Does Cal Poly have largest college campus in California? We crunched the numbers

“What is the most massive university in California?”

That’s the question posed by Tiktok user geoexploration5, a popular content creator who makes videos chock-full of geography facts.

In a Feb. 5 video that’s been viewed more than 183,000 times, the social media influencer listed California’s 10 largest universities by acreage — and Cal Poly came in first place.

However, Cal Poly’s Facts and Figures website boasts that the university’s campus is the “second largest in California and one of the largest in the nation,” with a total of 9,178 acres.

So who actually holds the title of largest campus in California?

The Tribune investigated the acreage of four-year higher education institutions across the state to determine which universities have the biggest campuses as part of its Reality Check series.

Here’s what we found.

Where are California’s biggest college campuses?

The Tribune analyzed data from university websites and U.S. News and World Report to determine which California colleges have the most sprawling campuses.

According to the Tribune’s analysis, Cal Poly took the top spot — and the contest wasn’t even close.

Cal Poly had a total of 9,967.6 parcel acres as of April 1, according to Keegan Koberl, executive communications specialist with the university.

That means the San Luis Obispo-based university led its competitors by a margin of nearly 1,800 acres.

Stanford University came in second place with 8,180 acres.

The third-largest campus in California was UC Davis with 5,300 acres. The Davis-based university has “the largest land area of any campus in the (University of California) system,” its website said.

Koberl said Cal Poly’s website would be updated with the new total acreage soon.

However, he couldn’t confirm the university’s placement had changed from second to first in the state in terms of overall acreage.

“Unfortunately, we do not have current figures for the other universities, so we aren’t able to address whether our traditional ranking has changed,” Koberl wrote in an email.

What makes Cal Poly’s campus so big?

The university has 16 different land assets that make up its nearly 10,000-acre campus, according to Cal Poly.

The college’s largest campus component is its 3,200-acre property in Santa Cruz County, known as Swanton Pacific Ranch.

The massive property contains sweeping coastal grasslands, giant redwood forests and u-pick apple orchards. Students can live at the working ranch while learning and conducting research, according to Cal Poly.

Much of the ranch was destroyed after the fast-moving CZU August Lightning Complex fire tore through the property in 2020 and is in the process of being rebuilt.

Swanton Pacific Ranch was gifted to the college in 1993 by the late Al Smith, a Cal Poly graduate and the founder of Orchard Supply Hardware, who wished that the property be “used exclusively for agriculture, recreational, educational purposes,” according to the university.

Two neighboring Cal Poly ranches — Escuela Ranch and Walters Ranch — span a total of more than 2,500 acres about eight miles north of Cal Poly’s main SLO campus.

More than 100 cattle graze on the land, granting Cal Poly students the opportunity to manage the herd and undertake research projects, the university said on its website.

Cal Poly’s campus is expanding soon

Cal Poly has plans to grow to more than 10,000 acres of land mass in California.

In the summer, the university will gain another 92 acres once Cal Poly and Cal Maritime in Vallejo begin operating as a single university, according to Koberl.

California State University system trustees voted in November to fold Cal Maritime into Cal Poly to rescue the struggling maritime academy from possible bankruptcy amid dwindling enrollment.

The merger will grant Cal Poly access to the 92-acre campus and its technology.

Starting July 1, Cal Maritime will be known as the Cal Poly Maritime Academy located at the Cal Poly Solano campus in Vallejo, according to previous Tribune reporting.

Once that occurs, Cal Poly will maintain its status as California’s largest college by acreage with a combined total of 10,059.6 acres.

What are 10 biggest college campuses in California?

Here are the largest California higher education institutions in terms of acreage, according to university websites and U.S. News and World Report:

1. Cal Poly: 9,967.6 acres in total
   
   
2. Stanford University: 8,180 acres
3. UC Davis: 5,300 acres
4. American Jewish University: 2,700 ares
5. UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz: 2,000 acres
6. CSU Monterey Bay: 1,727 acres
7. UC Irvine: 1,475 acres
8. CSU Pomona: 1,438 acres
9. UC Berkeley: 1,232 acres
10. UC San Diego and UC Riverside (tied): 1,200 acres

Hannah Poukish

The Tribune

+1 805-781-7815

Hannah Poukish covers San Luis Obispo County as The Tribune’s government reporter. She previously reported and produced stories for The Sacramento Bee, CNN, Spectrum News and The Mercury News in San Jose. She graduated from Stanford University with a master’s degree in journalism.