Research · California counties · October 2026

Where Riverside County High School Graduates Go to College: 72 Schools, Fall 2025

As of October 2026: Most Riverside County graduates who leave for a four-year school start at a University of California campus, and UC's own Fall 2025 counts cover 72 county high schools. Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Eastvale posted the largest number of top-six UC admits at 377, while Saint Jeanne De Lestonnac C High School in Temecula posted the highest UC Reach Score at 75.

UC's Fall 2025 admit counts for 72 Riverside County high schools, ranked by UC Reach Score, with the 40 strongest campuses listed in full.

Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com), October 2026. Figures and the table may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.

Riverside County's 40 highest UC Reach Scores, Fall 2025

These are the 40 Riverside County high schools with the highest UC Reach Scores in UC's Fall 2025 first-year admit file. UC Reach Score counts top-six UC admits per 100 seniors, so it rewards rate rather than raw size. The college-going rate column is not reported for any school here.

UC Reach Score = top-6 UC admits (counted at each campus) per 100 seniors; it can exceed 100. UC data covers 72 Riverside County schools; these are the 40 highest scores.

Riverside County schools with a published college list, and what they print

This table holds the Riverside County schools whose own printed matriculation or acceptances list reached us, with the list type and the years named on it. The counted-college version of this list returns 0 rows for the county, so no top colleges are named below. We report what each school prints and never grade it.

An acceptances list runs about three times an enrollment list; never add the two. The list shows what each school prints; absence means the school publishes no counted list.

Where do Riverside County high school graduates go to college?

For the clearest answer we have, they go to the University of California, and UC's Fall 2025 file names 72 Riverside County high schools with counted first-year admits. That file is the one place where every public and most private county schools appear under the same measure, in the same year, with the same rules.

The county table here ranks the 40 highest UC Reach Scores. Saint Jeanne De Lestonnac C High School in Temecula leads at 75. Riverside STEM Academy in Riverside is second at 57, and Xavier College Preparatory High School in Palm Desert is third at 53. Those three sit well above the rest of the field.

Raw admit counts tell a different story. Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Eastvale posted 377 top-six UC admits, the largest number in the county by a wide margin. Great Oak High School in Temecula posted 185, Temecula Valley High School 170, and Santiago High School in Corona 164.

What this page cannot tell you is the full picture of where graduates enroll. UC admit counts are admits, not enrollments, and they only cover UC. Cal State campuses, community colleges, private colleges and out-of-state schools are not in this file. We say that plainly rather than guess at the rest.

Which Riverside County schools send the most students to the top UC campuses?

By raw count, Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Eastvale sends the most, with 377 top-six UC admits in Fall 2025. No other county school is close. The next four are Great Oak High School at 185, Temecula Valley High School at 170, Santiago High School at 164 and Centennial High in Corona at 152.

These are large comprehensive public high schools. A big senior class produces a big admit count even when the share of seniors admitted is ordinary. Eleanor Roosevelt's UC admit rate is 28.2%, which is strong but not the highest number in the table.

Several more county schools clear 100 top-six admits. Vista Murrieta High School in Murrieta has 141, Palm Desert High School has 136, Martin Luther King High School in Riverside has 126, Orange Vista High School in Perris has 125 and Liberty High in Winchester has 118. Rancho Verde High School in Moreno Valley has 107 and Chaparral High School in Temecula has 106.

For a family, the count matters in a simple way. A school with more than 100 admits each year has a routine built around UC applications. Students there have classmates who went through the same steps the year before, and that shared path is useful on its own.

What does a UC Reach Score of 60 mean for my child?

A UC Reach Score of 60 means the school earned about 60 top-six UC admits for every 100 seniors, counted at each campus. The score can pass 100 because one student admitted to three campuses counts three times. So the score is a measure of admit volume per senior, not a share of students.

In Riverside County, no school reaches 60. The top score is 75 at Saint Jeanne De Lestonnac C High School, then a gap down to 57 at Riverside STEM Academy. Xavier College Preparatory High School sits at 53 and Notre Dame High School in Riverside at 44.

The useful way to read the score is as a rate that strips out class size. Eleanor Roosevelt High School has 377 admits but a UC Reach Score of 35, the same score as Linfield Christian School in Temecula, which has 39 admits. The two schools produce very different totals at a similar rate per senior.

A score in the teens is common and does not mean a weak school. Chaparral High School and LA Sierra High School both score 14, and both still post dozens of admits. For one child, the school's score is background. The student's own record decides the outcome.

Which schools have the highest UC admit rate in Riverside County?

Saint Jeanne De Lestonnac C High School in Temecula has the highest UC admit rate in the table at 52.5%, meaning more than half of its UC applications ended in an admit. Desert Mirage High School in Thermal is next at 35.2%, then Cathedral City High School at 33.1% and Liberty High in Winchester at 32.8%.

The admit rate and the UC Reach Score do not move together. Desert Mirage High School has a 35.2% admit rate but a UC Reach Score of 24. Riverside STEM Academy has an 18.1% admit rate and a score of 57. The difference is how many seniors apply and how many campuses each one targets.

Some of the strongest admit rates sit in the Coachella Valley. Desert Hot Springs High School is at 32.7%, Indio High School at 31.6%, Palm Desert High School at 30.2% and Palm Springs High School at 29.0%. Those are competitive numbers against the county's better-known Temecula and Corona campuses.

A high admit rate often means the applicants who do apply are well matched to the campuses they pick. A lower rate, like the 15.6% at Western Center Academy in Hemet or the 16.5% at Chaparral High School, can mean more students reaching for the hardest campuses. Neither pattern is wrong.

Where do graduates of Riverside County private schools enroll?

We cannot say where they enroll, because no Riverside County school in this pack publishes a counted enrollment list. The counted version of the published-college table returns 0 rows for the county. What we do have is UC admit data for the private schools, and it is strong.

Saint Jeanne De Lestonnac C High School in Temecula tops the whole county list with a UC Reach Score of 75 and 21 top-six admits. Xavier College Preparatory High School in Palm Desert has 86 admits and a score of 53. Notre Dame High School in Riverside has 34 admits and a score of 44.

Two more private campuses show up high. Linfield Christian School in Temecula has 39 top-six admits and a score of 35. Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild has 20 admits and a score of 22 with a 28.2% admit rate.

Several of these schools do print a list of some kind. Xavier College Preparatory and Notre Dame both print acceptances for the Class of 2025, and Linfield Christian and Idyllwild Arts both print a matriculation list without a stated year. None of those lists carried counted colleges into this pack, so we name no top colleges here.

How many Riverside County graduates go to college at all?

We do not know, because the college-going rate is not reported for any of the 40 schools in our table. That column comes from the California Department of Education file, and it is blank for every county row in this pack. We name that gap rather than fill it.

The honest substitute is the UC admit data itself. Across the county, 72 schools have counted UC admits in Fall 2025. That means UC admission is a live outcome at nearly every high school in Riverside County, not a feature of a handful of campuses.

Keep in mind what a UC admit count leaves out. Many county graduates start at a local community college, and many others head to a Cal State campus. None of those students appear in this table, even though they are going to college.

So treat this page as a UC page, not a complete college-going page. If your child's plan runs through a community college or a Cal State campus, a low UC Reach Score at the high school says almost nothing about that plan.

Does a small school give my child a better shot at UC?

Not on its own, but small schools fill the top of the UC Reach board because the score divides admits by seniors. Saint Jeanne De Lestonnac C High School scores 75 on just 21 top-six admits. Riverside STEM Academy scores 57 on 29 admits.

The pattern repeats down the list. San Jacinto Leadership Academy has 28 admits and a score of 37. Temecula Preparatory School in Winchester has 31 admits and a score of 43. Western Center Academy in Hemet has 20 admits and a score of 26. All of these are modest counts tied to high rates.

Large schools can match those rates in different ways. Palm Desert High School turns 136 admits into a score of 29, and that is a rate a far smaller school would be glad to post. Eleanor Roosevelt High School turns 377 admits into a score of 35.

What a small school really offers is fewer students chasing the same letters of recommendation and the same seats in advanced classes. What a large school offers is more advanced classes to start with. Both paths show up near the top of this table, so neither size is the deciding factor.

How does the Temecula Valley area compare to Riverside and Corona?

The Temecula area holds the county's single highest UC Reach Score, 75 at Saint Jeanne De Lestonnac C High School, plus two public campuses at 25. Great Oak High School scores 25 with 185 admits, Temecula Valley High School scores 25 with 170 admits, and Chaparral High School scores 14 with 106 admits.

The city of Riverside has more schools in the table but lower scores on average. Riverside STEM Academy leads at 57 and Notre Dame High School follows at 44. After that come Hillcrest High School at 20, Martin Luther King High School at 19, John W North High School at 18, Riverside Poly High School at 17, Ramona High at 16 and LA Sierra High School at 14.

Corona's three listed schools cluster together. Centennial High scores 23 with 152 admits, Santiago High School scores 20 with 164 admits and Corona High School scores 15 with 84 admits. All three are high-volume campuses with mid-range rates.

Nearby Eastvale and Norco are the quiet standouts. Eleanor Roosevelt High School carries 377 admits and a score of 35, and John F Kennedy Middle College High School in Norco carries 70 admits and a score of 42. Families comparing neighborhoods should look at both the count and the score before drawing a line.

What do the Coachella Valley numbers say about college access out east?

They say access is real, with Xavier College Preparatory High School in Palm Desert at a UC Reach Score of 53 and eight more valley campuses in the top 40. Palm Desert High School scores 29, Cathedral City High School 25 and Desert Mirage High School in Thermal 24.

The admit rates out east are among the county's best. Desert Mirage High School posts 35.2%, Cathedral City High School 33.1%, Desert Hot Springs High School 32.7% and Indio High School 31.6%. Coachella Valley High School in Thermal posts 26.7% and LA Quinta High School 28.5%.

The counts are solid too. Palm Desert High School has 136 top-six admits, Desert Mirage High School 102, LA Quinta High School 101, Coachella Valley High School 90, Cathedral City High School 87, Palm Springs High School 84, Indio High School 83 and Desert Hot Springs High School 64.

For a family in the valley, the takeaway is practical. Your local public high school is already sending students to the most selective UC campuses every year. The road is there, and students at these campuses are not starting from zero.

Why do some Riverside County schools not appear on this page?

Our main table shows 40 rows, drawn from the 72 Riverside County schools that have UC admit data. We kept the 40 highest UC Reach Scores to keep the table readable and to answer the ranking question directly.

A school can also be missing from the UC file entirely. Very small campuses, continuation high schools, alternative programs and brand-new schools may have too few admits to be counted in a given year. Absence from the file is not a judgment about the school.

The second table on this page is short on purpose. The counted-college version of that list returns 0 rows for the county, so no top colleges are named. That is a gap in what schools print, not a gap we chose to leave.

There is one more blank we will not paper over. The college-going rate is not reported for any school on this page. If you see a county-wide college-going figure elsewhere, it did not come from this data set.

What is the difference between an acceptances list and a matriculation list?

An acceptances list runs about three times an enrollment list, so the two should never be added together or compared head to head. An acceptances list names every college that said yes to any senior. A matriculation list names the colleges where students actually enrolled.

In the county table of printed lists, three schools print acceptances and two print matriculation. Xavier College Preparatory High School and Notre Dame High School both print acceptances for the Class of 2025. Saint Jeanne De Lestonnac C High School prints acceptances with no year stated.

Linfield Christian School and Idyllwild Arts Academy both print matriculation lists, also with no year stated. A matriculation list is the stricter document, because one student can appear only once on it. That is why a shorter list is not a weaker result.

When you read a brochure, check the label first. A long banner of college logos is almost always an acceptances list. If a school prints both, read the enrollment list for where students landed and the acceptances list for the range of doors that opened.

How should we use these numbers when picking a high school?

Use them as a floor, not a ceiling, and start with the UC Reach Score because it adjusts for class size. A score of 35 at Eleanor Roosevelt High School and a score of 35 at Linfield Christian School mean the same rate of top-six UC admits per senior, even though one school posted 377 admits and the other 39.

Then look at the admit rate next to the score. Desert Mirage High School pairs a 35.2% admit rate with a UC Reach Score of 24, which suggests a smaller but well-aimed applicant pool. Riverside STEM Academy pairs an 18.1% rate with a score of 57, which suggests many students applying to many campuses.

Watch out for one trap in school marketing. A school that prints a long acceptances list is not sending three times as many students as a school that prints a shorter enrollment list. The two documents count different things.

Finally, remember the limits. These are Fall 2025 admits at six UC campuses, counted once per campus. They do not show enrollment, cost, aid, Cal State results or community college transfer. A high score tells you the path is well traveled, and that is all it tells you.

What should we do this year if our school has a low UC Reach Score?

Treat the school score as background noise and focus on the student's own file, because a low score still sits alongside real admits. LA Sierra High School in Riverside scores 14 and still posted 46 top-six UC admits. Chaparral High School in Temecula scores 14 and posted 106.

The parts that move a UC decision are the same at every school in the county. They are the A-G course list, the grades in those courses, the rigor a student takes on in eleventh and twelfth grade, and the four personal insight questions. None of those depend on the school's rank.

It also pays to apply widely across the UC system. The top-six counts on this page are counted at each campus, which means strong applicants often collect more than one admit. A student who applies to several campuses gives that pattern a chance to work.

If your school is one of the 72 with UC data, your child's application will not look unfamiliar to UC readers. That is the quiet advantage in this table. The county sends students to UC from almost everywhere, including schools near the bottom of the printed 40.

Related: Riverside County UC brief · All rankings · Family Decision Report