California State
University-Dominguez Hills
Public College in Carson, CA. Six-year graduation rate 43%. Median 10-year earnings $57,162.
Ten years after entry, the median California State University-Dominguez Hills student earns $57,162 — a solidly middle-of-the-pack result for an undergraduate institution. The six-year graduation rate is 43%, meaning about three in five students who start do not finish. Median debt at graduation is $13,807, a light load against those earnings. On economic mobility, 5.6% of students travel from the bottom income quintile to the top.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.24 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
California State University-Dominguez Hills admits 93% of applicants — effectively open admission, so the application is a formality rather than a hurdle. The applicant pool is large — 19,921 in the most recent cycle — so the published rate reflects genuine competition rather than a small-sample quirk. A 9% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class.
Test score bands (middle 50% of submitters)
These bands describe the enrolled first-years who submitted a score, not the entering class. Where most students apply test-optional the submitters are a self-selected, higher-scoring group.
| Test | 25th–75th percentile | Submitted |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading | — | — |
| SAT Math | — | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at California State University-Dominguez Hills →Academics
Completion is middling: 43% finish inside six years. 74% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about one in four are gone before sophomore year. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. The part-time picture is harder: 36% return, against 74% full-time. The student-faculty ratio is 21:1 — typical, which in practice means large lectures early and smaller classes in the major.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 12,642 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $9,175 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $7,303 at the $0–30k band to $18,947 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 80% of students at an average of $12,294. Only 20% take federal loans. Private borrowing is not captured in this figure.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 1,533 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $7,303 |
| $30–48k | $8,090 |
| $48–75k | $8,855 |
| $75–110k | $12,323 |
| $110k+ | $18,947 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,500 of these 12,642 students, totalling $17,970,312 — an average of $7,188 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Los Angeles County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)