Cal Poly sees highest enrollment in university history. See the data
Cal Poly saw the highest enrollment in what appears to be university history this year, with more than 23,000 students flocking to the San Luis Obispo campus in September.
According to data released by the CSU, Cal Poly enrolled a total of 23,245 students in fall 2025 — a 1.8% increase over the 22,842 students who enrolled in 2024.
More than 85% of the enrolled students were California residents, the dashboard said. About 96% were undergraduates, while 4% were graduate or postbaccalaureate students.
Over the last decade, the university gained more than 2,300 students, according to the data.
Cal Poly’s 15-year profile shows that 2025 marked the highest enrollment since at least 2002, and a past Tribune article described fall 2020 enrollment as a record high.
Cal Poly’s growth aligns with the CSU’s goal to increase the student population across its 22 universities. As a whole, the CSU saw a 2% increase from 2024 to 2025 — the highest year-over-year growth in 10 years, according to a news release.
University spokesperson Keegan Koberl told The Tribune that increasing enrollment has been a focus of Cal Poly administrators.
“Cal Poly is uniquely positioned to help the CSU meet the governor’s challenge to grow enrollment, as the university perennially has far more prospective students than it can admit,” he said in an emailed statement. “As well, the university’s Learn by Doing approach and high return on investment make a Cal Poly degree an extraordinary investment for students. With this in mind, Cal Poly has been pursuing a variety of ways to provide additional opportunities for academically qualified students to attend the university.”
Cal Poly has worked to increase available housing for students, with more students living on campus this year than ever before in university history, Koberl said. Cal Poly is also building new housing to accommodate even more students in the future.
Koberl also cited Cal Poly’s partnerships with Allan Hancock and Cuesta colleges as additional ways of increasing enrollment and expanding access to Cal Poly degrees.
Cal Poly is also in the midst of a merger with the former Cal Maritime university, now known as Cal Poly Maritime Academy, where it also hopes to attract and retain students, Koberl said.
Koberl added that the impending switch to year-round operations will allow the campus to increase its summer term enrollment.
Cal Poly is currently the most competitive CSU campus. It rejected more than 32,000 students with a 4.0 GPA or higher last year, after receiving a record-breaking 81,899 applications.
