Private vs public high schools in Sonoma County

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

In Sonoma County the 3 private high schools with a 2025 UC Reach Score have a median of 23 and a top score of 49 (Sonoma Academy), and the 12 public high schools have a median of 14 and a top score of 40 (Healdsburg High School); pooled, private schools show 29.8 UC admits per 100 seniors and public schools 15.7.

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

The highest-scoring private high school in Sonoma County is Sonoma Academy at 49, and 2 of the 3 private schools in the table publish a tuition figure.

Which public high schools match them?

The highest-scoring public high school in Sonoma County is Healdsburg High School at 40, and 8 of the top 10 public schools score at or above 10, the score of the 3rd private school in the table above.

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 Sonoma 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 2 private schools here with an affiliation on file, 2 are religiously affiliated and 0 are nonsectarian.
• Class size. The National Center for Education Statistics' Private School Survey (2022) lists 1 of these private schools at 12.2 students per teacher.
• Size of the school. The 3 private schools here with an enrollment count on file enrolled 172 to 567 students, with a median of 336.
• 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 Sonoma County is on the Sonoma 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.