Blog · UC admissions · September 8, 2026
Which California high schools send the most students to Berkeley
Which California high schools send the most students to Berkeley?
I get asked a version of this constantly, and the answer is public. The University of California publishes admits by high school every year. Almost nobody reads it.
Number one this year is Berkeley High, which will surprise nobody who lives near campus. Then Santa Monica, Diamond Bar, Troy and Arcadia.
The raw count rewards big schools, so we ran admits per 100 seniors alongside it. That is where Mission High in San Francisco shows up — a smaller school putting a higher share of its class into Berkeley than anyone on the list.
Those two columns disagree on purpose. A parent asking "does this school get kids into Berkeley" wants the share. A district asking "what did our graduates achieve" wants the count. Printing only one of them would be the easier board and the less honest one.
One caveat worth stating plainly: these are admits, not enrollees. A student admitted to Berkeley may go somewhere else entirely, and plenty do. But the admit is the door opening, and this is who is walking through it.
This is the first of a series — one board per UC campus.
Every school's full picture is on the site at highschoolreach.com.
