{"answer":"Nursing pre-licensure at San Diego State was the hardest CSU major for first-year students in Fall 2025, with 8,620 applicants and 306 admits, a 3.5% rate. Every program near the top of our table is impacted, and most of them sit at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or San Diego State.","as_of":"October 2026","date":"2026-10-15","dek":"The table holds CSU majors with big first-year applicant pools in Fall 2025, ranked by admit rate; a CSU application names one major at one campus.","faq":[{"a":"Nursing pre-licensure at San Diego State was the hardest CSU major for first-year students in Fall 2025, with 8,620 applicants and 306 admits, a 3.5% rate.","q":"What is the hardest major to get into at a Cal State?"},{"a":"Impaction is the CSU's own word for a program with more qualified applicants than seats.","q":"What does impacted mean at the CSU?"},{"a":"A CSU application goes to one campus and one major. If that major is impacted, the campus can hold the applicant to a higher bar than its general standard.","q":"Does the major my student picks change their CSU chances?"}],"findings":[{"h":"Nursing pre-licensure at San Diego State is the hardest CSU major.","p":"San Diego State took 306 of 8,620 first-year applicants into nursing pre-licensure, a 3.5% rate. No other CSU major in the table admitted under 12.0% of its applicants. The next lowest is Aerospace Engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which admitted 289 of 2,399, or 12.0%."},{"h":"Every program at the top of the list is impacted.","p":"Impaction is the CSU's own word for a program with more qualified applicants than seats. Each of the lowest rates in our table carries the impacted flag, and the pattern runs well past nursing. Psychology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo admitted 13.0%, Biology at San Diego State 23.4%, and Marketing at CSU Long Beach 25.9%."},{"h":"Most CSU campuses admit most of their applicants.","p":"The second table shows the three lowest rates at each campus, and at most campuses those rates are high. At CSU Monterey Bay the lowest is Art at 94.7%. At Stanislaus State it is Computer Science at 91.6%. At Sonoma State it is Computer Science at 89.9%. The squeeze at the CSU is concentrated, not systemwide."}],"license":"CC BY 4.0 \u2014 quote with attribution to Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach)","method":"The figures are from the CSU Chancellor's Office applications and admissions dashboard by discipline, Fall 2025, first-time freshmen. The tables hold majors with 100 or more applicants; the CSU suppresses cells under 10, so the counts do not add up to a campus total, and systemwide rows are left out because the CSU removes duplicate applicants from them. Impaction flags are the CSU's own designations for impacted undergraduate programs. Rows are ranked by admit rate, lowest first.","question":"Which majors are the hardest to get into at the California State University?","related":[{"label":"Nursing programs in California","url":"/majors/nursing"},{"label":"Biology programs in California","url":"/majors/biology"},{"label":"Psychology programs in California","url":"/majors/psychology"},{"label":"Every impacted major and campus at the CSU","url":"/research/csu-impacted-majors-2026"}],"sections":[{"h2":"At the CSU, the major is the application","paragraphs":["A CSU application goes to one campus and one major. If that major is impacted, the campus can hold the applicant to a higher bar than its general standard. It can turn down a student who clears the systemwide requirements. That is the opposite of the UC pattern, where most campuses admit to the campus and treat the major as a preference.","So a CSU major's rate is close to the rate a real applicant faced. It is still not a prediction. The pool changes every year, and a program can change its screening criteria between cycles."]},{"h2":"Nursing is its own category","paragraphs":["Nursing pre-licensure turns up again and again near the bottom of the list. The limit is clinical placements, not classroom seats. San Diego State admitted 306 of 8,620 applicants, and CSU Fullerton admitted 64 of 343.","At many CSU campuses, nursing is reported on the transfer side. First-year students enter as pre-nursing and apply into the program later. Neither door is wide, so a nursing plan needs several campuses and a second path."]},{"h2":"What a family should do with this","paragraphs":["Check whether the major is impacted before anything else. An impacted program can ask for a higher GPA, certain coursework or a portfolio. The campus publishes those extra rules for that program.","Then spread the list. A student who wants engineering can apply to the same major at several CSU campuses, and the rates are far apart. Mechanical Engineering was 13.3% at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and 55.1% at San Jose State.","Last, the numbers in both tables are offers of admission, not enrolled students. They describe the chance of an offer and say nothing about the size of the class."]}],"slug":"hardest-majors-csu","sources":[{"label":"CSU applications and admissions dashboard by discipline","url":"https://tableau.calstate.edu/views/ApplicationsandAdmissionsDashboardbyDiscipline/AppAdmitEnrollbyDiscipline"},{"label":"CSU impacted undergraduate programs","url":"https://www.calstate.edu/attend/degrees-certificates-credentials/"}],"tables":[{"columns":[{"fmt":"str","key":"campus","label":"Campus"},{"fmt":"str","key":"major","label":"Major"},{"fmt":"int","key":"applied","label":"Applied"},{"fmt":"int","key":"admitted","label":"Admitted"},{"fmt":"pct1","key":"admit_rate","label":"Admit rate"},{"fmt":"bool","key":"impacted","label":"Impacted"}],"h2":"The hardest CSU majors to get into, Fall 2025","intro":"First-year admit rates, lowest first.","link_base":"/colleges/","note":"Fall 2025 first-time-freshman applicants and admits at CSU majors with 100 or more applicants. Admits are offers of admission, not enrolled students. Impacted is the CSU's own designation for a program with more qualified applicants than seats. The CSU suppresses cells under 10, so the columns do not sum to a campus total, and systemwide rows are left out because the CSU removes duplicate applicants from them.","rows":[{"admit_rate":3.5,"admitted":306,"applied":8620,"campus":"San Diego State","enrolled":135,"impacted":true,"major":"Nursing Pre-Licensure","slug":"san-diego-state-university","url":"/colleges/san-diego-state-university"},{"admit_rate":12.0,"admitted":289,"applied":2399,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":84,"impacted":true,"major":"Aerospace Engineering","slug":"california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo","url":"/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo"},{"admit_rate":12.1,"admitted":262,"applied":2162,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":81,"impacted":true,"major":"Kinesiology/Physical Education","slug":"california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo","url":"/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo"},{"admit_rate":13.0,"admitted":486,"applied":3732,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":69,"impacted":true,"major":"Psychology","slug":"california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo","url":"/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo"},{"admit_rate":13.3,"admitted":657,"applied":4953,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":223,"impacted":true,"major":"Mechanical Engineering","slug":"california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo","url":"/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo"},{"admit_rate":18.1,"admitted":33,"applied":182,"campus":"San Diego State","enrolled":null,"impacted":true,"major":"Musical Theatre","slug":"san-diego-state-university","url":"/colleges/san-diego-state-university"},{"admit_rate":18.5,"admitted":415,"applied":2239,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":178,"impacted":true,"major":"Architecture","slug":"california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo","url":"/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo"},{"admit_rate":18.7,"admitted":64,"applied":343,"campus":"CSU Fullerton","enrolled":29,"impacted":true,"major":"Nursing Pre-Licensure","slug":"california-state-university-fullerton","url":"/colleges/california-state-university-fullerton"},{"admit_rate":21.3,"admitted":131,"applied":615,"campus":"CSU Long Beach","enrolled":28,"impacted":true,"major":"Construction Engineering Technology/Management","slug":"california-state-university-long-beach","url":"/colleges/california-state-university-long-beach"},{"admit_rate":21.7,"admitted":137,"applied":630,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":23,"impacted":true,"major":"Marine Science","slug":"california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo","url":"/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo"},{"admit_rate":22.5,"admitted":77,"applied":342,"campus":"CSU Long Beach","enrolled":17,"impacted":true,"major":"Human Resources/Personnel Management","slug":"california-state-university-long-beach","url":"/colleges/california-state-university-long-beach"},{"admit_rate":23.0,"admitted":124,"applied":539,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":39,"impacted":true,"major":"Software Engineering","slug":"california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo","url":"/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo"},{"admit_rate":23.1,"admitted":157,"applied":681,"campus":"CSU Long Beach","enrolled":51,"impacted":true,"major":"Music (Professional 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Management","slug":"california-state-university-long-beach","url":"/colleges/california-state-university-long-beach"},{"admit_rate":28.7,"admitted":311,"applied":1083,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":83,"impacted":true,"major":"Speech Communication","slug":"california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo","url":"/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo"},{"admit_rate":29.3,"admitted":2114,"applied":7221,"campus":"San Diego State","enrolled":430,"impacted":true,"major":"Psychology","slug":"san-diego-state-university","url":"/colleges/san-diego-state-university"},{"admit_rate":29.4,"admitted":592,"applied":2015,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":101,"impacted":true,"major":"Biomedical Engineering","slug":"california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo","url":"/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo"},{"admit_rate":29.5,"admitted":435,"applied":1474,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":107,"impacted":true,"major":"Computer Engineering","slug":"california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo","url":"/colleges/california-polytechnic-state-university-san-luis-obispo"}]},{"columns":[{"fmt":"str","key":"campus","label":"Campus"},{"fmt":"str","key":"major","label":"Major"},{"fmt":"int","key":"applied","label":"Applied"},{"fmt":"int","key":"admitted","label":"Admitted"},{"fmt":"pct1","key":"admit_rate","label":"Admit rate"},{"fmt":"bool","key":"impacted","label":"Impacted"}],"h2":"The three hardest majors at each CSU campus","intro":"Campuses are ordered by their own lowest admit rate.","link_base":"/colleges/","note":"Each campus block holds that campus's three lowest first-year admit rates, so a rate here can be high. Fall 2025 first-time-freshman applicants and admits at CSU majors with 100 or more applicants. Admits are offers of admission, not enrolled students. Impacted is the CSU's own designation for a program with more qualified applicants than seats. The CSU suppresses cells under 10, so the columns do not sum to a campus total, and systemwide rows are left out because the CSU removes duplicate applicants from them.","rows":[{"admit_rate":3.5,"admitted":306,"applied":8620,"campus":"San Diego State","enrolled":135,"impacted":true,"major":"Nursing Pre-Licensure","slug":"san-diego-state-university","url":"/colleges/san-diego-state-university"},{"admit_rate":18.1,"admitted":33,"applied":182,"campus":"San Diego State","enrolled":null,"impacted":true,"major":"Musical Theatre","slug":"san-diego-state-university","url":"/colleges/san-diego-state-university"},{"admit_rate":23.4,"admitted":2486,"applied":10612,"campus":"San Diego State","enrolled":336,"impacted":true,"major":"Biology","slug":"san-diego-state-university","url":"/colleges/san-diego-state-university"},{"admit_rate":12.0,"admitted":289,"applied":2399,"campus":"Cal Poly San Luis Obispo","enrolled":84,"impacted":true,"major":"Aerospace 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