Public Colleges in California

How much does it cost to attend public college in California?   The average annual in-state four year, public college tuition in California was $7,288 for the 2021-2022 academic year. This is a change of ($57) from the 2019-2020 average of $7,345 and represents a -0.78% annual decline. The list of California public colleges below provides school specific cost and value rating. Public schools are partially funded by the taxpayers of California and usually offer lower tuition to in-state residents.

Our guide surveyed tuition data from the 146 public colleges and universities in California, the most popular being University of California Los Angeles with 43,955 full time students and an in-state tuition list price of $11,442. University of California Berkeley is the most expensive public school in California with an in-state tuition of $11,442.

Click on any school for current tuition, future cost estimates, school specific savings plans and estimated student loan payments. California colleges can also be filtered by public, private, community colleges and four year schools. Additionally, cost based sorting is available for the lowest and highest tuition options. Jump directly to our ranking of best values in California or cheap California colleges guide.

<Academic Rating is a CollegeCalc proprietary national percentile ranking of a college's overall difficulty and educational effectiveness. An average score is 50. Dollar value is a measure of a school's academic rating compared with the average net price paid. Colleges which are ranked "n/a" didn't report sufficient data to formulate a score. Learn more about our ratings.

All price data are reprinted from the U.S. Department of Education's 2020-2021 IPEDS Survey and reflect reported costs for the 2021-2022 academic year.

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