Private vs public high schools in Alameda County

Do private or public high schools in Alameda County get more students into the UC system?

In Alameda County the 14 private high schools with a 2025 UC Reach Score have a median of 47 and a top score of 212 (BASIS Independent Fremont Upper School), and the 32 public high schools have a median of 34 and a top score of 70 (Mission San Jose High School); pooled, private schools show 65.2 UC admits per 100 seniors and public schools 38.7.

Which private high schools in Alameda County have the best UC outcomes?

The highest-scoring private high school in Alameda County is BASIS Independent Fremont Upper School at 212, and 9 of the 10 private schools in the table publish a tuition figure.

Which public high schools match them?

The highest-scoring public high school in Alameda County is Mission San Jose High School at 70, and 10 of the top 10 public schools score at or above 34, the score of the 10th private school in the table above.

Does the gap hold at the same GPA?

Among 11 private high schools in Alameda County with enough Fall 2024 UC applicants to measure (applicants averaging a 3.97 GPA), 23.9% of applicants were admitted where their GPAs predict 22.0%; among 28 public high schools (applicants averaging a 3.92 GPA), 19.7% were admitted where their GPAs predict 21.6%.

UC publishes applicant GPA a year behind its admit counts, and 2024 is the latest year it covers private schools. "Expected" is the admit rate the statewide curve for each of the six campuses predicts from a school's applicant GPA, summed over its applicants; the same method as the GPA-performance table on the rankings. Only schools with at least 30 applications across at least three campuses are measured.

What families are also buying at a private school

Parents are not only shopping for college outcomes. The tables above count UC admits, and a high school is also four years of a teenager's days: who they spend them with, what the school asks them to value, and whether the adults know them.

Families who choose a private school in Alameda County are usually weighing some of these:

• Community and values fit. A private school sets its own mission and expectations, and the application, the entrance exam and the interview work as a fit signal in both directions. Of the 13 private schools here with an affiliation on file, 7 are religiously affiliated and 6 are nonsectarian.
• Class size. The National Center for Education Statistics' Private School Survey (2022) lists 9 of these private schools at 2.3 to 16.9 students per teacher.
• Size of the school. The 14 private schools here with an enrollment count on file enrolled 111 to 1,259 students, with a median of 400.
• Advising. Each private school builds its own college-advising model, so the useful question is how many students each counselor carries and how early the work starts.
• Arts and athletics access. A smaller school can mean more students on each team and in each production; ask each school what participation looks like.

Public schools are a great choice when a family cannot afford a private school, and the public table above shows how each of them does with UC admissions.

Every school in Alameda County is on the Alameda County school list; the county rankings rank them against each other. Other counties are on the private vs public index, and a single private school can be set beside its nearest strong public school on the worth-the-tuition pages.

UC Reach Score is top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors in 2025, counted at each campus, so a student admitted to several campuses counts at each. "Public" means district and charter schools with at least 100 seniors, as in the rankings (online, independent-study and alternative programs are left out); private schools of any size are included. Pooled admits per 100 seniors adds each group's admits and divides by its seniors; a "~" marks a senior count the data estimates. Schools with no UC admit counts for 2025 are not in either group. Tuition comes from each school's own admissions pages and is shown only where the school publishes it. A school "publishes a counted college list" when its own published list carries a count beside each college. The list excludes nonclassroom-based online schools and schools the California Department of Education records with no 12th grade.