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

This table, in plain English

What it measures: for each Santa Clara 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: BASIS Independent Silicon Valley's 194 means its seniors earned 194 selective-UC admissions for every 100 students in the class — the highest score in California. For scale, the median California high school scores about 18; the median Santa Clara County school scores 34.

The story in one sentence: Santa Clara County holds the highest-scoring high school in California — and the clearest picture anywhere of the application arms race: its public powerhouses file about 4.4 UC applications per senior and are admitted to roughly one in five.

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. California's highest-scoring high school is here. BASIS Independent Silicon Valley scores 194 — the top score in the state, and more than ten times the statewide median. Harker (126) and Castilleja (114) also clear 100.
2. Private schools take the top five, then the publics arrive in a block. BASIS, Harker, Castilleja, Valley Christian (96) and Notre Dame San Jose (94) lead. Directly behind them sit Lynbrook (86), Monta Vista (85), Gunn (79), Cupertino (78) and Saratoga (73) — all tuition-free.
3. Fremont Union places four schools in the county's top seventeen. Lynbrook, Monta Vista, Cupertino and Homestead (55) all come from the same public high school district — the Santa Clara equivalent of the Irvine effect in Orange County.
4. This is where the application arms race is most visible. Monta Vista files 2,003 UC applications from 454 seniors and Lynbrook 1,892 from 420 — about 4.4 applications per senior, against roughly 3.2 at San Francisco's Lowell. The county's public powerhouses convert 18–22% of them.
5. High volume, low conversion — and it is not a weakness. Santa Clara's publics post the lowest admit-per-application rates in this series while scoring near the top of it. Applying to more campuses lowers the rate and raises the number of offers a class ends up holding.

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 Santa Clara 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.