Allan Hancock College, founded in 1920, is in northern Santa Barbara County with approximately 11,500 students enrolling each semester at the Santa Maria, Lompoc, Solvang and Vandenberg Air Force Base locations. The 105-acre main campus is in Santa Maria, on the northern edge of Santa Barbara County between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The college offers degrees and certificates in more than 100 areas of study, and is most well known for its English as a second language program, its professional theater program and for providing superior support services for its students, including counseling and tutoring.

The curriculum has also grown to meet the community's needs, from the original curriculum in 1920 of 12 courses paralleling the University of California's lower division requirements, to more than 1,000 credit courses today. Programs have also kept pace with changing needs since the very beginning with courses offered in airplane mechanics and radio code in the 1930s and 1940s to mechatronics and viticulture today.