U.S. News & World Report ranks Cal State Fullerton as No. 4 among U.S. colleges with the most transfer students. CSUF also earned the No. 6 spot as a top performer on social mobility out of more than 400 national universities listed in its 2026 Best Colleges rankings.
The Top Performers on Social Mobility list assesses colleges’ graduation rates of economically disadvantaged students. U.S. News’ social mobility ranking factors are based on the graduation rates and graduation performance of Pell Grant-awarded students.
U.S. News also recognized CSUF and its undergraduate programs in the following categories:
- No. 46 in Undergraduate Engineering Programs (non-doctorate)
- No. 72 in Top Public Schools
- No. 118 in Undergraduate Nursing Programs
- No. 139 in National Universities
- No. 150 in Undergraduate Business Programs
- No. 169 in Undergraduate Psychology Programs
- No. 200 in Best Value Schools
- No. 205 in Undergraduate Economics Programs
- No. 212 in Undergraduate Computer Science Programs
The 2026 Best Colleges rankings methodology for national universities evaluated 17 measures of academic quality, like peer assessment, graduation rates and a university’s financial resources per student.
The most significant changes from the previous year’s methodology was that U.S. News expanded how it measures graduation and retention rates to include a larger, more representative group of students. U.S. News also further specified the way it measures how much of a college’s financial resources are spent per student.