California State
University-Long Beach
Public Research University in Long Beach, CA. Six-year graduation rate 69%. Median 10-year earnings $64,403.
Ten-year median earnings of $64,403 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. Completion is a strength: 69% of students finish within six years. Median debt at graduation is $14,289, a light load against those earnings. On economic mobility, 4.4% 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 0.22 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
Selectivity is real here: only 46% of applicants are offered a place. The applicant pool is large — 83,967 in the most recent cycle — so the published rate reflects genuine competition rather than a small-sample quirk. Only 17% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere.
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-Long Beach →Academics
A 69% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. First-year retention of 87% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. The part-time picture is harder: 62% return, against 87% full-time. The 23:1 student-faculty ratio is high, so large classes and limited faculty contact should be the expectation.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 34,131 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $10,607 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $7,183 at the $0–30k band to $19,750 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 72% of students at an average of $11,352. Only 24% 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 · 5,615 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 | $7,183 |
| $30–48k | $7,831 |
| $48–75k | $9,705 |
| $75–110k | $12,630 |
| $110k+ | $19,750 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 8,150 of these 34,131 students, totalling $51,575,880 — an average of $6,328 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)