Research · California counties · October 2026

Where San Diego County High School Graduates Go to College, Fall 2025

As of October 2026: Canyon Crest Academy leads San Diego County with a UC Reach Score of 93 and 506 top-6 UC admits in Fall 2025. The UC Information Center reported admit data for 112 county high schools, and only 5 county schools print a counted list of where their graduates went.

A county-wide read of UC admits by high school, plus the five San Diego County schools that print their own college lists.

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

San Diego County's 40 highest UC Reach Scores, Fall 2025

These are the 40 San Diego County high schools with the highest UC Reach Scores for Fall 2025. The score is top-6 UC admits, counted at each campus, per 100 seniors. One student can be admitted at more than one campus, so the score can pass 100. The admit rate is the share of that school's UC bids that ended in an offer.

UC Reach Score = top-6 UC admits (counted at each campus) per 100 seniors; it can exceed 100. Source: UC Information Center (Fall 2025 first-year admits by school) plus CDE College-Going Rate, via highschoolreach.com.

San Diego County schools that publish where their graduates enroll

These five schools print a college list with named counts. The list type column says what the list shows. A matriculation list is where students enrolled. An acceptances list is where students were admitted, which is a much longer list.

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.

Which San Diego County high schools send the most students to the top UCs?

Canyon Crest Academy sends the most. It had 506 top-6 UC admits in Fall 2025 and a UC Reach Score of 93. No other school in the county table comes close on either number. The gap is wide at the top.

Behind Canyon Crest, the big counts stay in the same part of the county. Del Norte High School logged 473 top-6 admits. Westview High School logged 403. Torrey Pines High School had 265. San Dieguito Academy had 231. These are large public schools. Big counts come with big classes.

The score is a fairer way to compare. Preuss School UCSD scored 86 with only 99 top-6 admits. The score counts admits per 100 seniors. A small school with a strong class can rank above a large school with more offers. That is why Preuss sits second in the county.

For a family, the move is to read both columns at once. The count tells you how many students got an offer. The score tells you how likely a senior was to be one of them. A school with 506 admits and a school with 99 admits can both be strong.

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

A score of 60 means that school earned about 60 top-6 UC admits for every 100 seniors. Each campus is counted on its own. LA Jolla High sits closest to that line in our table. It has a score of 62 and 180 top-6 admits.

The count is per campus, not per student. One senior admitted at three of the top six campuses adds three to the count. That is why the pack notes the score can pass 100. It is not a share of the class. It is not a chance of getting in.

Read the score as a measure of how thick the UC pipeline is at that school. A score of 93 at Canyon Crest Academy and a score of 27 at Helix High School point to two very different flows of offers. Both schools send students to UC campuses every year.

The score says nothing about where a student enrolled. An admit is an offer. Families turn offers down for price, for distance, and for fit. The second table on this page shows printed enrollment lists. That is where you see choices, not offers.

Where do graduates of the schools with printed lists enroll?

The five schools that print a counted list point in several directions. Bishops School in La Jolla names Massachusetts Institute of Technology (5), Stanford University (4), University of Chicago (4), and University of Southern California (4) at the top.

Francis W Parker School prints a different mix for the Classes of 2022-2025. Its largest counts are UC, Berkeley (24), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (21), San Diego State University (20), and University of Michigan (18). That list leans public. It also leans toward California.

LA Jolla Country Day School covers 2023-2025. It names University of San Diego* (18) and University of Southern California* (17) first. Then come New York University* (10), Northeastern University* (10), San Diego State University* (10), and Texas Christian University* (10). Cambridge School covers 2018-2025. It names UC Los Angeles (9), Baylor University, Honors College (7), and Hillsdale College (7).

So there is no one path here. One school's graduates cluster at highly picky research schools. Another's cluster at California publics. A third spreads across faith-linked and honors colleges. A family picking a school should read the list itself, not a reputation.

Which schools in San Diego County have the highest UC admit rates?

East Village Middle College High School in San Diego posts the highest UC admit rate in our table at 33.3%, from 12 top-6 admits. Del Lago Academy in Escondido follows at 30.4% with 77 admits.

Mission Hills High School in San Marcos reaches 29.6% with 209 top-6 admits. That is a high rate on a large base. Westview High School pairs a 28.1% rate with 403 admits. Preuss School UCSD sits at 27.7%. Poway High School sits at 27.5%.

A high rate with a small count can move a lot from year to year. East Village Middle College had 12 admits. A handful of decisions swings the rate. Mission Hills, with 209 admits, gives a steadier picture.

Rates also reflect who applies. At some schools, only the strongest students apply to UC. Those schools can show a high rate and a modest count. At schools where nearly everyone applies, the rate can fall while the count grows. Grauer School sits at 14.6%. Pacific Ridge School sits at 15.3%. Both still place graduates in college.

How many San Diego County high schools have UC admit data at all?

The UC Information Center reported Fall 2025 first-year admits for 112 San Diego County high schools. We rank the 40 with the highest UC Reach Scores in the first table on this page.

That means most county schools with UC data are not printed here. A school outside the top 40 still had admits. Helix High School makes the cut at number 40. It has a score of 27 and 167 top-6 admits. That is more admits than many schools ranked above it.

The 112 figure covers schools with reported UC admit counts. Some schools have very small senior classes. Some have no UC applicants in a given year. Those schools may not appear in the source at all.

If your school is not on this page, that is not a verdict. It means its UC Reach Score fell below the 40th row in Fall 2025. The full county board on highschoolreach.com carries the rest.

How many San Diego County graduates go to college at all?

We cannot answer that from this pack. The college-going rate is not reported for any of the 40 schools in our table. Every row in that column is blank.

The California Department of Education publishes a College-Going Rate file. It is one of the sources behind our scores. For this county cut, though, no school-level rate came through. We name that gap plainly rather than fill it with a guess.

What we can show is the UC side and the printed-list side. The UC Information Center gives admit counts and admit rates for 112 county schools. Five schools print their own college lists.

For a family, the practical move is to read the two tables here as partial views. They show where offers land. They show where some graduates enroll. They do not show the share of each class that starts college anywhere.

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

A matriculation list shows where graduates actually enrolled, while an acceptances list shows every college that admitted a student. The pack notes that an acceptances list runs about three times an enrollment list. The two should never be added together.

All five schools in our second table print matriculation lists. Bishops School prints the Class of 2025 as well as the Classes of 2022-2025. Cambridge School covers 2018-2025. Francis W Parker School covers 2022-2025. LA Jolla Country Day School covers 2023-2025. Saint Augustine High School prints the Class of 2026.

Other county schools print acceptances instead. The first table flags them. Preuss School UCSD lists acceptances for 2010-2025. Gompers Preparatory Academy lists acceptances since 2012. Mater Dei Catholic High School and Grauer School publish acceptances with no stated class year.

When you compare two schools, check the label first. A long acceptances list from one school and a short enrollment list from another are not the same thing. Counting both as enrollments would overstate one school by about three times.

Which colleges show up most often on San Diego County lists?

San Diego State University and the University of Southern California appear on more of the five printed lists than any other college. San Diego State is named by Francis W Parker School (20), LA Jolla Country Day School* (10), and Saint Augustine High School (15).

The University of Southern California is named by Bishops School (4), Francis W Parker School (12), and LA Jolla Country Day School* (17). UC campuses show up on three lists too. Francis W Parker School names UC, Berkeley (24) and UC, Los Angeles (12). Cambridge School names UC Los Angeles (9) and UC Berkeley (5).

Local colleges carry real weight. The University of San Diego appears at LA Jolla Country Day School* (18) and at Saint Augustine High School (13). Saint Augustine also names San Diego Mesa College (11) and CSU San Marcos (7).

The pattern is that most graduates on these lists stay in California. Many stay in San Diego County. The far-away names, such as University of Michigan (18) at Parker and New York University* (10) at Country Day, sit beside strong local counts rather than replacing them.

Do charter and small schools in San Diego County compete with the big high schools?

Yes, and the clearest case is Preuss School UCSD. It ranks second in the county with a UC Reach Score of 86 from just 99 top-6 admits. Its UC admit rate of 27.7% is higher than that of most large publics in the table.

Chula Vista Learning Community Charter School scores 51 with 44 top-6 admits. Mt Everest Academy scores 47 with 15. East Village Middle College High School scores 52 with 12 admits and the table's top admit rate of 33.3%.

The High Tech High network puts five campuses in the top 40. High Tech High School scores 41. High Tech High Mesa scores 39. High Tech High Media Arts scores 37. High Tech High Chula Vista scores 36. High Tech High - North County scores 29. Their admit counts run from 26 to 55.

Small schools win on score and lose on volume. If your child wants a large pool of classmates heading to the same campuses, the big publics give that. If you care about the per-senior rate, several charters sit near the top of this county.

Which cities in San Diego County have the strongest UC results?

San Diego and La Jolla hold the most top-40 rows. Preuss School UCSD (86), Bishops School (69), LA Jolla High (62), and LA Jolla Country Day School (49) are all La Jolla addresses.

The city of San Diego carries the most rows overall. Canyon Crest Academy (93), Del Norte High School (74), and Westview High School (74) lead it. Torrey Pines High School (41), Scripps Ranch High (43), and Mt Carmel High School (39) are also San Diego entries.

Chula Vista puts five schools in the table. They are Chula Vista Learning Community Charter School (51), High Tech High Chula Vista (36), Mater Dei Catholic High School (35), Olympian High School (30), and Bonita Vista High School (29). North County shows up through Sage Creek High School (40) in Carlsbad, San Dieguito Academy (42) in Encinitas, and Mission Hills High School (31) in San Marcos.

Coronado High School (29) in Coronado, Helix High School (27) in La Mesa, Mission Vista High School (28) in Oceanside, Del Lago Academy (42) in Escondido, and Tri City Christian School (29) in Vista round out the map. The county's UC pipeline is not limited to one coastal strip.

What should we do with these numbers when we pick a high school?

Start with the UC Reach Score, then check the admit count and the admit rate in the same row. Canyon Crest Academy at 93 and Helix High School at 27 are both in the top 40 of 112 county schools.

A high score tells you the school has a deep UC habit. Course paths, help with the forms, and peer pressure all run that way. A lower score does not block a strong student. Grauer School shows 7 top-6 admits and a score of 30. That comes from a very small class.

Next, look for a printed list. Only 5 county schools in this pack print a counted list of where graduates went. If a school you are weighing is not one of those five, that absence just means it prints no counted list.

Then match the names on the list to your family's plan. If San Diego State University and the University of San Diego are your targets, Saint Augustine High School shows 15 and 13. If Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University are the goal, Bishops School shows 5 and 4. The lists report what each school printed. We do not grade them.

What do these San Diego County numbers not tell us?

They do not tell us how many graduates start college anywhere, because the college-going rate is blank for all 40 schools in our table. That is the largest gap on this page.

They also do not tell us about money. No row here carries tuition, aid, or net price. A family comparing two schools on this page is comparing admit flows, not costs.

The printed lists cover different years, so they are not head to head. Cambridge School prints 2018-2025. Saint Augustine High School prints the Class of 2026. A longer window gathers more names.

The UC columns cover the six campuses the score counts and the UC system's own admit records. They say nothing about the Cal State system, private colleges, or community college. The Saint Augustine list, with San Diego Mesa College (11), is a reminder that a real county picture includes those paths.

Related: San Diego County UC brief · All rankings · Family Decision Report