Hi I was wondering if you guys could help me in ranking the cal states from best to worst. Rankings always seem to change so it is hard to keep track
there are 23 and some specialize quite a bit so, there’s no one list - best to worst.
The obvious stars are Cal Poly SLO and SDSU but, they have become quite competitive, making them inaccessible to most students. Even they aren’t the best for everything and certainly aren’t the right choice for everyone.
For example, Sonoma has a very novel wine-biz program, Humboldt has THE forestry program and Maritime is THE place to go if you want to be a marine tech engineer… it’s Fresno if you want to study viticulture and tough to beat Sac State if you want to study Poli Sci. Not the normal headline grabbers … are they?
What are you interested in studying, what are your stats and what are your non-academic interests?
Rankings based on what? As pointed out by @NCalRent, it will depend upon what you are interested in studying. Cal States admit by major. SLO would be considered the most selective CSU especially for STEM, however, they do have majors with 90%+ acceptance rates. You need to define what you are looking for when it comes to ranking them.
If I (as a current undergraduate at a CSU) were to create a ranking based off of academics, student life, local area, competitiveness, and campus, I would rank the CSU schools as follows
TOP TIER: (in no particular order)
- San Diego State University
- Cal State Long Beach
- California State University Northridge
- Cal Poly SLO
- CSU Fullerton
- Cal Poly Pomona
MID TIER:
- Chico State
- San Jose State University
- CSU Fresno
- San Fransisco State
- CSU East Bay
LOWER TIER:
- Sanoma State
- Cal State LA
- CSU Bakersfield
- Channel Islands
- Humboldt State
- CSU San Marcos
- CSU Stanislaus
- Sac State
- CSU Monterey Bay
- CSU San Bernadino
***I have only attended/am attending one of these schools so my rankings are based on research, visits from when I applied to university, and word of mouth. If you have specific questions on this, please do not hesitate to ask! 
I hope this helps! ALSO, KEEP IN MIND THAT THE RANKINGS CHANGE BY MAJOR!
@mito818, it’s pretty easy to go to one of the ranking websites like U.S. News, Niche, or Forbes if you want a general perception ranking. It will be as accurate as any other ranking.
However, I would really encourage you to take the advice from the above posters. During my son’s college visits I found that almost every CSU has a major or department that is ranked as good or better than most UC’s. An example is Agriculture. UC Davis is the usual #1, but the next two Ag schools in the West are Fresno State and Cal Poly SLO. For Film, UCLA is probably the most highly esteemed, but SF State and Northridge are in the top 25 in the nation. Not many schools in the West can be better situated for Marine Biology than CSUMB.
Don’t forget location and environment. It’s a HUGE factor if you are looking at schools for an ubiquitous major like Business or English. Do you want cold, foggy mornings on an isolated campus (CSUMB), or foggy mornings in an urban center (SF State)? Or do you want HEAT (Chico, Fresno)? College town (Chico, CP SLO), or quiet town (Sonoma State)? 8k students (Humboldt)? 38k students (Northridge)?
Create your own priority list and see which school best fit YOUR rankings. Preferences for things like size, location, environment, prestige, major offerings, cost, etc. are very individual decisions. I will bet that your ranking list will be just as legitimate, at least to you, as anything you see online.
@mito818 Also a lot of people don’t know this, but the competitiveness of each school also plays a huge factor in your experience. Personally, I chose my CSU over the UC’s I got into because the UC environment was too competitive and it didn’t seem like a supportive environment. So make sure that you get a good vibe from each school and do your research! As @AMCdad mentioned, some campuses are isolated, some are party central, and some schools just have people studying 24/7 so make sure you find the place that fits your personality as well as your academic needs!
How would you rank the STEM programs for these CSUs?
- Cal State Long Beach
- California State University Northridge
- CSU Fullerton
- Chico State
- San Jose State University
- CSU Fresno
- CSU East Bay
STEM is really broad for example, not all engineering disciplines or hard sciences are offered at all of these colleges.
And you left the top 2 off your list SLO and SDSU.
But, (in the abstract)
CSULB (a close 3rd to SLO and SDSU and offers a wide variety of majors)
Chico - (academically solid and the best ‘college town’ environment on your list)- smaller school so, not as many majors to choose from)
Fullerton - solid programs but, a real commuter student experience
Northridge - also solid programs but, a real commuter student experience
SJSU - has lots variability at the program level - CS is AWESOME but. math, less so. You specific major may put this much higher on the list
Fressno - central valley makes this a good choice for ag related majors in particular -
CSUEB - Silicon valley proximity make this a solid CS choice but, most other majors, the others are better.
A couple of others with solid STEM reputations missing from your list are Sac and SF
Again - major selection could flip the list entirely.
@NCalRent Do you know anything about CSUSM for Environmental Studies and STEM programs as a whole? I’ve recently become interested in CSUSM as a safety school because it is in the WUE program and because I have family close to it, but my mom is iffy about it because she thinks it has a bad reputation.
I don’t know much about the ES program at CSUSM. The school is a relatively recent addition to the CSU system so , it doesn’t have a long track record but, I have never heard anything negative about the academics there. It is more of a commuter vibe than SDSU. Other WUE schools with decent STEM programs - Wash State, UNR, Boise State and Or Inst of Tech.
Without your stats i am kind shooting in the dark…