California Public Colleges Ranked by Highest Acceptance Rate

Below is a ranking of the 32 public colleges in California with the highest acceptance rate for freshman undergraduate applications. California State University Stanislaus leads the list by accepting 98% of high school students that applied.

Acceptance rate is a measure of the competitiveness of a school. Lower acceptance rates are more competitive and may require a higher GPA, SAT/ACT score, and other factors to be considered for admission.

List of California Public Colleges Ranked by Highest Acceptance Rate
College	Acceptance Rate
University of California Merced Merced, California	91%
San Jose State University San Jose, California	85%
University of California Riverside Riverside, California	76%
California State Polytechnic University Pomona Pomona, California	75%
University of California Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, California	66%
California State University Long Beach Long Beach, California	46%
University of California Davis Davis, California	42%
San Diego State University San Diego, California	36%
University of California Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California	33%
California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, California	31%
University of California Irvine Irvine, California	29%
University of California San Diego La Jolla, California	27%
University of California Berkeley Berkeley, California	11%
University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles, California	9%

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This list is updated annually based on the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Last updated: March 15, 2026

Data source: IPEDS 2025 survey for academic year 2024/2025 - National Center for Education Statistics.