By major · Data Science
Where can your student actually get into data science?
The same degree name can mean very different odds from one California campus to the next. Of the 2,535 first-year students who applied to UC Berkeley naming data science for Fall 2025, 346 were admitted; at Cal State Channel Islands, 36 of 37 were. A UC admits to the campus and not to the major at most programs, so read a UC figure as what happened to the students who named data science there, not as a separate door into the major. Every number below is the college system's own reporting, assembled in one place.
At a glance · California
- 11 colleges in California report a bachelor's data science program in federal outcome data or a data science admit rate in the UC/CSU data.
- Hardest reported gate: University of California-Berkeley — Data Science, Fall 2025: 2,535 applied, 346 admitted (14%).
- Highest reported admit rate into the program: California State University-Channel Islands — 97.3% (37 applied, 36 admitted, Fall 2025).
- Lowest average net price with aid: California State University-East Bay, $9,320 per year.
Every data science program on this page reports a first-year row, so there is no separate pre-major step to plan around; a freshman applies under the program name itself. At a UC the decision is still made at the campus level for most programs, so a low rate there tells you about the campus as much as the major, while a CSU rate is that campus's own count of who applied to data science and who was admitted. Admits are not enrollees. At most UC programs students are admitted to the campus, not the major. This page as JSON → · Show all 11 colleges nationwide →
Hardest reported gate
Data Science, Fall 2025: 2,535 applied, 346 admitted
Highest reported admit rate
Data Science, Fall 2025: 37 applied, 36 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. 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 | Program admit rate |
Campus admit rate |
Net price with aid |
Full price |
Earnings 4 yrs out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
University of California-Berkeley
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science
Fall 2025: 2,535 applied, 346 admitted · admit GPA 4.20–4.29
|
14% | 10% | $13,481 | $45,619 | — |
|
University of California-Irvine
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science
Fall 2025: 1,677 applied, 446 admitted · admit GPA 4.17–4.29
|
27% | 30% | $14,251 | $38,632 | — |
|
University of California-San Diego
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science
Fall 2025: 2,222 applied, 1,027 admitted · admit GPA 4.13–4.29
|
46% | 27% | $12,470 | $38,701 | — |
|
University of California-Davis
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science
Fall 2025: 1,402 applied, 788 admitted · admit GPA 4.06–4.26
|
56% | 46% | $14,741 | $41,238 | — |
|
California State University-Long Beach
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science
Fall 2025: 418 applied, 257 admitted
impacted
|
61.5% | 47% | $10,440 | $22,679 | — |
|
San Jose State University
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science
Fall 2025: 657 applied, 541 admitted
impacted
|
82.3% | 80% | $13,760 | $26,593 | — |
|
University of California-Riverside
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science
Fall 2025: 1,112 applied, 965 admitted · admit GPA 3.85–4.21
|
87% | 88% | $14,304 | $38,942 | — |
|
University of California-Merced
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science And Analytics
Fall 2025: 1,120 applied, 1,011 admitted · admit GPA 3.45–4.10
Data Science And Computing: 95%
|
90% | 95% | $11,983 | $39,665 | — |
|
California State University-East Bay
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science
Fall 2025: 121 applied, 109 admitted
|
90.1% | 97% | $9,320 | $22,850 | — |
|
California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science
Fall 2025: 134 applied, 128 admitted
|
95.5% | 99% | $13,171 | $25,170 | — |
|
California State University-Channel Islands
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Data Science
Fall 2025: 37 applied, 36 admitted
|
97.3% | 93% | $9,849 | $23,561 | — |
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); 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/data-science, then open each college profile it links to. Build a reach / match / likely list for a data science 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
A data science list needs both ends covered, because in California the same major runs from 14% at UC Berkeley to 97.3% at Cal State Channel Islands, and a student should have a real answer at each end. Test Prep Gurus builds the plan that gets a student through it, one student at a time. prepgurus.com · 949.229.5359