California Lutheran University acceptance rate and your odds of getting in

With an acceptance rate near 76%, California Lutheran University is an accessible private college in California. Because it admits most qualified applicants, admission turns on the strength of your whole profile rather than any one number.

Use this page to see what California Lutheran University weighs, where it ranks among California schools, and how a profile like yours is likely to land. Admitted students post a 75th-percentile SAT around 1230, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.

What are my chances at California Lutheran University with a 3.1 GPA and a 1240 SAT?

About 96% (Safety), by CollegeCalcAI's deterministic model, for an applicant with a 3.1 unweighted GPA and a 1240 SAT, the middle of California Lutheran University's admitted range, applying Regular Decision without a hook. A 3.4 GPA with a 1330 SAT comes out near 98%. Courses, activities, essays and the application round move the number; the free calculator includes them.

Estimates, not guarantees. Get yours with your real courses and activities. Assistants and developers can fetch this table from the free API: /api/v1/colleges/california-lutheran-university.

Here is how to get into California Lutheran University, built from what its admitted class actually looks like and what the school says it weighs.

For the fall 2023 entering class, California Lutheran University received 5,290 applications and admitted 4,702, an acceptance rate of 88.9%. 575 enrolled. Only about 12% of admitted students enrolled, so the school admits several students for every seat it expects to fill, which is why its acceptance rate reads higher than its selectivity feels. California Lutheran University enrolls about 2,296 undergraduates in total, 55% of them women, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 13 to 1.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS 2023 admissions and enrollment.

The middle 50% of admitted students at California Lutheran University scored between 1150 and 1330 on the SAT (average 1266). On the ACT the middle 50% runs from 24 to 31. A score above 1330 puts you in the top quarter of admits and turns the test into an asset; a score below 1150 puts you in the bottom quarter, where the rest of the application has to carry more weight. California Lutheran University is test-optional: scores are considered if you submit them but not required. Send a score at or above the middle of the admitted range; otherwise apply without one and let your transcript lead.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10.

In its review, California Lutheran University leans most on rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, and standardized test scores. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from California Lutheran University's reported Common Data Set, so the full chart below reflects what the school itself says it values, not a generic guess.

California Lutheran University's published cost of attendance, before any aid, is roughly $68,426 per year. Tuition and fees alone are $52,560. What families actually pay is different: the average net price after grants and scholarships is $30,109 a year, and it ranges from $22,161 for families earning under $30,000 to $38,364 for families earning over $110,000. 31% of undergraduates receive a federal Pell Grant.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Net price is what students receiving aid paid after grants, by family income.

Ten years after enrolling, the median California Lutheran University student who received federal aid earns $68,712 a year, up from $54,981 at six years. 70% of first-time, full-time students graduate within six years, and 79% return for a second year. Among graduates who borrowed, median federal debt at graduation is $21,669; 50% of undergraduates take federal loans.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Earnings cover students who received federal aid.

Among the 61 California schools we track, California Lutheran University ranks #33 most selective by acceptance rate. Schools like California Institute of Technology (3%) and Stanford University (4%) sit nearby, which makes California a useful frame for calibrating a balanced list.

Build around California Lutheran University with peers at a comparable selectivity, such as DePaul University, Albright College, and Ashland University. Running the same profile against each one in the free calculator is the fastest way to see where you are a reach, a match, or a likely.

Acceptance rate, application counts, admitted test ranges, cost, and outcomes reflect publicly reported federal data (U.S. Department of Education: IPEDS 2023 and the College Scorecard) and each school's Common Data Set; figures are rounded and lag the current cycle by one to two years, so confirm deadlines and policies on the school's own site. The typical-admit GPA and SAT are CollegeCalcAI's modeled estimates. Estimates from CollegeCalcAI are a planning tool computed by a fixed, transparent model, not a guarantee of any admission decision.