Santa Clara University Overview

Located in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara University is a private not-for-profit institution. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

What Is Santa Clara University Known For?

• The student loan default rate at SCU is 1%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at SCU.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 64% of the faculty were full-time.
• Students who graduate from SCU with a bachelor's degree make about $72,600 a year. That's 78% more than those who graduate from other schools.
• On average, it takes about 4.1 years for students from SCU to earn a bachelor's degree. This is excellent when compared to the average of 4.4 years.

Santa Clara University Rankings

SCU is ranked #58 out of 2,587 schools in the nation for overall quality on our 2022 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. It is also ranked #10 out of 204 schools in California.

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.

SCU has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#7	Best Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#37	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#43	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Public Health Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Educational Administration Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#5	Best Health Professions Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Engineering Technologies Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Communication & Journalism Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#18	Best History Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#25	Best Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#27	Best Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#27	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#6	Best Healthcare Schools	Healthcare Degree Search
#7	Best Engineering Technologies Schools	College Factual
#14	Best Communication & Journalism Schools	College Factual
#17	Best Education Schools	College Factual
#38	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#41	Best Health Professions Schools	College Factual

Where Is Santa Clara University?

Contact details for SCU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053
Phone:	408-554-4000
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/SantaClaraUniversity
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/SantaClaraUniv

How Do I Get Into SCU?

You can apply to SCU online at: www.commonapp.org/

Admission Requirements for SCU

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	considered but not required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into SCU?

With an acceptance rate of 51%, SCU does not let just anybody through their doors! Make sure you spend enough time polishing up your application so you will make a great impression.

Approximately 47% of accepted students are men and 53% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 49%, and the acceptance rate for women is 52%.

Average Test Scores

About 68% of students accepted to SCU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 630 and 700. Math scores were between 640 and 750.

SCU received ACT scores from 39% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 28 and 32.

Can I Afford Santa Clara University?

The overall average net price of SCU is $54,073. 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

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 SCU, approximately 28% of students took out student loans averaging $7,695 a year. That adds up to $30,780 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at SCU is 1.0%. 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.

Santa Clara University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 5,608 undergraduate students at SCU, with 5,478 being full-time and 130 being part-time.

There are also 3,008 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 5,478 full-time undergraduates at SCU, 52% are male and 48% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Santa Clara University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1,061
Black or African American	147
Hispanic or Latino	977
White	2,422
International Students	289
Other Races/Ethnicities	582

Geographic Diversity

California students aren't the only ones who study at Santa Clara University. At this time, 40 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 81 countries are represented at SCU. The most popular countries sending students to the school are India, China, and Taiwan.

Online Learning at Santa Clara University

In 2019-2020, 299 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

This school is the 76th 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 SCU

The following table shows how SCU 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
Religious Studies	#49	#49
Legal Research	#57	#57
Philosophy & Religious Studies	#61	#61
Legal Professions	#69	#69

Online Growth Rankings of SCU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Santa Clara University was 460.1%. This is the #165 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at SCU regardless of major.

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

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Legal Professions	#7
Legal Research	#7

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%.

Santa Clara University Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Computer Engineering	77	0	278	3	358
Law	0	0	0	207	207
Business Administration & Management	0	0	168	0	168
Finance & Financial Management	149	0	5	0	154
Accounting	86	62	0	0	148
Communication & Media Studies	122	0	0	0	122
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	109	0	109
General Psychology	105	0	0	0	105
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	96	0	96
Economics	94	0	0	0	94
Marketing	92	0	0	0	92
Mathematics & Computer Science	82	0	0	0	82
Political Science & Government	80	0	0	0	80
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	77	0	77
Mechanical Engineering	48	0	23	1	72
General Biology	70	0	0	0	70
Computer Information Systems	0	0	62	0	62
Theological & Ministerial Studies	0	0	30	27	57
Biomedical Engineering	37	0	16	0	53
Public Health	53	0	0	0	53
Natural Resources Conservation	41	0	0	0	41
Management Information Systems	37	0	0	0	37
General English Literature	34	0	0	0	34
Sociology	30	0	0	0	30
Romance Languages	29	0	0	0	29
Mathematics	28	0	0	0	28
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	27	0	0	0	27
Educational Administration	0	0	27	0	27
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	27	0	27
Philosophy	26	0	0	0	26
Fine & Studio Arts	25	0	0	0	25
Human Resource Management	23	0	0	0	23
Electrical Engineering	23	0	0	0	23
Civil Engineering	17	0	2	0	19
History	17	0	0	0	17
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	16	0	0	0	16
Human Development & Family Studies	15	0	0	0	15
Ethnic Studies	14	0	0	0	14
Business/Managerial Economics	13	0	0	0	13
Religious Studies	4	0	8	0	12
Anthropology	12	0	0	0	12
Legal Research	0	0	11	0	11
Drama & Theater Arts	11	0	0	0	11
Music	11	0	0	0	11
Computer Software & Applications	10	0	0	0	10
Physics	9	0	0	0	9
Liberal Arts General Studies	8	0	0	0	8
Engineering Physics	6	0	0	0	6
Applied Mathematics	0	0	6	0	6
General Engineering	3	0	0	0	3
Chemistry	3	0	0	0	3
Classical Languages & Literature	2	0	0	0	2
Germanic Languages	1	0	0	0	1
General Business/Commerce	0	0	0	0	0
Other Education	0	0	0	0	0
Other Engineering	0	0	0	0	0
Classical & Ancient Studies	0	0	0	0	0
Natural Sciences	0	0	0	0	0
Theology & Religious Vocations (Other)	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	1,590	62	945	238	2,835

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 Arnaudh under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.