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

This table, in plain English

What it measures: for each Placer 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: Western Sierra Collegiate Academy's 58 means its seniors earned 58 selective-UC admissions for every 100 students in the class. For scale, the median California high school scores about 18; the median Placer County school scores 16.

The story in one sentence: Placer is the only county in this series where every reporting school is public — not one private school in the county meets the bar — and the table is dominated by the Rocklin and Roseville suburbs.

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. Every school on this table is public. No Placer County private school clears the reporting bar of published UC outcomes and at least 50 seniors. Every other county in this series has at least one private school in its table.
2. Rocklin and Roseville hold most of the county. Western Sierra Collegiate Academy (58), Whitney (27) and Rocklin High (20) are Rocklin schools; Roseville adds five more including West Park (21) and Oakmont (16). Eight of the county's fifteen schools sit in those two suburbs.
3. Granite Bay is the strongest school at scale. It posts 39 from 496 seniors and files 835 UC applications, by far the county's largest load, converting 23%.
4. Colfax converts best. The small Sierra-foothill school turns 43% of its 83 applications into admissions, against 27% at Western Sierra and 23% at Granite Bay.
5. Only one school clears 50. Western Sierra Collegiate Academy, a charter with 127 seniors. The county median of 16 sits just below the statewide 18.

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 15 Placer 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.