Saint Mary's College of California

Overview

Rankings

• #12 Best Business Colleges in California
• #16 Best MBA Programs in California
• #19 Best Communications Colleges in California
• #27 Best Biology Colleges in California
• #27 Best MBA Programs for Business Analytics
• #30 Highest-Paying Colleges for English
• #31 Best Colleges in California
• #35 Best Bachelor's Programs in California

Academics & Admissions

Is It Hard to Get Into Saint Mary's College of California? Acceptance Rate & Requirements

As a private institution in Moraga, California, Saint Mary's College of California admits most of the students who apply; the acceptance rate is roughly 87%. The graduation rate is roughly 70%.

Acceptance Rate

87%

Retention Rate

85%

Full-Time Faculty

61%

Faculty Salary (mo)

$11,429

Student–Faculty Ratio

9:1

Diversity Index

0.73

First-Gen Students

26%

Applicants

3,353

Admitted

2,947

Inside the Admissions Office

School-reported Common Data Set · 2024-25

The acceptance rate tells you how hard Saint Mary's College of California is to get into. Its Common Data Set tells you what happens once you are admitted: how many students say yes, how many arrived without test scores, and whether applying early tilts the odds. 15% of admitted students go on to enroll here, making it a school most admitted students ultimately pass on.

Yield Rate

15%

of admits enroll

Cost & Financial Aid

How Much Does It Cost to Attend Saint Mary's College of California? Tuition, Net Price & Aid

Published tuition at Saint Mary's College of California is $57,803, but few families pay that. The number to watch is net price, what students actually pay each year after federal grants and institutional scholarships. Here it averages about $30,378. Students from families earning under $30,000 typically pay closer to $19,462 after need-based grants. The median graduate leaves with about $23,691 in federal student loans.

In-State Tuition

$57,803

Out-of-State

$57,803

Avg Net Price

$30,378

Median Debt

$23,691

Pell Grant Rate

27%

Federal Loan Rate

42%

Students Like You

Tell us a little about yourself to see what students like you have typically experienced at Saint Mary's College of California — the net price for your income, your admission odds, and the outcomes that follow. These are patterns from federal data, not predictions.

Graduate Outcomes

Is Saint Mary's College of California Worth It? Graduate Earnings & ROI

Ten years out, alumni of Saint Mary's College of California earn a median of $78,812, well above the national average for bachelor's degree holders.

6 Years After Entry

$60,388

8 Years

$72,012

10 Years

$78,812

Debt-to-Earnings

0.3x

Earning > $25K

74%

Social Mobility

Data: Raj Chetty's Mobility Report Card · 30M+ anonymized tax records

Does Saint Mary's College of California Drive Upward Mobility? Economic Mobility & Low-Income Outcomes

Saint Mary's College of California is a genuine engine of upward mobility. Its mobility rate, the share of students who start in the bottom income quintile and climb to the top, is 2.94%, among the highest in the country. About 6.7% of students come from families in the bottom income quintile. Among bottom-quintile students who attend, roughly 43.7% go on to reach the top of the income ladder. The median family income of students sits near $110,500, a snapshot of the campus's socioeconomic mix.

Mobility Rate

2.94%

Bottom 20% → Top 20%

Success Rate

43.7%

If bottom 20% get in

From Bottom 20%

6.7%

Share of students

Parent Median Income

$150,131

today's $ (2015 cohort data)

Social Capital

Data: Opportunity Insights Social Capital Atlas

How Connected Is Saint Mary's College of California? Social Capital & Cross-Class Networks

Social capital, the web of cross-class friendships that researchers link to long-run upward mobility, runs high at Saint Mary's College of California. Its economic connectedness score is 1.82, where about 1.0 is the national norm. Its friending bias is low (-0.00), a sign that students from different economic backgrounds actually mix rather than self-segregate. Around 7% of students take part in civic and volunteering activity.

Economic Connectedness

1.82

Cross-class friendships

Friending Bias

-0.00

Lower = more inclusive

Volunteering Rate

6.6%

Support Ratio

1.00

Community support

Institutional Finances

Data: NCES IPEDS

Federal Grants

$7,726,000

Investment Income

$-12,731,000

Top Programs

The fields Saint Mary's College of California awards the most degrees in, by share of completions. Where federal field-of-study data exists, we show what graduates in that major earned early in their careers. Each links to its degree guide — or see what someone with your income, scores, and major would pay and earn here in the Students Like You simulator.

• Business & Marketing 26% $73,447 early-career
• Social Sciences 11% $48,945 early-career
• Psychology 8% $43,576 early-career
• Visual & Performing Arts 8%
• Biology & Biomedical 8% $49,387 early-career
• Communications 8% $52,703 early-career
• Health Professions 4% $40,390 early-career
• English & Literature 3% $54,296 early-career

Early-career median earnings by major (typically 1–2 years after completion, bachelor's level where available), in today's dollars (CPI-adjusted). Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard field of study. Distinct from the school-wide 10-year median; suppressed for small programs.