Cal Poly San Luis Obispo achieved a No. 10 ranking for public universities and No. 38 overall in the nation in TIME Magazine's inaugural America's Best Colleges list.
Stanford achieved the No. 1 overall ranking.
TIME used data from Statista, which analyzed data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
A calculated score combining student outcomes, learning environment and attractiveness determines the rankings.
The score for student outcomes accounts for 75% of the overall score, while learning environment and attractiveness account for 15% and 10%, respectively.
Cal Poly received a 95.11% score for student outcomes.
Cal Poly was among four public California universities ranked in the Top 40, along with UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego.
The university enrolls more than 23,000 students and now falls under the semester system. Students started classes this week and cut short a month of summer this year for the switch.
In 2025, Forbes ranked Cal Poly 17th in the same category and No. 55 overall in the nation.
