Saint Mary's College of California acceptance rate and your odds of getting in
With an acceptance rate near 87%, Saint Mary's College of California 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 Saint Mary's College of California 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 1290, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.
What do students study at Saint Mary's College of California?
Bachelor's degrees awarded by field in 2023 (IPEDS completions). Each field has its own page with the school's numbers, the model's major adjustment, and peers offering it.
Will I get into Saint Mary's College of California?
Direct answers to what applicants ask about getting into Saint Mary's College of California, plus a free way to calculate your own odds.
What are my chances of getting into Saint Mary's College of California?
Saint Mary's College of California admits most qualified applicants (around 87%), but that overall rate is not your personal chance. Your real odds depend on how your GPA, course rigor, test scores, and activities compare to its admitted students. Run your profile through the free CollegeCalcAI calculator to get a personalized acceptance percentage for Saint Mary's College of California in about three minutes, with no account needed to start.
Is Saint Mary's College of California hard to get into?
Saint Mary's College of California is accessible: it admits most qualified applicants, with about a 87% acceptance rate. Meeting the academic basics gives most qualified applicants a realistic shot.
What GPA do you need to get into Saint Mary's College of California?
There is no hard GPA cutoff at Saint Mary's College of California, but admitted students span a wide GPA range, with many in the 2.8 to 3.5 band. Saint Mary's College of California reads your GPA alongside the rigor of your courses, so a challenging schedule matters as much as the number itself.
What SAT score do you need for Saint Mary's College of California?
Saint Mary's College of California does not publish a required score, but the admitted-student 75th-percentile SAT is around 1290. A score at or above that range strengthens your application, while a lower score puts more weight on your rigor, activities, and essays. CollegeCalcAI shows how your exact score shifts your odds at Saint Mary's College of California.
Your chances at Saint Mary's College of California by GPA and SAT
Estimated chance of admission at Saint Mary's College of California for plain profiles, from the same model as the calculator. Unweighted GPA, 3 AP courses, Regular Decision, no legacy, athletic or first-generation hook. The last column is test-optional (no score sent).
What are my chances at Saint Mary's College of California with a 3.1 GPA and a 1230 SAT?
About 98% (Safety), by CollegeCalcAI's deterministic model, for an applicant with a 3.1 unweighted GPA and a 1230 SAT, the middle of Saint Mary's College of California's admitted range, applying Regular Decision without a hook. A 3.4 GPA with a 1290 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/saint-marys-college-of-california.
How to get into Saint Mary's College of California
Built from Saint Mary's College of California's admitted class and what it reports weighing. The typical-admit GPA and SAT are CollegeCalcAI's modeled figures, not published cutoffs.
Here is how to get into Saint Mary's College of California, built from what its admitted class actually looks like and what the school says it weighs.
CollegeCalcAI's modeled typical admit at Saint Mary's College of California carries about a 3.04 core GPA and a 1240 SAT, in the most rigorous schedule available. Meeting it puts you in the admitted range for most applicants.
Saint Mary's College of California rates rigor of secondary school record and academic GPA highest in its own Common Data Set. Put your depth there: and a transcript whose rigor rises through junior year.
An early application signals interest and gets your file read before the pool fills. Most early deadlines fall on November 1 and Regular Decision on January 1 to 15; confirm Saint Mary's College of California's exact dates at www.stmarys-ca.edu.
How many students apply to Saint Mary's College of California, and how many get in?
For the fall 2023 entering class, Saint Mary's College of California received 4,308 applications and admitted 3,816, an acceptance rate of 88.6%. 503 enrolled. Only about 13% 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. Saint Mary's College of California enrolls about 1,947 undergraduates in total, 54% of them women, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS 2023 admissions and enrollment.
What SAT and ACT scores do you need for Saint Mary's College of California?
Saint Mary's College of California reports that it neither requires nor recommends test scores, so admission turns on your transcript, rigor, and the rest of the file.
Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10.
What Saint Mary's College of California looks for
What Saint Mary's College of California weighs most heavily in its admissions review, informed by its reported Common Data Set.
In its review, Saint Mary's College of California leans most on rigor of secondary school record and academic GPA. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from Saint Mary's College of California's reported Common Data Set, so the full chart below reflects what the school itself says it values, not a generic guess.
SAT score positioning at Saint Mary's College of California
How common SAT scores sit relative to the admitted middle. This is context, not a probability. Your full profile determines the real estimate.
How much does Saint Mary's College of California cost after financial aid?
Saint Mary's College of California's published cost of attendance, before any aid, is roughly $77,659 per year. Tuition and fees alone are $57,803. What families actually pay is different: the average net price after grants and scholarships is $30,378 a year, and it ranges from $19,462 for families earning under $30,000 to $40,581 for families earning over $110,000. 27% 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.
What do Saint Mary's College of California graduates earn, and how many graduate?
Ten years after enrolling, the median Saint Mary's College of California student who received federal aid earns $78,812 a year, up from $60,388 at six years. 70% of first-time, full-time students graduate within six years, and 85% return for a second year. Among graduates who borrowed, median federal debt at graduation is $23,691; 42% of undergraduates take federal loans.
Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Earnings cover students who received federal aid.
How Saint Mary's College of California compares in California
Saint Mary's College of California ranks #42 most selective of 61 schools in California in our database.
Among the 61 California schools we track, Saint Mary's College of California ranks #42 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.
Similar to Saint Mary's College of California
Schools with a similar selectivity profile, worth comparing as you build a balanced list.
Build around Saint Mary's College of California with peers at a comparable selectivity, such as Campbell University, Iona University, and Carthage College. 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.
More data for California: Cal Poly Pomona Acceptance Rate
Frequently asked questions
What is Saint Mary's College of California's acceptance rate?
Saint Mary's College of California admitted 3,816 of 4,308 applicants for the fall 2023 entering class, an acceptance rate of 88.6% (U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS). 13% of admitted students enrolled.
Is Saint Mary's College of California test-optional?
Saint Mary's College of California reports that it neither requires nor recommends test scores.
How much does Saint Mary's College of California cost after financial aid?
The average net price at Saint Mary's College of California, what students receiving aid paid after grants and scholarships, is $30,378 a year against a sticker price of about $77,659. Families earning under $30,000 paid about $19,462 on average.
What do Saint Mary's College of California graduates earn?
Median earnings ten years after entering Saint Mary's College of California are $78,812 a year among students who received federal aid, and 70% of students graduate within six years (College Scorecard).
What does Saint Mary's College of California value most in applicants?
Based on its admissions profile, Saint Mary's College of California weighs rigor of secondary school record and academic GPA most heavily. The full factor breakdown is on this page.
Does Saint Mary's College of California consider legacy or demonstrated interest?
Many private colleges weigh legacy relationships and demonstrated interest. Saint Mary's College of California's full factor profile is charted on this page, and CollegeCalcAI models a legacy effect scaled to a school's selectivity.
How can I improve my chances at Saint Mary's College of California?
Focus on the highest-leverage parts of your application: course rigor and GPA trajectory first, then test scores, then a focused leadership or activity spike. CollegeCalcAI's Power-Ups quantify how much each change would move your odds at Saint Mary's College of California specifically.
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.