By major · Communication Sciences and Disorders
Where can your student actually get into communication sciences and disorders?
Communication sciences and disorders is the undergraduate road to speech-language pathology and audiology, and almost every job in the field needs a master's after it. 278 colleges awarded a bachelor's in it in 2022-23. There are 17 colleges in California on this page and 12 of them publish an admit rate into the major. San Diego State reports the hardest door, 53.0%, with 368 students applying and 195 admitted.
At a glance · California
- 17 colleges in California offer a bachelor's communication sciences and disorders program; every one of them awarded the degree in 2022-23 (federal IPEDS completions).
- Largest programs by graduates in 2022-23: San Diego State University (157), California State University-Fullerton (145), California State University-Los Angeles (132).
- Hardest reported gate into the program (only the UC and the CSU publish one): San Diego State University — Speech Language Pathology (Entry-Ready), Fall 2025: 368 applied, 195 admitted (53.0%).
- Highest reported admit rate into the program: California State University-Sacramento — 98.1% (105 applied, 103 admitted, Fall 2025).
- 2 CSU campuses report communication sciences and disorders on the transfer side only: freshmen enter as a pre-major and apply into the program later.
- Highest median earnings four years after the degree: University of the Pacific, $77,549.
- Lowest average net price with aid: California State University-Los Angeles, $3,967 per year.
The CSU calls this major Communicative Disorders at most campuses and Speech Language Pathology at others, and both are on this page. Two campuses report it on the transfer side only, so freshmen there start in another major and apply in later. Admits are not enrollees. At most UC programs students are admitted to the campus, not the major. This page as JSON → · All 283 colleges nationwide →
Hardest reported gate
Speech Language Pathology (Entry-Ready), Fall 2025: 368 applied, 195 admitted
Highest reported admit rate
Communicative Disorders, Fall 2025: 105 applied, 103 admitted
Highest earnings, 4 yrs out
median, graduates of this program
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 Diego State University
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Speech Language Pathology (Entry-Ready)
Fall 2025: 368 applied, 195 admitted
impacted
|
Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist
157 graduates
|
53.0% | 34% | $15,364 | $27,780 | $61,510 |
|
California State University-Long Beach
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Speech Language Pathology (without comm disorders)
Fall 2025: 374 applied, 214 admitted
impacted
|
Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist
65 graduates
|
57.2% | 47% | $10,440 | $22,679 | $75,137 |
|
California State University-San Marcos
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Speech Language Pathology (Entry-Ready)
Fall 2025: 75 applied, 56 admitted
transfer path only · freshmen enter as a pre-major
|
Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist
58 graduates
|
74.7% | 96% | $10,229 | $21,649 | $71,068 |
|
California State University-Fresno
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Communicative Disorders
Fall 2025: 86 applied, 67 admitted
transfer path only · freshmen enter as a pre-major
|
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
103 graduates
|
77.9% | 96% | $7,000 | $20,095 | $51,835 |
|
San Jose State University
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Communicative Disorders
Fall 2025: 98 applied, 83 admitted
impacted
|
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
50 graduates
|
84.7% | 80% | $13,760 | $26,593 | — |
|
San Francisco State University
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Communicative Disorders
Fall 2025: 92 applied, 82 admitted
|
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
26 graduates
|
89.1% | 96% | $12,278 | $26,488 | $70,532 |
|
California State University-East Bay
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Communicative Disorders
Fall 2025: 70 applied, 65 admitted
|
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
39 graduates
|
92.9% | 97% | $9,320 | $22,850 | $62,720 |
|
California State University-Los Angeles
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Communicative Disorders
Fall 2025: 91 applied, 85 admitted
|
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
132 graduates
|
93.4% | 92% | $3,967 | $18,403 | $53,857 |
|
California State University-Northridge
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Communicative Disorders
Fall 2025: 122 applied, 117 admitted
|
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
118 graduates
|
95.9% | 93% | $7,021 | $20,485 | $65,188 |
|
California State University-Fullerton
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Communicative Disorders
Fall 2025: 199 applied, 193 admitted
impacted
|
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
145 graduates
|
97.0% | 87% | $6,555 | $18,269 | $62,436 |
|
California State University-Chico
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Communicative Disorders
Fall 2025: 104 applied, 101 admitted
|
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
54 graduates
|
97.1% | 94% | $14,480 | $26,283 | $62,855 |
|
California State University-Sacramento
CA · Public · Test-blind
|
Communicative Disorders
Fall 2025: 105 applied, 103 admitted
|
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
95 graduates
|
98.1% | 94% | $9,338 | $22,945 | $63,013 |
|
University of the Pacific
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
|
Not reported by the college system |
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
16 graduates
|
— | 95% | $25,447 | $71,515 | $77,549 |
|
University of Redlands
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
|
Not reported by the college system |
Audiology/Audiologist and Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist
42 graduates
|
— | 81% | $30,031 | $76,630 | $71,767 |
|
Biola University
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
|
Not reported by the college system |
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
32 graduates
|
— | 60% | $31,495 | $62,757 | $69,087 |
|
California Baptist University
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
|
Not reported by the college system |
Communication Sciences and Disorders, General
58 graduates
|
— | 74% | $26,285 | $54,038 | $67,621 |
|
Loma Linda University
CA · Private nonprofit
|
Not reported by the college system |
Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist
8 graduates
|
— | — | — | — | — |
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/communication-sciences-and-disorders?state=CA, then open each college profile it links to. Build a reach / match / likely list for a communication sciences and disorders 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
Because the master's is where the real bottleneck sits, a list for this major should ask each college how many of its graduates go on to a master's program and where. Start with the twelve California campuses that publish an admit rate, and carry the net price for each. Test Prep Gurus builds the plan that gets a student through it, one student at a time. prepgurus.com · 949.229.5359