De Anza College: Cost, Admission and Transfer Numbers (2026-27)

De Anza College is a public community college in Cupertino, part of the Foothill–De Anza Community College District, and admission is open to anyone who meets one basic requirement. That makes the De Anza College acceptance rate a non-question: there’s no selective cut. For 2026-27, California residents pay $31 per quarter unit plus $62.75 in basic fees per quarter.

The bigger story is transfer: according to De Anza’s own Institutional Research report (May 2026), 2,824 students moved on to four-year schools in 2024-25, not the 2,473 shown on the college’s marketing page. That’s more than Foothill (897) and College of San Mateo (976) combined. It equals 33.7% of all transfers from the region’s nine community colleges and 47.1% of the region’s UC transfers.

If you’re comparing California community colleges, every number below is tied to its source and year, from the college’s fee schedule to federal data.

De Anza College at a Glance

Source: NCES College Navigator (id 113333); De Anza fee schedule 2026-27; De Anza Office of Institutional Research and Planning (May 2026); Foothill–De Anza district history; De Anza program and Why De Anza pages.

The rows come from different reporting cycles: enrollment is Fall 2024, awards are 2024-25 and fees are 2026-27. Where two sources disagree later in this profile, both figures appear with their dates.

Does De Anza Have an Acceptance Rate?

No. De Anza doesn’t select students, so the De Anza acceptance rate shown on college-data sites, usually 100%, simply reflects an open door. The college’s admission requirements page says admission “is open to anyone,” subject to residency requirements.

To enroll, you need one of these four things:

• A high school diploma
• A high school equivalency certificate (GED)
• A proficiency certificate
• Evidence that you’re at least 18 and able to benefit from instruction offered by De Anza

One detail matters for money. If the college questions a high school diploma, the student can still take classes but “will not qualify for financial aid.”

The 100% figure isn’t a quality signal either way. It tells you who can get in, not how students do once they’re enrolled.

The real filters come after admission. Identity checks, orientation and an education plan decide how early you can register, as the next section shows.

How to Enroll at De Anza, Step by Step

De Anza’s How to Apply page lists seven steps, in this order. Two of them come with processing times you should plan around.

1. Apply online through OpenCCC, “an online application system used by De Anza and other California community colleges.”
2. Verify your identity if you’re 18 or older: “Most students can verify their identity online through ID.me or California DMV Wallet.” Choosing “Verify Later” puts the application on hold; the alternative is to visit Admissions and Records in person with a photo ID or an affidavit.
3. Watch for the welcome email with your 8-digit student ID number (CWID). The college asks you to “allow 7-10 working days for processing” the application.
4. Check placement in MyPortal under View My Placement Results. If it’s blank, submit the U.S. High School Transcript Assessment form and allow five business days.
5. Complete orientation, either a Zoom workshop or an online course. It’s required to qualify for priority registration.
6. Build an education plan. New students make an abbreviated plan for one or two quarters, while continuing students should have a comprehensive plan for three or more quarters.
7. Register. Priority registration also requires a declared major (not “undecided”) and a goal of transfer, a degree or a certificate.

The 2026-27 academic calendar sets these quarter dates:

Source: De Anza Academic Calendar, last updated 8/26/26.

Fall 2026 classes began September 21, so for anyone applying now, the next quarter to start is winter. Graduation is June 26, 2027.

Placement works differently than many students expect. For most students, “placement at De Anza will be determined by your U.S. high school transcript,” not by a test. Guided self-placement, with separate tools for math, English and ESL, is for students who didn’t complete at least grades 9-11 at a U.S. high school, finished long ago without a transcript, or whose GPA no longer reflects their level.

That follows California law. Education Code §78213 says “high school transcript data shall be used as the primary means for determining placement,” with the goal that students enter and complete transfer-level English and math within one year.

Applying as an International (F-1) Student

International students on an F-1 visa apply separately and pay a $75 nonrefundable application fee. English proficiency can be shown with a TOEFL iBT score of 61 or higher for tests taken before January 21, 2026, or 3.5 or higher after that date, or with an IELTS score of 5.5.

Students “must be 18 years old to attend college,” though students from age 16 can be admitted if they’ve completed secondary school. You’ll also need to show “at least $27,189 U.S. dollars available for the first year.”

Source: De Anza International Student Programs, future students page (read October 17, 2026).

What De Anza Costs in 2026-27

De Anza College tuition for California residents is the state-mandated fee of $31 per quarter unit, plus basic fees of $62.75 per quarter in fall, winter and spring. A full-time year of 45 quarter units comes to $1,395 in enrollment fees plus $188.25 in basic fees: $1,583.25 on the posted schedule.

The $31 isn’t arbitrary. California Education Code §76300 sets the fee at $46 per semester unit, and for quarter-system colleges the rate is adjusted proportionally: $46 × 2/3 = $30.67, rounded to $31. Put the other way, $31 per quarter unit works out to $46.50 per semester-unit equivalent.

The $62.75 in basic fees bundles six charges for a full-time student: DASG $12, Campus Center $17.50, Health Services $22, Registration Support $1.50, Student Representation $2 and SmartPass $7.75.

Source: De Anza Cashier’s Office fee schedule (fees.html, fees_glance.html), 2026-27; CalChannel calculation.

Nonresident and international students pay an extra $253 per unit, for $284 in total, and F-1 students also pay the health insurance charge. IPEDS lists out-of-state tuition and fees of $12,596 for 2024-25, which is $372.25 below the calculation above because it covers a different year and set of fees.

Nonresidents who aren’t on an F-1 visa and take six units or fewer may qualify for a waiver. First-time full-time California students may qualify for the De Anza College Promise, which covers enrollment fees but not everything else; see the FAQ below.

Why Sites Show Six Different Tuition Numbers

Search for De Anza’s annual tuition and you’ll find at least six figures, from $1,542 to $1,617. They don’t disagree about the $31 unit fee. Subtract $1,395 (45 units × $31) from each figure and divide by three, and you get the basic fees per quarter each source assumes.

Source: De Anza fees.html, fees_glance.html, cost.html and why.html; NCES College Navigator (id 113333); CalChannel calculation, October 17, 2026.

The figures differ by year and by which fees are bundled in, not by unit count.

The one gap without an explanation is the Financial Aid budget versus the fee-schedule calculation. The difference is $33.75, or $11.25 a quarter, which equals about 1.09 units and matches no single fee; the college’s published sources don’t explain it. The Financial Aid page calls its numbers a “standard set of figures,” and its intro still says 2025-26 while the table header reads 2026-27.

The college’s own pages also disagree on savings. The Why De Anza page says De Anza costs $4,971 less than a CSU and $13,365 less than a UC, while the fees page says $6,094 and $14,670.

Cost of Attendance by Housing Situation

De Anza College cost goes well beyond fees. The Financial Aid Office’s 2026-27 budget for fall, winter and spring puts a student living at home with no dependents at $22,824 and every other student at $32,175.

Source: De Anza Financial Aid, cost of attendance (cost.html), 2026-27; shares calculated by CalChannel.

The $9,351 difference between the two budgets comes from housing and food ($8,535) and personal costs ($816). Fees make up 5% to 7% of the total, so even a full fee waiver leaves most of the budget in place.

Don’t line this up against the IPEDS “off campus with family” figure of $9,284 for 2024-25. That number is built without food or housing, so it isn’t comparable to De Anza’s at-home budget.

Net price is a separate federal measure. For full-time beginning students who paid the in-state rate and received grant or scholarship aid, IPEDS puts the average net price at $9,693 in 2023-24, up from $8,267 in 2021-22 and $8,421 in 2022-23. By family income, the figures cover students who received federal Title IV aid:

Source: NCES College Navigator (id 113333), net price, 2023-24.

Net price is cost of attendance minus grants, measured for a different year and with a different method than the 2026-27 budget, so don’t subtract one from the other. In 2023-24 the lowest-income group had a higher average net price than the next group up, and the data doesn’t say why.

Transfer From De Anza: 2,824 Students in 2024-25

Transfer is what De Anza does at scale. In 2024-25, 2,824 De Anza students enrolled at four-year institutions, according to the college’s Institutional Research transfer report.

Here’s what the data actually shows. California State University campuses took 1,296 of those students and the University of California 1,017, with 511 more going to private and out-of-state schools.

Source: De Anza Office of Institutional Research and Planning, “Transfers to Four-Year Institution, 2024-25,” memo dated May 11, 2026, Table 1.

How these numbers were counted: the memo, from Acting Director Lisa Ly of De Anza’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning, counts “enrollees,” students who actually enrolled at the four-year school. UC figures come from the UCOP Infocenter’s admissions-by-source-school data, CSU figures from the CSU Chancellor’s Office, and private and out-of-state counts from the CCCCO DataMart, matched through the National Student Clearinghouse.

The report notes that private and out-of-state counts for earlier years rose after the switch to Clearinghouse matching. CalChannel re-entered the report’s tables on October 17, 2026 and checked that the segments add up to the totals for all five years.

The gap with the Why De Anza page, which shows 2,473, sits entirely in one category. Its UC and CSU numbers match the report, but it lists 160 private or out-of-state transfers against 511 in the report, a difference of 351.

The five-year trend is down overall: 3,260 transfers in 2020-21 against 2,824 in 2024-25, a 13.4% drop. UC transfers rose 4.0% over that span (978 to 1,017), while CSU transfers fell 19.6%.

Source: De Anza Office of Institutional Research and Planning, 2024-25 transfer report, Tables 2 and 4.

San José State dominates the CSU side. Its 875 De Anza transfers are 67.5% of all CSU transfers and 31.0% of the total.

On the UC side, UC Berkeley took 214 students, up from 175 in 2020-21. Berkeley, UC San Diego and UC Davis together enrolled 602, or 59.2% of De Anza’s UC transfers.

In 2024-25, 1,727 De Anza students applied to UC, 1,402 were admitted to the system (81%), and 73% of those admitted enrolled.

Among private and out-of-state schools, Santa Clara University (27) and USC (15) led in California. Out of state, Arizona State’s Campus Immersion (37) and the online Western Governors University (34) led.

Source: De Anza Office of Institutional Research and Planning, 2024-25 transfer report, Table 8.

Among these nine colleges, De Anza produced 33.7% of all 8,372 transfers and 47.1% of the 2,157 UC transfers. It sent 2.89 times as many students as the next-largest sender, College of San Mateo.

If you’re researching De Anza majors for transfer, start with its 24 Associate Degrees for Transfer, listed on the college’s Why De Anza page. UC-bound students can also look at the Transfer Admission Guarantee route.

For a sense of what students study, the most common associate degrees awarded in 2024-25 (first majors, per College Navigator) were Business Administration and Management (412), Biological and Physical Sciences (237), Psychology (165), Computer Science (122) and Mathematics (121). Liberal Arts and Sciences added 108 associate degrees and 216 certificates, and the largest certificate program was Automotive Mechanics Technology with 145. These are degree counts by program, not transfer counts.

What the 4% and 68% Figures Actually Measure

There is no single De Anza College transfer rate, and the percentages on college-data sites measure something much narrower than annual transfers. Some show “4%,” others 65% or 72%, usually without saying which students are counted.

College Navigator’s De Anza profile uses the IPEDS graduation-rate cohort: 2,424 full-time, first-time students who started in Fall 2021. Of them, 67.7% completed within 150% of normal time (shown as 68%), 6.5% transferred out (shown as 6%), 6.0% were still enrolled and 19.8% left without an award.

The catch is in the definition. IPEDS counts as transfer-outs only students who transferred without finishing their De Anza program, so anyone who earned an associate degree first and then transferred counts as a graduate. In this cohort that’s 157 transfer-outs, set against 2,824 transfers in a single year.

Worth pausing on that for a second. Only 43% of De Anza’s 2024 entrants were full-time, first-time students, so the cohort leaves out most of the people who actually enroll.

IPEDS Outcome Measures give a wider view. They follow all 8,803 students who entered in 2016-17 for eight years: 42.8% earned an award, 22.0% transferred without one, 0.6% were still enrolled and 34.6% had an unknown status.

Results split sharply by group. Full-time first-time students reached 70.3% with an award and 9.7% transferring without one, while part-time students who weren’t first-time reached 17.2% and 39.9%. The full-time first-time group was only 34.9% of 2016-17 entrants.

Source: NCES College Navigator (id 113333); IPEDS graduation rates and outcome measures via the Urban Institute Education Data API (2023 data).

Foothill vs De Anza: Which One Fits You?

Foothill vs De Anza is a choice between two colleges in the same district, the Foothill–De Anza Community College District. With the same sources and years for both, the differences are about who enrolls, not price.

Source: NCES College Navigator (id 113333 and 114716), Fall 2024; De Anza Office of Institutional Research and Planning, 2024-25; IPEDS Outcome Measures, 2016-17 entrants.

De Anza is about 1.35 times Foothill’s size but sends 3.15 times as many students to four-year schools. The per-100 figures are a rough scale comparison only, since they divide a full year of transfers by a single fall headcount. UC transfers make up 36.7% of Foothill’s own total.

Outcome Measures add a twist. Foothill’s 2016-17 entrants more often transferred without an award (34.9%) and less often earned one (24.0%).

Skip the IPEDS graduation rates for this comparison. Foothill reports as a four-year institution (Fall 2018 cohort, 56% graduation and 11% transfer-out), while De Anza’s figures cover a Fall 2021 cohort over a three-year window, so the two aren’t measured the same way.

Price won’t decide it: IPEDS in-state tuition and fees for 2024-25 are $6 apart. Online learning is similar too, with 46% of students at each college fully online, but only 16% of De Anza students take no online courses at all, against 30% at Foothill.

A simple way to decide:

• If you want a full-time transfer track and the larger transfer pipeline, De Anza fits better: 49% of its students attend full time, against 31% at Foothill.
• If you’re studying part-time or returning as an adult, Foothill’s profile is closer: 69% of its students attend part-time and 41% are 25 or older.
• If cost is the deciding factor, it’s a wash.

Is De Anza College a Good College? Rankings and Recognition

The strongest De Anza College ranking signal from a primary source is the Aspen Prize shortlist, not a magazine list. On October 28, 2025, the Aspen Institute named 200 community colleges eligible to compete for the 2027 Aspen Prize, judged on retention, completion, transfer and bachelor’s attainment rates.

De Anza was one of them, according to the college’s own announcement of October 29, 2025, and it had made that first cut before, in 2019, 2021 and 2023. But the Aspen Institute’s semifinalist announcement of April 29, 2026 named 25 colleges, and De Anza wasn’t among them; the California semifinalists were MiraCosta College and Moorpark College.

The winner will be named in April 2027. Two California colleges have won before: Santa Barbara City College in 2013 and Imperial Valley College in 2023.

What each ranking actually says:

• Aspen Institute: De Anza is among 200 colleges eligible for the 2027 Prize, but not among the 25 semifinalists.
• US News: publishes a data profile of De Anza but doesn’t rank it.
• Other college-data sites: publish their own rankings and grades, each with its own method.

If transfer is your goal, the transfer counts above say more than any single rank.

History, the Flint Center and Notable Alumni

De Anza held its opening day of classes on September 11, 1967, and the district’s founding history refers to “the 3,000 students that first semester.”

• 1967: Classes begin on September 11.
• 1968: The quarter system is inaugurated in the fall.
• 1971: In January, trustees name the new auditorium the Calvin C. Flint Center for the Performing Arts; it’s dedicated on May 30 before a crowd of 2,000.
• 1984: The Macintosh is introduced at a press conference in the Flint Center on January 24.
• 2019: The district suspends Flint Center programming in mid-2019, and the board votes on June 10 to close it permanently.
• 2025: Trustees vote unanimously on January 13 to begin designing a Creative Arts building, and the Flint Center demolition is completed in spring.

The Flint Center was an approximately 2,400-seat venue, according to a state CEQA filing. The district cited “structural, safety, accessibility and usage issues,” which it estimated would cost $50 million or more to address.

The Creative Arts building that will take its place is backed by a transfer of $39.7 million in Measure G funds. The college hasn’t announced an opening date.

Search for De Anza College notable alumni and you’ll find long lists, but only two names have a published institutional source this profile could check. The IEEE Computer Society’s pioneers profile lists Steve Wozniak’s education as “electrical engineering, De Anza College, 1969-1970.” The district history calls him an “occasional De Anza student” who designed the first Apple computer in the mid-1970s Homebrew Computer Club years.

According to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, Steve Jobs attended De Anza in the 1970s. The same source says he introduced the original Apple Macintosh during a 1984 news conference at the Flint Center.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is De Anza College free?

Not entirely, but many new students pay no enrollment fees. The De Anza College Promise covers enrollment fees, including the SmartPass fee, for first-time California residents or AB 540 students who entered in fall 2026 or later, for at least one year and possibly two, depending on state funding. To qualify you must study full time, have a household income under $200,000, submit a FAFSA or CADAA listing De Anza and start in the fall; there’s no separate application. The Promise doesn’t cover non-enrollment fees, units above its limit or parking permits. The state’s California College Promise Grant waives enrollment fees only, so basic fees are still charged.

Is De Anza College a community college?

Yes. De Anza is a public community college in Cupertino and one of two colleges in the Foothill–De Anza Community College District, alongside Foothill College. Admission is open, so there’s no competitive selection, and classes run on the quarter system rather than semesters. It also offers one bachelor’s degree, in Automotive Technology Management, next to its associate degrees and certificates.

Does De Anza have dorms?

No. De Anza has no campus housing, according to IPEDS, so there are no residence halls. But the district owns McClellan Terrace, two-bedroom furnished apartments with shared rooms near the De Anza campus for students of De Anza and Foothill. “Pricing is per person, between $950 and $1,200 a month,” according to the district’s housing page. Spaces are limited, there’s a waitlist, and applications go through fhdastudenthousing.com.

Who is De Anza College named after?

The college is named for Colonel Don Juan Bautista de Anza. He led an 18th-century expedition from Sonora, Mexico, to the settlements of Northern California and camped near Stevens Creek, according to a La Voz article quoted in the district’s history. The Cupertino Chamber of Commerce first suggested the name. The board voted unanimously on April 1, 1963 to name the new campus, then spelled “DeAnza College.”

Can high school students take classes at De Anza?

Yes. High school students can enroll with a High School Permit to Enroll signed by their principal (or a designee) and a parent or guardian. After that, the process continues through the college’s Dual Enrollment page. Fees depend on the load: dual-enrollment students who take more than 11 units pay all fees. Because the permit needs two signatures, it’s worth starting the paperwork with your school counselor well before the quarter you want.

Should De Anza Be on Your List?

Our take: if your plan is to transfer, De Anza’s own data makes a strong case, especially for San José State and the larger UC campuses. It is the biggest transfer sender among its neighbors, and its research office counts that pipeline more completely than its marketing page does.

If you’re a California resident planning a full-time transfer track, low per-unit fees and open admission make De Anza an easy college to put on your list. Finish orientation and an education plan early so priority registration works in your favor.

If you’re budgeting, plan around the full cost of attendance, not the fee line. Housing and food, not tuition, decide what a year at De Anza really costs.

Sources

1. De Anza College Office of Institutional Research and Planning, “Transfers to Four-Year Institution, 2024-25” (May 11, 2026)
2. NCES College Navigator, De Anza College (id 113333)
3. De Anza College, Admission Requirements
4. California Education Code §76300
5. Aspen Institute, 2027 Aspen Prize semifinalists (April 29, 2026)
6. Foothill–De Anza Community College District, “De Anza College: The Founding and Early Years”