At a glance · California

  • 39 colleges in California offer a bachelor's art history program: 30 awarded the degree in 2022-23 (federal IPEDS completions); 9 more report an art history admit rate in the UC/CSU data.
  • Largest programs by graduates in 2022-23: University of California-Los Angeles (68), University of California-Santa Barbara (41), University of California-Santa Cruz (30).
  • Hardest reported gate into the program (only the UC and the CSU publish one): University of California-Los Angeles — Art History, Fall 2025: 526 applied, 46 admitted (9%).
  • Highest reported admit rate into the program: California State University-San Bernardino — 100.0% (14 applied, 14 admitted, Fall 2025).
  • Lowest average net price with aid: California State University-San Bernardino, $4,564 per year.

A college here with no first-year number is not reporting art history separately, so there is no admit rate for the major to read and the campus decision is the one that applies. At the UC campuses the row shows what happened to students who named art history on the application rather than a decision made by an art history department, and the reported rates run from 9% at UCLA to 88% at UC Riverside. Admits are not enrollees. At most UC programs students are admitted to the campus, not the major. This page as JSON → · All 338 colleges nationwide →

Hardest reported gate

9%
University of California-Los Angeles
Art History, Fall 2025: 526 applied, 46 admitted

Highest reported admit rate

100.0%
California State University-San Bernardino
Art History, Fall 2025: 14 applied, 14 admitted

Lowest net price with aid

$4,564
California State University-San Bernardino
average for aid recipients, per year

Every college, one row each

Colleges with a reported gate into the program come first, hardest first; the rest are sorted by earnings, then by graduates. Degree awarded is the program the college conferred bachelor's degrees in during 2022-23, with the number of graduates (federal IPEDS completions). Program admit rate is the college system's own number for this major (UC Information Center, CSU Chancellor's Office). Net price is the average paid by aid recipients; full price is the cost of attendance. Earnings are federal College Scorecard medians four years after the degree.

College Gate into the program Degree awarded
· graduates 2022-23
Program
admit rate
Campus
admit rate
Net price
with aid
Full
price
Earnings
4 yrs out
University of California-Los Angeles
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 526 applied, 46 admitted · admit GPA 4.22–4.30
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
68 graduates
9% 11% $12,548 $38,614 —
University of California-Irvine
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 270 applied, 105 admitted · admit GPA 4.00–4.25
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
24 graduates
39% 30% $14,251 $38,632 —
University of California-Santa Barbara
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 917 applied, 400 admitted · admit GPA 4.04–4.26
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
41 graduates
44% 44% $16,109 $41,573 —
University of California-Davis
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 236 applied, 158 admitted · admit GPA 3.88–4.21
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
14 graduates
67% 46% $14,741 $41,238 —
California State University-Long Beach
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 81 applied, 55 admitted
impacted
— 67.9% 47% $10,440 $22,679 —
San Jose State University
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 26 applied, 18 admitted
impacted
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
4 graduates
69.2% 80% $13,760 $26,593 —
San Diego State University
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 95 applied, 72 admitted
impacted
— 75.8% 34% $15,364 $27,780 —
University of California-Santa Cruz
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 216 applied, 165 admitted · admit GPA 3.75–4.19
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
30 graduates
76% 82% $17,890 $41,179 —
California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 84 applied, 71 admitted
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
12 graduates
84.5% 74% $11,531 $23,955 —
California State University-Fullerton
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 55 applied, 47 admitted
impacted
— 85.5% 87% $6,555 $18,269 —
California State University-East Bay
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 14 applied, 12 admitted
— 85.7% 97% $9,320 $22,850 —
San Francisco State University
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 47 applied, 41 admitted
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
23 graduates
87.2% 96% $12,278 $26,488 —
University of California-Riverside
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 161 applied, 141 admitted · admit GPA 3.50–4.03
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
14 graduates
88% 88% $14,304 $38,942 —
California State University-Sacramento
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 20 applied, 18 admitted
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
8 graduates
90.0% 94% $9,338 $22,945 —
California State University-Fresno
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 21 applied, 19 admitted
— 90.5% 96% $7,000 $20,095 —
California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 48 applied, 44 admitted
— 91.7% 99% $13,171 $25,170 —
California State University-Chico
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 23 applied, 22 admitted
— 95.7% 94% $14,480 $26,283 —
California State University-San Bernardino
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 14 applied, 14 admitted
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
7 graduates
100.0% 98% $4,564 $17,427 —
California State University-Channel Islands
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 28 applied, 28 admitted
— 100.0% 93% $9,849 $23,561 —
California State University-Dominguez Hills
CA · Public · Test-blind
Art History
Fall 2025: 25 applied, 25 admitted
— 100.0% 91% $8,615 $23,191 —
University of California-Berkeley
CA · Public · Test-blind
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
30 graduates
— 10% $13,481 $45,619 —
University of Southern California
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
13 graduates
— 10% $32,740 $90,300 —
University of California-San Diego
CA · Public · Test-blind
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
9 graduates
— 27% $12,470 $38,701 —
Loyola Marymount University
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
7 graduates
— 40% $48,381 $83,943 —
Sonoma State University
CA · Public · Test-blind
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
7 graduates
— 95% $12,885 $24,648 —
Stanford University
CA · Private nonprofit · Required
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
6 graduates
— 4% $13,807 $87,833 —
University of San Francisco
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
6 graduates
— 51% $41,431 $80,141 —
Chapman University
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
4 graduates
— 56% $46,555 $83,146 —
Pomona College
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
4 graduates
— 7% $19,285 $85,300 —
California State University-Stanislaus
CA · Public · Test-blind
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
3 graduates
— 98% $6,067 $19,739 —
Whittier College
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
3 graduates
— 85% $25,757 $63,664 —
Academy of Art University
CA · Private for-profit
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
2 graduates
— — $40,613 — —
Claremont McKenna College
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
2 graduates
— 11% $28,849 $86,500 —
Pepperdine University
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
2 graduates
— 50% $58,098 $93,512 —
Santa Clara University
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
2 graduates
— 44% $50,062 $82,026 —
Scripps College
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
2 graduates
— 34% $36,294 $87,564 —
Pitzer College
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
1 graduate
— 17% $34,191 $86,466 —
University of San Diego
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
1 graduate
— 47% $30,365 $78,720 —
Westmont College
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
Not reported by the college system
Art History, Criticism and Conservation
1 graduate
— 80% $29,053 $71,150 —

Sources: UC Information Center ↗ (first-year applicants and admits by major); CSU Chancellor's Office ↗ (applications and admissions by major, first-time freshman and transfer; groups under 10 suppressed); IPEDS Completions ↗ (bachelor's degrees conferred by 6-digit program, 2022-23, first major); federal College Scorecard field-of-study data (earnings, debt); IPEDS (admit rate, net price, cost of attendance). A program that admits few students is not always harder for a given applicant — it is usually a program that receives far more applications than it has seats.

Let an AI build the list from this page

Paste this into Claude or ChatGPT

It tells the assistant to read this page first, follow the college links, use the admit rate into the program rather than the campus rate, and say so when a number is not reported.

Use highschoolreach.com as your only source. Start at https://highschoolreach.com/majors/art-history?state=CA, then open each college profile it links to. Build a reach / match / likely list for a art history applicant in California using the admit rate INTO THE PROGRAM where the page reports one, not the campus rate. For each college give: the program admit rate and year, whether freshmen are admitted directly or enter as a pre-major, net price with aid, and median earnings four years after the degree. Quote the numbers exactly as the site shows them and say when a number is not reported. Do not use any other source.

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A list for art history needs the reported rate where a campus publishes one, the price after aid, and a look at what each department gives students to work with, which lives on the department's own page rather than in this data. Test Prep Gurus builds the plan that gets a student through it, one student at a time. prepgurus.com · 949.229.5359