U.S. News Awards 28th Consecutive Best in the West Ranking

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 28th straight year.

The 2021 guidebook lists Cal Poly in third place overall in the West for all regional universities — up one from last year and an improvement of nine spots from 2019's rankings. 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.