Best in the West Ranking from U.S. News
Cal Poly is the region’s top public-masters'-level university for the 27th year.
Cal Poly has been named the best public, master’s-level university in the western United States by U.S. News & World Report’s annual America’s Best Colleges guidebook for the 27th straight year.
The 2020 guidebook lists Cal Poly in fourth place overall in the West for all regional universities. The western regional list includes public and private institutions in 15 states that provide “a full range of undergraduate and master’s-level programs but few doctoral programs.” (Universities that grant doctoral degrees, such as those in the University of California system, are listed in a separate category.)
The U.S. News & World Report's ranking methodology focuses on academic excellence, with schools evaluated on hundreds of data points and measures of academic quality, such as graduation and first-year retention rates.