Photo: Spatms (CC BY-SA 4.0)
School data & stats
Outcomes
Cost
Community
Overview
California Baptist University is a private Christian university in Riverside, affiliated with the California Southern Baptist Convention, that has grown quickly in recent years, including a move up to NCAA Division I athletics as the Lancers. Its mission-revival-style campus sits in the Inland Empire, about an hour from Los Angeles, and faith is a visible, active part of daily campus life rather than a background affiliation.
Academics
Nursing, engineering, and aviation are notable professional strengths, layered onto a curriculum that also includes required coursework in Christian thought consistent with the university's Baptist affiliation. Rapid growth has meant the university has been actively expanding facilities and program offerings across these areas, including dedicated health-sciences simulation space for nursing students and a growing engineering division housed in newer campus buildings.
Campus & student life
Campus life is organized visibly around faith practice, with chapel and Christian community life central to the student experience rather than optional, and small-group Bible studies and campus ministries functioning as a normal part of residential life rather than an add-on activity. The mission-revival architecture gives the campus a distinct Southern California aesthetic, and its Inland Empire location keeps it within reach of Los Angeles and Orange County for internships and outings while remaining its own self-contained, tight-knit community.
Getting in
Admissions reflects the university's faith mission alongside academic review, and students should expect the application and campus culture to assume genuine interest in a Christian university environment; a pastoral reference or statement of faith is a typical part of the process at schools like this, and academic strength matters most for the more selective health-science tracks.
After graduation
Nursing and health-science graduates place into Inland Empire and broader Southern California hospital systems, and the university's rapid growth has expanded its regional employer and alumni network noticeably over the past decade, with a Christian-university alumni network that stays unusually engaged with the school after graduation.
Worth knowing
Students should know that faith commitments and expectations — chapel attendance, lifestyle covenants common at Christian universities — are a real and enforced part of the CBU experience, not a nominal affiliation, so fit with that culture matters as much as academic fit. The recent jump to Division I athletics is reshaping campus culture and visibility.
Admissions
Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)
Applying
calbaptist.edu ↗High school coursework
Required15 total academic units · 4 units of English · 3 units of Mathematics · 2 units of Science (of which 2 units must be lab science) · 2 units of Foreign Language · 2 units of Social Studies · 2 units of History
Recommended24 total academic units · 4 units of English · 4 units of Mathematics · 3 units of Science (of which 3 units must be lab science) · 3 units of Foreign Language · 2 units of Social Studies · 2 units of History · 3 units of Academic Electives · 1 unit of Visual/Performing Arts
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