By major · Aviation
Where can your student actually get into aviation?
In 2022-23, 54 colleges awarded a bachelor's degree in aviation, 2 of them in California. The biggest program that year was Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide, with 888 graduates. We build this page from federal data for every college that awards the degree, so it is the whole field rather than a shortlist.
This page is assembled from federal data for every college that awards the degree. There is no hand-written analysis on it.
At a glance · California
- 3 colleges in California offer a bachelor's aviation program: 2 awarded the degree in 2022-23 (federal IPEDS completions); 1 more report an aviation admit rate in the UC/CSU data.
- Largest programs by graduates in 2022-23: San Jose State University (52), San Diego Christian College (1).
- Hardest reported gate into the program (only the UC and the CSU publish one): San Jose State University — Aviation, Fall 2025: 604 applied, 482 admitted (79.8%).
- Highest reported admit rate into the program: California State University-Los Angeles — 91.0% (244 applied, 222 admitted, Fall 2025).
- Lowest average net price with aid: San Diego Christian College, $992 per year.
Only the University of California and the CSU publish an admit rate into a major, so most colleges here show no program admit rate. A blank rate is not an open door. It means the college does not report one, and your student is applying against the campus admit rate instead. Admits are not enrollees. At most UC programs students are admitted to the campus, not the major. This page as JSON → · All 55 colleges nationwide →
Hardest reported gate
Aviation, Fall 2025: 604 applied, 482 admitted
Highest reported admit rate
Aviation, Fall 2025: 244 applied, 222 admitted
Lowest net price with aid
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
San Jose State University
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Aviation
Fall 2025: 604 applied, 482 admitted
impacted
|
Aeronautics/Aviation/Aerospace Science and Technology, General
52 graduates
|
79.8% | 80% | $13,760 | $26,593 | — |
|
California State University-Los Angeles
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Aviation
Fall 2025: 244 applied, 222 admitted
|
— | 91.0% | 92% | $3,967 | $18,403 | — |
|
San Diego Christian College
CA · Private nonprofit
|
Not reported by the college system |
Aeronautics/Aviation/Aerospace Science and Technology, General
1 graduate
|
— | — | $992 | — | — |
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/aviation?state=CA, then open each college profile it links to. Build a reach / match / likely list for a aviation 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.
Other majors
The list is where the work starts
With 54 colleges awarding this degree, the work is narrowing the list rather than finding one: start with the colleges in your state, look up the net price at each, and compare what graduates earn where the federal data reports it. Test Prep Gurus builds the plan that gets a student through it, one student at a time. prepgurus.com · 949.229.5359