Cal State LA welcomes students from around the world who wish to study at our beautiful, urban campus close to Downtown Los Angeles. The University has been a leader in providing high-quality higher education for 70 years and now counts more than 250,000 alumni. Cal State LA's seven colleges offer more than 60 nationally recognized graduate and undergraduate programs across a wide range of disciplines.
Click on your student level below to learn more about our programs and admission process:
- Freshman - Students who have or will graduate high school and have not earned college credit beyond the summer immediately following graduation.
- Transfer - Students who have earned college credit the summer beyond high school graduation but have not earned a Bachelor's degree.
- Graduate, Credential, Certificate, and 2nd Bachelor's Program Applicants - Students who hold a Bachelor's degree and wish to continue their education in graduate studies or other post-baccalaureate programs.
Email Communications
Cal State LA uses email as the official means of communication with applicants. Initial admission communications are sent to the email reported in the Cal State Apply application. Applicants are required to maintain a current email address on file with the University, and to check their email regularly.
Throughout the admissions process, the Office of Admissions and Recruitment will send communications to the "preferred" email address as indicated in your GET Student Center. You may update your email address at any time by visiting your Golden Eagle Territory (GET) Self-Service Student Center.
To help prevent these important emails from being flagged as spam/junk mail by your email provider, please mark the calstatela.edu domain as a safe sender in your email account.
Be aware, we discovered that the following email hosts have blocked Cal State LA emails. If you currently have an email account with one of these email hosts, we strongly encourage you to create a new email account with an alternate email host (e.g., gmail.com, outlook.com, icloud.com, etc.).
- qq.com
- 126.com
- 163.com
- yeah.net
Please also regularly check your email, and GET To Do list to see if additional information is needed to complete your application.
Requesting Your I-20 (F-1)
All admitted students who will be studying with an F-1 visa are required to obtain an I-20 form to proceed with the visa application process.
What is an I-20?
An I-20 is a crucial U.S. immigration document issued by a university. It serves as certification that an F-1 student has met admission requirements and can demonstrate sufficient financial resources for their studies. An I-20 is a mandatory document for applying for an F-1 student visa at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad.
Initiating the Process:
Newly admitted international students who have paid their deposit should promptly request an I-20. The International Students & Scholars Office (ISSO) highly recommends submitting your initial I-20 request early, as the visa process entails a certain amount of time. Upon receiving your offer of admission, international students in need of an F-1 visa, or those planning to transfer their I-20 from another U.S. institution, will receive an email from the ISSO containing instructions on how to proceed with either obtaining a new I-20 or transferring their existing I-20 to Cal State LA.
Preparation:
Please ensure you have the following documents ready:
- A copy of your Passport Biographical Page.
- Financial support documents.
For those currently studying in the U.S., please include:
- A copy of your current Visa stamp.
- A copy of your I-94.
- A copy of your I-20.
For any inquiries about the I-20/SEVIS transfer process, please don't hesitate to reach out to the International Students & Scholars Office (ISSO) at (323) 343-3170 or via email at [email protected].