College profile
Cal Poly Humboldt
Listed in federal data as “California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt”.
CA · Public · Remote town · 14,019 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 5× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$25,170/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$47,626/yr) still runs about 5× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Worth asking: do students finish? Only 49% graduate within six years here — the standard federal measure. Ask what drives that: course availability, transfers out, students working long hours. Not finishing is the costliest outcome there is.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
AccessibleAccessible for most applicants. Affordable — net price averages ~$13,171/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- In-state residents (tuition ~$8,250 — major value play)
- Students drawn to Natural Resources & Conservation or Psychology (the two biggest majors)
The reality
- Out-of-state tuition is 2.5× the in-state rate
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
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Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.
Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
Admitted-student GPA
3.42 average · 3.07–3.85 typical range
weighted GPA, enrolled first-year students (Fall 2024 (2024-2025 CDS)). Cal Poly Humboldt is broadly accessible; this is the typical profile of enrolling students. Cal State is test-blind (no SAT/ACT in admissions), so the a–g GPA is the key academic signal. Source ↗
CSU first-year GPA — verified 2026-06-15 against the campus's official Common Data Set / admissions data. The GPA basis (a–g vs. weighted vs. 4.0-scale) differs from the unweighted GPA shown for private colleges.
Admit rate by major — Fall 2025
The headline admit rate hides a wide spread by program.
First-time freshman applications and admits by major, from the CSU Chancellor's Office. Campus overall: 99%.
| Major | Applicants | Admitted | Admit rate Fall 2025 |
Earlier year for comparison |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business Administration | 1,117 | 1,029 | 92.1% | Fall 2021: 90.8% ↑ |
| Mechanical Engineering | 1,094 | 1,036 | 94.7% | Fall 2023: 89.5% ↑ |
| Psychology | 869 | 813 | 93.6% | Fall 2021: 92.0% ↑ |
| Biology | 700 | 664 | 94.9% | Fall 2021: 96.8% ↓ |
| Kinesiology/Physical Education | 602 | 551 | 91.5% | Fall 2021: 83.3% ↑ |
| Criminology | 571 | 518 | 90.7% | Fall 2021: 87.5% ↑ |
| Marine Biology | 552 | 511 | 92.6% | Fall 2021: 92.1% |
| Computer Science | 508 | 468 | 92.1% | Fall 2021: 85.3% ↑ |
| Zoology | 448 | 431 | 96.2% | Fall 2021: 94.7% ↑ |
| Political Science/Government | 445 | 414 | 93.0% | Fall 2021: 94.2% ↓ |
| Environmental Science | 424 | 413 | 97.4% | Fall 2021: 96.6% |
| Marketing | 388 | 358 | 92.3% | Fall 2021: 86.6% ↑ |
| Cell and Molecular Biology | 373 | 363 | 97.3% | Fall 2021: 95.1% ↑ |
| Cinema/Film (Professional Performance) | 316 | 280 | 88.6% | Fall 2021: 87.7% |
| Fire Protection Administration and Technology | 277 | 259 | 93.5% | Fall 2023: 86.9% ↑ |
| Forestry | 269 | 257 | 95.5% | Fall 2021: 92.2% ↑ |
| Liberal Studies | 267 | 247 | 92.5% | Fall 2021: 94.4% ↓ |
| Wildlife Management | 232 | 218 | 94.0% | Fall 2021: 94.1% |
| Biochemistry | 230 | 216 | 93.9% | Fall 2021: 89.2% ↑ |
| Environmental Resources Engineering | 225 | 219 | 97.3% | Fall 2021: 97.6% |
| Child and Family Development | 212 | 180 | 84.9% | Fall 2021: 88.5% ↓ |
| Economics | 196 | 177 | 90.3% | Fall 2021: 86.5% ↑ |
| English | 166 | 160 | 96.4% | Fall 2021: 93.5% ↑ |
| Art (Studio/Professional Performance) | 155 | 144 | 92.9% | Fall 2021: 88.5% ↑ |
| Software Engineering | 143 | 135 | 94.4% | Fall 2023: 89.5% ↑ |
| Chemistry | 143 | 140 | 97.9% | Fall 2021: 89.4% ↑ |
| Social Work | 143 | 117 | 81.8% | Fall 2021: 89.4% ↓ |
| Anthropology | 138 | 125 | 90.6% | Fall 2021: 84.5% ↑ |
| Data Science | 134 | 128 | 95.5% | Fall 2023: 92.8% ↑ |
| Microbiology | 127 | 123 | 96.9% | Fall 2021: 95.0% ↑ |
| History | 127 | 117 | 92.1% | Fall 2021: 92.8% |
| Speech Communication | 115 | 103 | 89.6% | Fall 2021: 90.6% |
| Astronomy | 104 | 100 | 96.2% | Fall 2021: 98.1% ↓ |
| Mathematics | 101 | 98 | 97.0% | Fall 2021: 93.2% ↑ |
| Ecology | 98 | 96 | 98.0% | Fall 2021: 97.6% |
| Botany | 87 | 78 | 89.7% | Fall 2021: 87.5% ↑ |
| Energy Systems Engineering General | 83 | 79 | 95.2% | Fall 2023: 94.1% ↑ |
| Sociology | 74 | 66 | 89.2% | Fall 2021: 90.2% |
| Fisheries | 72 | 70 | 97.2% | Fall 2021: 93.9% ↑ |
| Music | 72 | 56 | 77.8% | Fall 2021: 87.5% ↓ |
| Theatre Arts | 69 | 63 | 91.3% | Fall 2021: 90.6% |
| Physics | 61 | 58 | 95.1% | Fall 2021: 78.9% ↑ |
| Mass Media | 51 | 47 | 92.2% | Fall 2024: 87.9% ↑ |
| Art History | 48 | 44 | 91.7% | Fall 2021: 87.5% ↑ |
| Art | 47 | 42 | 89.4% | Fall 2021: 95.7% ↓ |
| Philosophy | 42 | 41 | 97.6% | Fall 2021: 91.2% ↑ |
| Legal Studies General | 41 | 36 | 87.8% | Fall 2023: 83.0% ↑ |
| Journalism | 40 | 38 | 95.0% | Fall 2021: 92.0% ↑ |
| Oceanography | 38 | 34 | 89.5% | Fall 2021: 87.5% ↑ |
| Geology | 32 | 29 | 90.6% | Fall 2022: 95.8% ↓ |
| Dance | 29 | 23 | 79.3% | Fall 2021: 100.0% ↓ |
| Public Relations | 23 | 23 | 100.0% | Fall 2021: 90.9% ↑ |
| Interdisciplinary Studies/Special Major | 20 | 20 | 100.0% | Fall 2024: 86.2% ↑ |
| Physical Science | 20 | 17 | 85.0% | Fall 2024: 86.7% ↓ |
| Geography | 20 | 19 | 95.0% | Fall 2023: 100.0% ↓ |
| Spanish | 18 | 13 | 72.2% | Fall 2021: 78.9% ↓ |
| Recreation Administration | 16 | 14 | 87.5% | Fall 2021: 83.3% ↑ |
| Music Education | 15 | 12 | 80.0% | Fall 2023: 81.8% ↓ |
| Rangeland Resource Science and Management | 11 | 10 | 90.9% | Fall 2024: 100.0% ↓ |
Majors reported by transfer path only — Fall 2025
CSU reported no first-year admit row for these majors. At most campuses that means a freshman is not admitted straight into the program: they enter a pre-major (pre-nursing, for example) and apply into it later, while transfer applicants apply to the program directly. The transfer numbers below are the only published gate, and at a program like nursing they are the number a family should plan around.
| Major | Transfer applicants | Admitted | Admit rate Fall 2025, transfer |
Earlier year for comparison |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organizational Leadership transfer path | 66 | 61 | 92.4% | — |
| Nursing (RN-to-Nursing Degree) transfer path | 31 | 23 | 74.2% | Fall 2021: 19.4% ↑ |
Source: CSU Chancellor's Office ↗, applications & admissions by discipline and major (Fall 2021–2025); impaction status from the CSU impacted-programs list (2027-28 cycle). Groups smaller than 10 are suppressed by CSU. A rising admit rate usually means fewer applications, not lower standards.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What Cal Poly Humboldt actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Cal Poly Humboldt's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways
+$376K ahead at full price +$424K with aidSource: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance, largely in-state for publics; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at Cal Poly Humboldt
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Cal Poly Humboldt actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Cal Poly Humboldt's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Forestry. | $79,849 |
| Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering. | $78,225 |
| Computer Science. | $74,620 |
| Economics. | $61,175 |
| Business Administration, Management and Operations. | $60,005 |
| Social Work. | $57,953 |
| Biology, General. | $55,707 |
| Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness. | $55,222 |
| Criminology. | $55,174 |
| Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences. | $53,371 |
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Student body & economic mobility
Who attends here — and what the campus adds.
Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.
Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →
AI program signal
AI + computing education at Cal Poly Humboldt
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Cal Poly Humboldt
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
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Deciding on Cal Poly Humboldt?
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Get your child's odds at Cal Poly Humboldt →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Cal Poly Humboldt?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
2 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Cal Poly Humboldt on it. Between them they printed 4 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Cal Poly Humboldt, from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
3 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name Cal Poly Humboldt on it. Between them they printed 13 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to Cal Poly Humboldt, from each school's own published acceptances list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. Admits are counted at each college a student was admitted to, the same way the UC Reach Score counts a student admitted to three UC campuses three times — so this is a count of admissions, not of students. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, and a list whose class years we cannot read is listed below with its total rather than divided by a guess.
All 5 feeder schools, ranked →
Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.
Related reading
College admissions · August 21, 2026
CSU admissions · August 11, 2026
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantCal Poly Humboldt is a public four-year college in CA. It admitted 99% of applicants (14,019 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-blind.
Cost: about $13,171 a year on average with aid, $25,170 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $47,626 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $423,576 ahead with aid, $375,580 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Forestry ($79,849); Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering ($78,225); Computer Science ($74,620).
First-year admit rate by major, Fall 2025: lowest Social Work 81.8% (143 applied); highest Chemistry 97.9% (143 applied). 2 majors are reported on the transfer side only (freshmen enter as a pre-major): Organizational Leadership 92.4%, Nursing (RN-to-Nursing Degree) 74.2%.
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 9% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 18% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Cal Poly Humboldt: 2, 4 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Albuquerque Academy (0.8 per class year, 3 over 4 class years, Classes of 2021-2024); York School (0.2 per class year, 1 over 6 class years, Classes of 2021-2026). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/california-state-polytechnic-university-humboldt.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming Cal Poly Humboldt: 3, 13 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Archbishop Mitty High School (11.0 per class year, 11 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); Oratory Preparatory School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); The Altamont School (0.2 per class year, 1 over 5 class years, Classes of 2021-2025). Admits are counted at each college, so this counts admissions, not students. These are a different set of documents from the matriculation lists above and the two are never added together; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/california-state-polytechnic-university-humboldt.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/california-state-polytechnic-university-humboldt.json