California State University (CSU) Schools

There are 23 schools in the CSU system, offering a total of over 1,800 bachelor’s and master’s degrees.  They cost more than CCC, but less than University of California schools or private universities. They also tend to have smaller class sizes than larger universities.

CSU programs usually focus on careers that aren’t research-heavy. They don’t offer doctorates of philosophy, or professional degrees for people who want to become attorneys or medical doctors, but do have education doctorates and other post-graduate degrees in a limited number of programs, like nursing, teaching and physical therapy.

Programs within the same field often vary greatly from campus to campus, so be sure to check out all of your options before making a decision.

If you want to transfer to a CSU school, you have a couple of options.

Get a Degree with a Guarantee

If your chosen major offers one, you can get an Associate Degree for Transfer. It’s a special degree that guarantees admission into a similar program in the CSU system, along with other perks, like junior standing and a GPA bump, in case you’re applying to a competitive school. (It does not guarantee admission to the school of your choice; just admission into some school within the system.)

Complete Your General Education Courses

If your major doesn’t offer a transfer degree, or if for some reason you just don’t want to go that route, you can follow the CSU-GE breadth requirements in our catalog, or the upper-division transfer path laid out by the CSU system. You can use assist.org to identify any classes you should be taking to prepare for your major. Be sure to check the catalog every year, because breadth requirements often change.

Whichever path you decide on, it will be very important to develop a relationship with a counselor to make sure you’re on track to apply.