California State University - Sacramento Overview

Located in Sacramento, California, California State University - Sacramento is a public institution. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

What Is California State University - Sacramento Known For?

• The 5% student loan default rate at Sac State is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• The highest award offered at Sac State is the doctor's degree.
• In 2017-2018, 48% of the faculty were full-time.
• Students who graduate from Sac State with a bachelor's degree make about $48,900 a year. That's 20% more than those who graduate from other schools.

California State University - Sacramento Rankings

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Program Level Awards

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#3	Best Value Nutrition Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Gerontology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Best General Family & Consumer Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#22	Best Value Physical Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#30	Best General Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#59	Best Nursing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#111	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#113	Best Value Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#155	Best Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#181	Best Health Professions Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#3	Best Gerontology Schools	College Factual
#74	Best Nursing Schools	Nursing Degree Search
#92	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Schools	College Factual
#102	Best Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting Schools	College Factual
#161	Best Education Schools	College Factual
#273	Best Health Professions Schools	College Factual

Where Is California State University - Sacramento?

Contact details for Sac State are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	6000 J St, Sacramento, CA 95819-2694
Phone:	916-278-6011
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/sacstate
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/sacstate

How Do I Get Into Sac State?

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

Admission Requirements for Sac 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 Sac State?

Sac State has an acceptance rate of 83%, which means that is not quite as selective as some other schools. Still, you'll need good grades and a solid application if you want to be admitted.

Approximately 38% of accepted students are men and 62% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 80%, and the acceptance rate for women is 85%.

Average Test Scores

About 95% of students accepted to Sac State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 470 and 570. Math scores were between 460 and 560.

Sac State received ACT scores from 19% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 15 and 23. Math scores were between 16 and 23. Composite scores were between 17 and 23.

Can I Afford California State University - Sacramento?

The overall average net price of Sac State is $29,661. 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

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Sac State, approximately 30% of students took out student loans averaging $5,191 a year. That adds up to $20,764 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Sac State is 4.6%. 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 - Sacramento Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 29,296 undergraduate students at Sac State, with 24,068 being full-time and 5,228 being part-time.

There are also 2,997 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 24,068 full-time undergraduates at Sac State, 42% are male and 58% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	4,740
Black or African American	1,508
Hispanic or Latino	8,837
White	5,635
International Students	881
Other Races/Ethnicities	2,467

Geographic Diversity

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

Over 78 countries are represented at Sac State. The most popular countries sending students to the school are India, China, and South Korea.

Online Learning at California State University - Sacramento

In 2019-2020, 31,745 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

This school is the 34th 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 Sac State

The following table shows how Sac 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
Accounting	#28	#85
Teacher Education Subject Specific	#28	#48
General Education	#30	#75
Education	#53	#172

Online Affordability Rankings of Sac State Rankings

The following table shows how Sac 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
Accounting	#13	#145
Business, Management & Marketing	#45	#129

Online Growth Rankings of Sac State

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at California State University - Sacramento was 1,099.4%. This is the #106 largest growth rate of all schools that are mostly online. This refers to all students at Sac State regardless of major.

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Sac 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 Sac State.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Accounting	#4
Business, Management & Marketing	#28

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 - Sacramento Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Business Administration & Management	1,007	0	172	0	1,179
Communication & Media Studies	531	0	5	0	536
General Psychology	489	0	12	0	501
Criminal Justice & Corrections	494	0	6	0	500
Teacher Education Grade Specific	479	0	7	0	486
Social Work	244	0	78	0	322
Health & Physical Education	317	0	3	0	320
Nursing	253	0	61	0	314
General Biology	269	0	11	0	280
Computer Science	239	1	39	0	279
Sociology	224	0	6	0	230
Mechanical Engineering	204	0	16	0	220
Economics	195	0	2	0	197
Civil Engineering	174	0	17	0	191
Liberal Arts General Studies	189	0	0	0	189
Health Sciences & Services	183	0	0	0	183
Political Science & Government	174	1	6	0	181
Communication Sciences	143	0	30	0	173
General English Literature	128	0	14	0	142
General Family & Consumer Sciences	136	0	0	0	136
History	111	0	18	0	129
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies	121	0	4	0	125
Electrical Engineering	96	0	22	0	118
Ethnic Studies	101	0	0	0	101
Nutrition Science	100	0	0	0	100
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	83	0	0	0	83
General Education	0	4	74	0	78
Anthropology	60	0	3	0	63
Fine & Studio Arts	56	0	7	0	63
Design & Applied Arts	62	0	0	0	62
Mathematics	57	0	4	0	61
Gerontology	57	0	0	0	57
Natural Resources Conservation	56	0	0	0	56
Construction Engineering Technology	51	0	0	0	51
Computer Engineering	42	0	6	0	48
Philosophy	46	0	0	0	46
Geography & Cartography	46	0	0	0	46
Romance Languages	42	0	3	0	45
Chemistry	40	0	4	0	44
Journalism	39	0	0	0	39
Music	32	0	6	0	38
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	0	0	0	32	32
General Social Sciences	31	0	0	0	31
Drama & Theater Arts	28	0	0	0	28
Geological & Earth Sciences	18	0	6	0	24
Student Counseling	0	0	19	0	19
Public Administration	0	0	19	0	19
Teacher Education Subject Specific	17	0	1	0	18
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	16	0	0	0	16
Physics	16	0	0	0	16
Interior Architecture	11	0	0	0	11
Educational Administration	0	0	0	11	11
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	11	0	0	0	11
Area Studies	8	0	0	0	8
Computer Information Systems	0	2	0	0	2
Accounting	0	0	0	0	0
General Engineering Technology	0	0	0	0	0
International Relations & National Security	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	7,526	8	681	43	8,258

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 Stickpen under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.