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CCA at a Glance

About California College of the Arts

Founded

  • 1907 by Frederick Meyer, a German cabinetmaker, whose vision was shaped by the Arts and Crafts movement

The College's Mission

CCA educates students to shape culture through the practice and critical study of the arts. The college prepares its students for lifelong creative work and service to their communities through a curriculum in fine art, architecture, design, and writing.

Description

  • Private, nonprofit
  • Coeducational, residential
  • 21 undergraduate programs and 7 graduate programs in the fields of art, architecture, design, and writing

Location

Two campuses, one dynamic college
CCA maintains two campuses: one in Oakland; the other in San Francisco. The Bay Area is a known global hub for technological and cultural innovation (see Maps & Directions).

Learn more about our two-campus environment.

Each campus offers state-of-the art facilities and a stimulating environment to inspire our students' creativity.

The historic Oakland campus comprises four beautifully landscaped acres in the Rockridge district, just two miles south of University of California at Berkeley. The more urban San Francisco campus rests within the Potrero Hill neighborhood, in proximity to the city's design district and the University of California's biomedical research campus. The immediacy of both technology and artistry is inspiring.

Each CCA campus is connected by a free intercampus transportation service, in addition to readily accessible public transportation.

Oakland is home to our First Year Program, student housing, the Center for Art and Public Life, and the following undergraduate programs: Animation, Ceramics, Community Arts, Glass, Jewelry / Metal Arts, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Textiles, Visual Studies, and Writing and Literature.

Take the Oakland virtual tour now.

The San Francisco campus houses the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, all seven graduate programs, and the following undergraduate programs: Architecture, Fashion Design, Furniture, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interaction Design, Interior Design, Film, and Painting/Drawing.

Take the San Francisco virtual tour now.

Accreditation

  • Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
  • National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD)
  • National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB)
  • Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA)

Degrees Offered

  • Bachelor of Architecture (BArch)
  • Bachelor of Arts (BA)
  • Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
  • Master of Advanced Architectural Design (MAAD)
  • Master of Architecture (MArch)
  • Master of Arts (MA)
  • Master of Business Administration (MBA)
  • Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
  • Minor (Visual Studies and Writing and Literature programs)

Rankings

  • PayScale ranked CCA fourth among San Francisco Bay Area universities in highest-paying degrees (Stanford University, Santa Clara University, and UC Berkeley placed in the top three, respectively)
  • Named one of the world's best design schools by BusinessWeek magazine
  • CCA’s Industrial Design Program was ranked one of the top programs in the United State by DesignIntelligence magazine
  • Archsoc.com ranks CCA's Architecture Program as "one of the top U.S. architecture schools"
  • The Princeton Review designates CCA as "one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the United States and Canada," and includes the college in its annual Guide to Green Colleges
  • Named top fashion design college program in the country by the online college resource collegecrunch.org

STUDENT EXPERIENCE

Student Demographics

1,965 total enrollment (fall 2011)

1,475 undergraduates
490 graduates

60 percent female
40 percent male

31 percent out of state
14 percent international

4 percent African American
17 percent Asian American
12 percent Hispanic
1 percent Native American

Most popular majors
Graphic Design
Architecture
Illustration
Industrial Design
Painting/Drawing
Animation
Photography

Faculty

  • CCA offers a 500+ faculty of practicing artists, designers, published writers, and scholars.
  • 85 percent teach at the undergraduate level, with a student-to-faculty ratio of nine to one.

Student Retention/Graduation Rates

  • First year to second year, fall 2010 to fall 2011 (79 percent)
  • First-year students who graduate within six years of enrollment (49 percent for entering class 2005)

Community Life

  • The 2011 entering class comprised 426 undergraduates and 236 graduate students, from 31 states and 25 countries, not including the United States
  • 75–80 percent of first-year students are living on campus
  • Residential life includes the first-year community and a continuing/transfer student community
  • CCA offers a unique theme community for first-year students: the Artists' Retreat
  • The Center for Art and Public Life and the Office of Student Life provide service and leadership opportunities
  • On-campus gallery exhibitions of student work open each Tuesday and Wednesday evenings
  • CCA offers interdisciplinary lecture series with renowned artists, campuswide lunches, community art fairs, and other events that encourage community engagement, foster a sense of tradition, and sustain a welcoming and supportive community
  • Chimera Council and the Graduate Student Alliance are the student governing bodies responsible for building community, funding campuswide events and initiatives, and advocating on behalf of the needs of the student body
  • Pre-professional student organizations active on campus include the American Institute of Architecture Students, the American Society of Interior Designers, the Industrial Designers Society of America, and the National Organization for Minority Architects
  • 15+ student-initiated organizations and group

Financial Aid

  • 87 percent of undergraduate students receive financial aid in the form of grants, scholarships, loans, work-study, or some combination of these
  • 78 percent of students receive CCA scholarships
  • CCA provides more than $19 million of its scholarships
  • 26 percent of full-time undergraduates work on campus, earning an average of $1,900 a year

Special Opportunities

Study Abroad / International Exchange

  • Exchange opportunities in more than 30 associated art schools in more than 14 countries
  • Summer travel opportunities to Argentina, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, and Mexico
  • Mobility program with colleges in the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD)

Student Achievements

Our students begin making their mark well before graduation day. Students most recently accomplished the following:

  • One of our Industrial Design students signed a contract with Universal Toys to manufacture a toy he first conceived as a first-year class project.

  • Architecture students competed in the extremely high-profile 2009 Solar Decathlon, working with a budget exceeding $1 million.

  • Two Jewelry / Metal Arts students received the coveted $15,000 Windgate fellowship.

  • A Graphic Design student had his portfolio selected as the best of all 145 entries at the AIGA SF student portfolio competition and won a major scholarship award.

  • Six Illustration students placed in the New York Society of Illustrators student scholarship competition.

  • Two Interior Design students received major scholarship awards from the Northern California chapter of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).

  • An Animation student was just hired full time at Pixar Animation Studios, where in 2008 he’d been one of only 12 selected (out of a whopping 2,500 applicants) for Pixar’s prestigious animation internship.

Alumni Success

CCA Alumni Represent a Broad Array of Career Paths

CCA has a wealth of alumni who have gone on to have noteworthy careers that make the most of their undergraduate or graduate degrees.

Read the alumni success features to learn about our graduates’ recent career successes. Be sure to also check out a sampling of places where our alumni have gone on to work as well as where they pursued graduate studies.

Here are just some of our most celebrated alumni:

  • Robert Arneson, sculptor
  • Robert Bechtle, painter
  • Squeak Carnwath, painter
  • Tomie dePaola, illustrator
  • Harrell Fletcher, artist
  • Viola Frey, sculptor
  • Todd Hido, photographer
  • Gary Hutton, interior/furniture designer
  • David Ireland, sculptor/conceptual artist
  • Tina Manis, architect
  • Manuel Neri, painter
  • Nathan Olivera, painter
  • Dennis Oppenheim, conceptual artist
  • Lucille Tenazas, designer
  • Michael Vanderbyl, designer
  • Peter Voulkos, sculptor
  • Wayne Wang, filmmaker
  • Paul Wonner, painter

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