About
The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in San Francisco; in 2022, the Oakland campus was closed and merged into the San Francisco campus. CCA enrolls approximately 1,239 undergraduates and 380 graduate students. In January 2026, CCA president David Howse announced the college will be closing at the end of the 2026–2027 academic year, with Vanderbilt University taking over the campus.
Admissions & acceptance rate
First-time freshman admissions: how selective the college is, and how many admitted students choose to enroll.
Graduation rate & outcomes
Completion, retention, and the equity gap between Pell and non-Pell students.
Pell equity
Non-Pell students graduate at a 9.0-point higher rate than Pell recipients.
Program outcomes
Federal Program Performance Data: how each program's graduate earnings and debt measure up under Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment.
Of 23 Title IV programs, 5 pass the federal Gainful Employment test and 1 fails. 17 have graduate earnings too small to publish, so they carry no pass/fail verdict.
Pass / fail distribution
- Passing5 · 21.7%
- No Data17 · 73.9%
- Failing1 · 4.3%
Severity spectrum
Tiers band programs by how far graduate earnings sit above or below the benchmark, from Critical (below −15%) through Safe (above +25%). No data means earnings were privacy-suppressed.
Earnings premium gap
Graduate earnings versus the federal benchmark, worst gaps first.
Debt vs earnings
Median completer debt against median graduate earnings, highest burden first.
Tuition & cost
What families actually pay, broken down by family income.
Net price by family income
Negative values mean aid exceeds the published cost of attendance for that income band.
Federal aid volume & trends
Pell grants and federal Direct Loan volume disbursed to students, and how they've trended.
In AY 2024–25, 305 students received $1.9M in Pell grants, alongside $8.8M in federal Direct Loans.
Pell recipients · 5-year trend
Loan volume by type · AY 2024–25
Loan awards count each loan type a student holds, not unique borrowers; one student may carry several (e.g. subsidized and unsubsidized), so the per-type figures are the reliable detail.
Student loan default rate
The share of student borrowers who default on federal loans within three years, against the national benchmark.
Of 300 borrowers who entered repayment, 6 (2.0%) defaulted within three years — below the 2.3% national rate.
Default rate vs national, by cohort
* Cohorts 2020 and later read near 0% because the federal COVID-19 payment pause (CARES Act) suspended defaults nationwide. These years reflect a national policy, not institutional performance; the 2019 cohort is the last measured under normal repayment.
Academic programs at CCA
Top program areas ranked by completions.
Top program families by completions
Enrollment trends & demographics
Fall headcount, 12-month unduplicated enrollment, and student body composition.
Gender split
Race / ethnicity composition
Campus safety & crime statistics
Reported on-campus crimes over the last three years, including violence and hate crimes.
3-year trend
Criminal offenses by type
By location
- On campus3
- Public property1
Includes 2 in residence halls (a subset of on-campus, not added to the total).
VAWA offenses
Hate crimes by bias
No hate crimes reported.
Arrests vs disciplinary referrals
Residence-hall fires
- Founders Hall1 fireCookingDamage $0-$99
Student-faculty ratio
Student-to-faculty ratio and instructional staff counts.
CCA vs Peer comparison
The peer institutions CCA selected for federal comparison reporting.
A larger shape on any axis means this institution outperforms its peers on that dimension. For acceptance rate and net price, lower raw values are inverted so "more selective" and "more affordable" appear larger.
| Carnegie | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SubjectCalifornia College of the Arts | 61% | — | 1,308 | $42,168 | — |
Art Center College of Design | 79% | 74.5% | 2,308 | $50,209 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Small Programs |
California Institute of the Arts | 67% | 32.3% | 1,277 | $47,183 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Medium Programs |
Columbus College of Art & Design | 56% | 67.7% | 916 | $30,139 | — |
Maryland Institute College of Art | 72% | 76.8% | 1,687 | $38,429 | — |
Minneapolis College of Art and Design | 51% | 48.5% | 831 | $25,935 | — |
Otis College of Art and Design | 66% | 81.8% | 1,267 | $45,864 | — |
Pratt Institute-Main | 74% | 73.3% | 5,356 | $50,647 | — |
Rhode Island School of Design | 89% | 18.7% | 2,520 | $46,253 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
Ringling College of Art and Design | 72% | 69.7% | 1,666 | $55,390 | — |
School of the Art Institute of Chicago | 67% | 77.5% | 3,394 | $49,822 | — |
School of Visual Arts | 76% | 92.6% | 3,812 | $58,628 | Masters Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs |
| Peer group median | 70% | 73.3% | 1,677 | $46,718 |
CCA Institutional Research office
The IR team responsible for the institution's federal reporting.
Institutional Research provides official, accurate, and timely information and analysis to support the planning, research, reporting, and decision-making activities of the California College of the Arts. The office coordinates these services in an objective and systematic manner to support the college mission.
Visit IR office page- Jose de los ReyesDirector of Institutional Research & Effectiveness
Reports & documents (1)
Dashboards, factbooks, data dictionaries, and other reference material published by the IR office.
Grants & funding (4)
Federal grant awards and open funding opportunities awarded to this institution.
Notable alumni of CCA (29)
A curated list of alumni recognized for notable achievements across industries.
- Robert ArnesonCeramics
- Viola FreyCeramics
- Peter VoulkosCeramics
- Wayne WangFilm
- Robert BechtlePainting
- Toyin Ojih OdutolaPainting
- Nathan OliveiraPainting
- Hank Willis ThomasPhotography
- Mike MignolaIllustration and comics
- Audrey MarrsCuratorial Practice
- Tomie de PaolaIllustration
- Dennis OppenheimMixed media
Frequently asked questions about California College of the Arts
Quick answers to the questions most often asked about CCA.
What is the graduation rate at California College of the Arts?
How many students attend California College of the Arts?
What is the average net price at California College of the Arts?
What is the yield rate at California College of the Arts?
Where is California College of the Arts located?
Who runs Institutional Research at California College of the Arts?
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