Where Los Angeles County's high school grads get into the UC system

This table, in plain English

What it measures: for each Los Angeles County high school, how many admissions its graduating class earned to the six most selective UC campuses (Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Davis), per 100 seniors. Higher score = the class graduated with more UC options on the table. It comes straight from the University of California's own school-by-school admissions counts.

How to read one row: The Webb Schools' 144 means its seniors earned 144 selective-UC admissions for every 100 students in the class. For scale, the median California high school scores about 18; the median Los Angeles County school scores 25, and the median school on this list scores 68.

The story in one sentence: Los Angeles is the rare large county where private schools take most of the top ten — but the two schools ranked directly behind the leader are tuition-free public magnets in Carson and Cerritos, and they beat every private in the county except one.

One honest caution: the Reach Score is not an admit rate. A student admitted to three UC campuses counts three times — it measures the breadth of options a class earned, which is why an exceptional school can score above 100. The full definition is below the table.

5 takeaways

1. Private schools hold six of the top ten — the reverse of Orange County. The Webb Schools (144), Geffen Academy at UCLA (121), Westridge (104), Flintridge Preparatory (103), Saint Mary's Academy (86) and Viewpoint (77) all place. In Orange County the same top ten runs mostly public.
2. The public magnets match them anyway. California Academy of Math & Science in Carson (129) and Gretchen Whitney High in Cerritos (126) rank second and third countywide — ahead of every private school here except Webb, and free to attend.
3. Two of the strongest public performers serve working-class Los Angeles. Girls Academic Leadership Academy (98) in LAUSD and Dr. Richard Vladovic Harbor Academy in Wilmington (86) both finish in the county's top eight, on the same measure that ranks Pasadena and La Cañada's private schools.
4. The county's spread is enormous — and the table only shows the top. 375 Los Angeles County schools clear the reporting bar. Fifty-nine score 50 or better and six clear 100, but the median county school scores 25. The distance from first place to the county median is nearly six-fold.
5. Application volume is not conversion. Arcadia High files the county's largest UC application load — 2,362 — and converts 21% of it. Saint Mary's Academy files 116 and converts 37%. Volume signals ambition; the admit-per-application rate signals fit.

How to read the Reach Score: admissions to the six most selective UC campuses (Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Davis) per 100 graduating seniors. A student admitted to several campuses counts at each — which is why an exceptional school can score above 100. It measures the breadth of a class's UC options, not an admit rate.

Coverage: the top 40 Los Angeles County schools with published 2025 UC outcomes and at least 50 seniors. Schools whose data failed integrity checks are excluded, as are schools that filed UC applications but recorded no admissions. School-level admit counts include all admits (UC publishes no breakout of recruited athletes or other categories). Source: University of California Office of the President, freshman application/admission counts by school, Fall 2025; enrollment from CDE / Private School Affidavit. See the full methodology.