Southern has adopted a group of peer institutions to use for various comparisons and benchmarking. Southern's peer institutions were most recently reviewed and approved by the CSUS Board of Trustees in 2013.
In choosing our peer institutions, the following criteria were considered:
- Public institution
- Carnegie classification
- Size of student body
- Number of full-time faculty
- Degree of urbanization, location
- Full-time, part-time student ratios
- Per student expenditure
- Six-year graduation rate
- SAT scores
- Graduate programs, including a doctoral program
- Similar Carnegie Classifications of R2
- High access-medium earning
- Least 25% Hispanic students
- 50% pell-eligible students.
The peer institutions represent a range of these characteristics to provide some "aspirational" schools, as well as schools that are very similar to us.
- Bridgewater State University
- Buffalo State SUNY
- California State University - Chico
- California State University - Fullerton
- CUNY City College
- CUNY Hunter College
- Indiana State University
- Kean University/New Jersey
- Montclair State University
- Rhode Island College
- Saint Cloud State University
- San Francisco State University
- San José State University
- Southeast Missouri State University
- Texas State University
- Texas Woman's University
- The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
- University of Michigan-Dearborn
- University of Nebraska at Omaha
- University of Northern Colorado
- William Paterson University of New Jersey