	71
General Agriculture	69	0	69
Journalism	68	0	68
Computer Science	61	0	61
Public Health	59	0	59
Civil Engineering	57	0	57
Anthropology	47	9	56
General Social Sciences	43	10	53
Fine & Studio Arts	45	1	46
Engineering-Related Fields	45	0	45
Music	44	0	44
General Education	0	38	38
Other Engineering	34	0	34
Mathematics	34	0	34
Economics	33	0	33
International Relations & National Security	33	0	33
Romance Languages	32	0	32
Ethnic Studies	29	0	29
Natural Resources Conservation	26	3	29
Electrical Engineering	27	0	27
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	22	0	22
Geography & Cartography	21	0	21
Public Administration	13	7	20
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	18	18
Microbiological Sciences & Immunology	17	0	17
Area Studies	17	0	17
Drama & Theater Arts	15	0	15
Physics	13	0	13
Chemistry	12	0	12
Geological & Earth Sciences	6	5	11
Computer Engineering	7	3	10
Natural Sciences	9	0	9
Philosophy	9	0	9
Germanic Languages	8	0	8
Religious Studies	7	0	7
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	1	2	3
Urban & Regional Planning	0	0	0
Botany/Plant Biology	0	0	0
Computer Software & Applications	0	0	0
Instructional Media Design	0	0	0
Industrial Production Technology	0	0	0
Writing Studies	0	0	0
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	0	0	0
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	0	0	0
Other Health Professions	0	0	0
Biological & Physical Science	0	0	0
TOTAL	4,231	272	4,503

References

*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.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Daderot under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.