Prospective Students

  • Admissions and Records Impaction Information

Impaction

What is Impaction?

Impaction means a California State University (CSU) campus anticipates more qualified applicants than available spots for which there is adequate state funding. Impaction can:

  • Affect all undergraduate admissions for a CSU (campus impaction),
  • Give preference admission consideration to freshmen or transfer students from schools within a CSU’s local service area, and/or
  • Set supplementary admission criteria for specific academic programs (impacted majors).

Visit Access and Impaction at the CSU to learn the impaction status, if any, for each of the 23 CSUs.

Overview

For 2024-2025, California State University, Northridge (CSUN) has significantly eased impaction:

  • CSUN has removed local-area impaction for both first-time freshmen and first-time transfer students. All California applicants will need to meet the same minimum standard CSU criteria.
  • Only four majors are impacted. All undergraduate applicants from California will need to achieve both the standard CSU criteria and the supplementary admission criteria that CSUN has established for each impacted major.

For 2023-2024, the campus is impacted for first-time freshmen only. Some majors are still impacted for all undergraduates.

  • Local area applicants:  During the initial filing period, CSUN will admit all qualified first-time freshmen who have attended California schools inside the CSUN-defined local admission area and who have met the minimum standard CSU eligibility criteria for freshman applicants.
  • The rest of California: First-time freshman applicants from outside CSUN’s local area but still in California will be considered for admission during the application filing period when they meet both the standard California State University (CSU) criteria and any CSUN supplementary criteria.
  • Impacted majors: All undergraduate applicants from California, regardless of geographical location, need to achieve both the standard CSU criteria and the supplementary admission criteria that CSUN has established for each impacted major.

Note: Space permitting, non-local area applicants from California will be admitted until the freshman, transfer student, and/or impacted major admission capacities are full.

Read more about impaction for your student group below:

First-time freshman impaction.     Transfer student impaction.

Frequently Asked Questions

Am I affected by impaction?

Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 Admissions

Domestic first-time freshmen and first-time transfer students from California will be affected by impaction only if they are applying to one of the four impacted majors. Local-area impaction is no longer in effect.

Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 Admissions

You ARE affected by CSUN impaction if any of the following situations apply to you:

  • You are a first-time freshman who graduated from a California high school that is located outside CSUN’s local admission area. For details, please see Freshman Impaction.
  • You are a first-time freshman or first-time transfer student from California who has chosen an impacted major. First-time freshmen will first need to meet CSUN's supplementary criteria for their geographical location and then meet any impacted major supplementary criteria to be considered for admission.

You are NOT affected by CSUN impaction if:

  • As a first-time freshman, you attended an accredited high school inside CSUN’s local admission area. You must still meet the standard CSU eligibility criteria listed at Freshman Applicant. If you select an impacted major, you will also need to meet that major's supplementary criteria.
  • As a first-time transfer student, you completed most of the course work and earned most of the 60 units required for standard CSU transfer admission at one or more of the community colleges or universities in California. You must still meet the standard CSU eligibility criteria listed at Transfer Applicant. If you select an impacted major, you will also need to meet that major's supplementary criteria.
  • You are a graduate applicant.
  • You are a nonresident of California. Out-of-state freshman applicants are required to meet a higher Eligibility Index than local area freshman applicants even without impaction; this has not changed.
  • You are a U.S. servicemember (active duty or veteran) applying to CSUN. You are exempt from both “local admission area” impaction and impacted major criteria. Please see Veterans Admissions.

Which majors are impacted?

For fall 2024 and spring 2025 admission, the following majors are impacted:

  • B.S. in Accountancy
  • B.S. in Business Administration, options in:
    • Financial Analysis
    • Financial Planning
    • Risk Management and Insurance
  • B.A. in Cinema and Television Arts
  • B.A. in Music

For fall 2023 and spring 2024 admission, the following majors are impacted:

  • B.S. in Accountancy
  • B.S. and B.A. in Biology
  • B.S. in Business Administration
    • Financial Analysis
    • Financial Planning
    • Risk Management and Insurance
  • B.A. in Cinema and Television Arts
  • B.S. in Kinesiology
  • B.A. in Music
  • B.A. in Psychology

Read more about the supplementary admission criteria for these impacted majors at:

Which high schools and districts are inside CSUN’s local area?

Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 Admission

Local area (regional) impaction is no longer in effect for admission consideration to the fall 2024 and spring 2025 semesters.

Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 Admission

Local area impaction is only relevant to you if you are a first-time freshman applicant and resident of California from outside CSUN's local admissions area who is applying for fall 2023 or spring 2024 admission.  Please see the map and list of high schools and districts inside CSUN’s local admission area for freshmen.

Notes:

  • For students who reside in CSUN’s local area but graduate from a high school outside the local area, for the purposes of admission, the high school determines residency.
  • For home-schooled students, the applicant’s residency is determined by their home address.

Which California community colleges are inside CSUN’s local transfer area?

Beginning with the fall 2023 and spring 2024 academic year going forward, local area impaction is no longer in effect for transfer applicants who are California residents.

Please note:

  1. All California upper division transfer applicants will be considered for admission by meeting the minimum standard CSU criteria published at Transfer Student.
  2. Applicants from California who have chosen an impacted major will need to meet the supplementary criteria for that major, as explained at Transfer Impaction.
  3. CSUN is currently not accepting lower-division transfer applications.

What are CSUN’s supplementary admission criteria?

For details about CSUN’s supplementary admission criteria, including local/non-local admission areas (if applicable) and impacted majors, please see:

For the minimum standard CSU admission requirements for all undergraduate applicants including those inside CSUN’s local area, please see:

Please note that all undergraduate applicants, whether affected by impaction or not, must apply for admission during the application filing period