California · College costs
Sticker price is close to meaningless. The number that matters is net price: what a typical first-year family pays after grants and scholarships come off. Across the 37 four-year colleges we track in California, the median net price is $14,610. That is $5,246 below the $19,857 median across every college we track.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Median net price (what families pay) | $14,610 |
| Median published in-state tuition | $16,347 |
| Median published out-of-state tuition | $49,922 |
| Median federal loan debt at graduation | $12,953 |
| Median earnings 10 years after entry | $75,433 |
| Four-year colleges covered | 37 |
Ranked by what families actually pay, not by published tuition. Graduation rate and earnings are shown beside it, because a cheap college you do not finish is not a saving.
| College | Avg. net price | Grad rate | Median earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| California State University-Los Angeles | $3,967 | 53.0% | $59,211 |
| California State University-San Bernardino | $4,564 | 54.9% | $59,977 |
| California State University-Fullerton | $6,555 | 70.2% | $62,951 |
| California State University-Fresno | $7,000 | 57.0% | $61,244 |
| California State University-Northridge | $7,021 | 57.0% | $59,115 |
| California State University-Sacramento | $9,338 | 56.3% | $64,876 |
| California State University-San Marcos | $10,229 | 54.6% | $62,908 |
| California State University-Long Beach | $10,440 | 68.9% | $64,403 |
| California State Polytechnic University-Pomona | $11,531 | 68.4% | $71,902 |
| San Francisco State University | $12,278 | 50.4% | $68,077 |
Median earnings of former students a decade after they first enrolled. It reflects the subjects a college teaches and who it admits as much as the teaching itself, so read it alongside cost rather than on its own.
| College | Avg. net price | Grad rate | Median earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvey Mudd College | $35,924 | 91.9% | $138,687 |
| California Institute of Technology | $16,075 | 94.4% | $128,566 |
| Stanford University | $13,807 | 91.9% | $124,080 |
| Santa Clara University | $50,062 | 87.9% | $109,183 |
| Claremont McKenna College | $28,849 | 91.4% | $104,736 |
| University of Southern California | $32,740 | 91.8% | $92,498 |
| University of California-Berkeley | $13,481 | 92.8% | $92,446 |
| California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo | $16,665 | 86.4% | $90,768 |
Ask every college on the list for its net price calculator and run it with your real numbers — the published average hides enormous variation by income. Ask what share of need it meets, whether aid is renewable for four years, and what the graduation rate is for students receiving Pell grants specifically. That last figure is on each of our college profiles and is the one most likely to be missing from a glossy brochure.
Free adaptive SAT and ACT practice with an unofficial score estimate, then see how that score sits against the reported range at every college on your list.
Start free practice →Across the 37 four-year colleges we track in California, the median net price — what a typical first-year family actually pays after grant aid — is $14,610. Published tuition is $16,347 in-state and $49,922 out-of-state, but very few families pay the sticker price.
By average net price, California State University-Los Angeles at $3,967 per year, according to the most recent federal data.
The median federal loan debt at graduation is $12,953. That covers federal loans only, so private and parent borrowing sits on top of it.
Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard. Net price is the average for first-year students receiving federal aid and varies sharply by family income. Figures can lag the current admissions cycle.
FunSAT is a free browser-based SAT and ACT prep app: digital SAT and ACT practice tests, unofficial score calculators, a built-in graphing calculator, college admissions chances from official U.S. Department of Education data, and a scholarship search. Start free practice →