Admissions & selectivity
San Francisco State University Acceptance Rate & Admissions
What is the acceptance rate at SF State?
SF State’s reported acceptance rate is 96.4%.
- Acceptance rate · Fall 2024
- 96.4%
Source: College Scorecard · Fall 2024 admissions. Acceptance rates can change from year to year; this figure does not predict the current or next admission cycle.
How to interpret the acceptance rate
San Francisco State University admits 96.4% of applicants, a rate that reflects broad access. The median of 78.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size) sits well below the university's figure.
What SAT and ACT scores do SF State students report?
SAT and ACT ranges are not available for SF State in the data shown here. Missing scores do not establish whether tests are required, optional or excluded from review.
Figures cover fall 2024.
Who enrolls at SF State?
- Pell Grant recipients
- 42.2%
- Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group
- 52.4%
- First-year retention
- 82.7%
Retention source: College Scorecard; full-time first-year retention.
About these student measures
The entering-student group includes part-time entrants as well as other attendance patterns.
San Francisco State University is a public university in San Francisco, California, enrolling 18,639 undergraduates. The student body is shaped by two large populations: Pell Grant recipients and transfer students.
42.2% of undergraduates receive Pell Grants, a measure of financial access. An estimated 52.4% of students arrive as transfers or part-time students, meaning a majority of the undergraduate population did not begin their degree here.
Of full-time first-year students, 82.7% return for a second year, close to the median of 83.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size). The six-year graduation rate for the first-time full-time cohort is 50.4%, below the median of 65.0% for comparable institutions.
Pell recipients in that cohort complete at 66.2%, 15.8 percentage points above the overall rate. Enrolled students can expect a campus where persistence runs near the peer norm and Pell recipients graduate at a higher rate than the student body as a whole.
The completion figures describe the first-time full-time cohort; transfer outcomes are not captured here.
Data & methodology
Sources and reporting periods: methodology.
Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.
Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.
Admission rates describe past applicants, not an individual’s chance of admission; confirm requirements and deadlines with the institution.
Figure notes link to sources and limitations. About College Azimuth.