Blog · Who feeds which college · October 2, 2026
The high school that sends the most students to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is Mira Costa High School
- For the Class of 2026, Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach sends 18 students per class year to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, first of 95 schools whose published lists name the college.
- Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley is second, also with 18 students per class year for the Class of 2026.
- Nine of the top 10 schools are in California, and the tenth is Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii.
A matriculation list is a list a school publishes saying where its graduates enrolled. Students per class year means the count the school printed, divided by the class years its list covers.
Mira Costa High School printed 18 students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Its list covers one class year. The school calls that year the Class of 2026. So the printed total and the per class year number match. That puts Mira Costa first of 95 schools whose published lists name the college.
The 10 high schools that send the most students to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
| Rank | High school | City, State | Type | Students per class year | Count as printed | Class years (the school's words) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mira Costa High School | Manhattan Beach, CA | public | 18.0 | 18 | Class of 2026 |
| 2 | Tamalpais High School | Mill Valley, CA | public | 18.0 | 18 | Class of 2026 |
| 3 | Leigh High School | San Jose, CA | public | 14.0 | 140 | 2017–2026 |
| 4 | Cardinal Newman High School | Santa Rosa, CA | private | 13.0 | 13 | Class of 2025 |
| 5 | Dublin High School | Dublin, CA | public | 13.0 | 13 | Class of 2023 |
| 6 | Saint Francis Catholic High School | Sacramento, CA | private | 11.0 | 11 | Class of 2025 |
| 7 | Palo Alto Senior High School | Palo Alto, CA | public | 10.0 | 10 | 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 (counts in the column named 2026) |
| 8 | Santa Margarita Catholic High School | Rancho Santa Margarita, CA | private | 10.0 | 10 | Class of 2025 |
| 9 | Mountain View High School | Mountain View, CA | public | 9.3 | 28 | CLASS of 2020, 2021, 2022 |
| 10 | Punahou School | Honolulu, HI | private | 9.0 | 36 | the past four years (2022 – 2025) |
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a California college, and the board reads that way. Nine of these 10 schools are in California. One, Punahou School, is in Hawaii. The top two schools, Mira Costa and Tamalpais, each printed 18 for one class year. Third is Leigh High School in San Jose. It printed 140 across ten class years, 2017–2026. The lists also cover very different windows. Some schools print one graduating class. Others print a decade. The table shows each school's own words next to its own count, so you can see which is which.
Acceptances are a separate list, and they are ranked on their own. On that side, Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose ranks first with 63 admissions per class year for the Class of 2025.
A school that is not on this list did not publish a numbered matriculation list we could read. That is all absence means. It is never a statement about that school's graduates. Lists of acceptances and lists of enrollments are two different things, and they are never mixed here.
See the full board of 25 schools, plus the acceptances section, or the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo college page.
Boards as of October 2, 2026. Schools publish new lists every fall, so the live board is the current ranking.