By major · Industrial Engineering
Where can your student actually get into industrial engineering?
In California, industrial engineering is mostly a Cal State major, and this page lists the manufacturing engineering programs with it because they lead to the same kind of work. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo admitted 187 of 439 first-year applicants to industrial engineering for fall 2025, a rate of 42.6%, and Cal Poly Pomona admitted 352 of 373, a rate of 94.4%. No UC reports an admit rate for industrial engineering, so UC Berkeley appears here through the federal earnings data instead, with a median of $138,883 four years after the degree. Every number below is the college system's own reporting or the federal outcome data, assembled in one place.
At a glance · California
- 8 colleges in California report a bachelor's industrial engineering program in federal outcome data or an industrial engineering admit rate in the UC/CSU data.
- Hardest reported gate: California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo — Industrial Engineering, Fall 2025: 439 applied, 187 admitted (42.6%).
- Highest reported admit rate into the program: California State University-Northridge — 94.5% (55 applied, 52 admitted, Fall 2025).
- Highest median earnings four years after the degree: University of California-Berkeley, $138,883.
- Lowest average net price with aid: California State University-Northridge, $7,021 per year.
None of the California programs on this page reports a transfer path only, so where a CSU campus publishes an admit rate, a student applies straight to the major instead of entering as a pre-major and competing for a seat later. A college shown with no admit rate is one whose system does not publish one for this major, which is a gap in the reporting rather than an open door. Admits are not enrollees. At most UC programs students are admitted to the campus, not the major. This page as JSON → · Show all 118 colleges nationwide →
Hardest reported gate
Industrial Engineering, Fall 2025: 439 applied, 187 admitted
Highest reported admit rate
Manufacturing Engineering, Fall 2025: 55 applied, 52 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. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Industrial Engineering
Fall 2025: 439 applied, 187 admitted
impacted
Manufacturing Engineering: 50.4%
|
42.6% | 30% | $16,665 | $32,265 | $112,797 |
|
San Jose State University
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Industrial Engineering
Fall 2025: 269 applied, 232 admitted
impacted
|
86.2% | 80% | $13,760 | $26,593 | — |
|
California State University-East Bay
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Industrial Engineering
Fall 2025: 140 applied, 122 admitted
|
87.1% | 97% | $9,320 | $22,850 | $93,793 |
|
California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Industrial Engineering
Fall 2025: 373 applied, 352 admitted
Manufacturing Engineering: 97.0%
|
94.4% | 74% | $11,531 | $23,955 | $95,835 |
|
California State University-Northridge
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Manufacturing Engineering
Fall 2025: 55 applied, 52 admitted
Industrial Management and Engineering: 85.7%
|
94.5% | 93% | $7,021 | $20,485 | $74,344 |
|
University of California-Berkeley
CA · Public · Test-optional
|
Not reported by the college system | — | 10% | $13,481 | $45,619 | $138,883 |
|
University of Southern California
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
|
Not reported by the college system | — | 10% | $32,740 | $90,300 | $112,150 |
|
University of San Diego
CA · Private nonprofit · Test-optional
|
Not reported by the college system | — | 47% | $30,365 | $78,720 | — |
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/industrial-engineering, then open each college profile it links to. Build a reach / match / likely list for a industrial engineering 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 list for this major needs schools from both ends of that spread, since the same degree reports 42.6% at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and 94.4% at Cal Poly Pomona. Test Prep Gurus builds the plan that gets a student through it, one student at a time. prepgurus.com · 949.229.5359