Jserra Catholic High School
San Juan Capistrano · Orange County · Catholic religious-affiliated
Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Saint Margarets Episcopal Sch → Crean Lutheran High School → Mater Dei High School → Orange Lutheran High School → Calvary Chapel High School → Compare all similar →🧭 A parent's read
- The UC pipeline here is real. 105 admissions to the top six UC campuses for a class of 320 seniors puts this school in roughly the top 23% of California high schools.
- 7 National Merit Semifinalists in one class. That's roughly 1 in 46 seniors reaching the top ~1% of the PSAT nationally — a density few schools anywhere can match.
- Elite admits are rare — here and everywhere. Berkeley and UCLA admitted 24 of this class's 455 UC applications. The strong middle campuses — San Diego, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Davis — are where most real UC outcomes happen.
- One question for any counselor: who should still test? Plenty of strong students skip the SAT/ACT now — but merit scholarships at dozens of colleges still key off scores. Ask how the school decides who should still sit for one.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
📋 At a glance
- 🏆 7 National Merit SemifinalistsRoughly the top 1% of PSAT scorers in each state — about 16,000 juniors nationally. A useful gauge of a school's academic top end. (2024)
- 📝 SAT avg 1238
- 📝 ACT avg 28.9
- 📚 AP exam pass rate 93%
Composed from the school's own published profile (2024), and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
🎓 Where grads go — and what it costs & pays
UC admits by campus · Class of 2025
Getting in is step one. The cost above is the average family's net price — yours depends on your income — and your child's odds depend on their GPA + scores. See your family's real numbers at these campuses:
🎯 Get my child's odds + our real net price →Sources: UC Office of the President (admits); IPEDS net price + College Scorecard 10-yr earnings (cost & payoff). Full campus-by-campus breakdown below.
How Jserra Catholic High School compares for families
Above-average college outcomes statewide.
- ▸ NationallySAT mean 1238 (≈ top 25% of US test-takers) · ACT mean 28.9 (≈ top 16%) · 93% AP pass rate (US average: ~60%) · 7 National Merit Semifinalists last year (NMSF is the top 1% of US PSAT scorers) · Top 5% of the 218 curated private schools in our database on AP pass rate.
- ▸ StatewideUC Reach Score of 33 — 15 points above the California median of 18. Ahead of 77% of California high schools.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsRight at the peer median (UC Reach Score 36) across the 5 most similar nearby schools.
For Parents
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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.
No SBAC data for private schools — and that's not the metric you want anyway
California's Smarter Balanced (CAASPP) assessment is administered by the state, by statute, to public & charter schools only. Private schools don't sit for it. That's why the SBAC card is missing on this profile — not a data gap on our side, a deliberate scope of the state's testing program.
For private schools, UC Reach is the stronger academic signal anyway. SBAC measures grade-11 inputs (proficiency on a state standard); UC Reach measures outputs (who actually got into the most selective UCs). For private-school families weighing tuition against college outcomes, the outputs are the relevant signal.
Scroll up to the UC Reach card for Jserra Catholic High School's 2025 number, statewide percentile, and 5-year trend.
Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+0.3%/yr, Total enrollment)
At tuition of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Tuition impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2026) | ~1,286 | +4 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2028) | ~1,293 | +11 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2030) | ~1,301 | +19 | $0 |
Straight-line extrapolation of the recent annual rate — a what-if, not a forecast of intent. Edit the figure to match your school.
How does Jserra Catholic High School really compare on getting kids to college?
We've ranked it #6 of 9 most similar nearby schools on UC Reach. Unlock the full snapshot to see the head-to-head — who's ahead, by how much, and where it's heading.
Your similar-school group includes
Saint Margarets Episcopal Sch · Crean Lutheran High School · Mater Dei High School · Orange Lutheran High School · Calvary Chapel High School · Linfield Christian School · +4 more
Financial profile — IRS Form 990, FY2023
From 13 years of Form 990 filings via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (free public IRS data). The school's tax filings show financial scale, fundraising health, and endowment trajectory — signals that drive board-level conversations about tuition pricing, financial-aid capacity, and capital projects.
Source: IRS Form 990 via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (EIN 330901351). View latest 990 PDF → Tuition-per-student is total program-service revenue divided by latest enrollment — a rough average that includes auxiliary revenue (athletics, food service, etc.); the actual published tuition can differ. Form 990 is filed annually under penalty of perjury, so the financial scale figures are authoritative.
Diocesan context — Diocese of Orange
DioceseDiocese of Orange is the canonical governance body for Catholic schools in this region — board policy, tuition guidance, and shared services typically originate here. Visit the diocesan website →
Financial figures aren't shown because Catholic (arch)dioceses don't file IRS Form 990 — they're covered by the USCCB Group Ruling (GEN 0928), which exempts dioceses, parishes, and parochial schools from individual filing. School counts above are hand-compiled from each diocese's published schools-department information.
Jserra Catholic High School sent 455 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 23.1% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 33 — 15 points above the California median of 18, higher than 77% of California high schools. The school produces 7.5 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
-3 pts vs. peer median (36) · Ranked #6 of 9 similar schools
18
36
51
33
Higher than 77% of California high schools (980 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Jserra Catholic High School's UC Reach Score of 33 is in the top quartile statewide (median 18; top 25% bar 31) — but it's still below the top-10% bar of 51.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 97 — a gap of 64 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Jserra Catholic High School's UC Reach is higher than 77% of California high schools (980 ranked).
Private-school figures come from the California Private School Affidavit. Per CDE, inclusion in private-school data is not an evaluation, approval, or endorsement of a school.
GPA figures reflect 2024 — UC has not yet released applicant/admit GPA for 2025.
UC funnel — which kids are getting in at what GPA
Combining the school's applicant pool GPA, admit pool GPA, actual admit rate, and statewide CA admit rates by individual GPA band, we can read which GPA tiers tend to get in — and which don't.
| Campus | 4.00+ GPA | 3.70–3.99 GPA | 3.30–3.69 GPA | < 3.30 GPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out | Filtered out |
| UCLA | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out | Filtered out |
| UC San Diego | Strong shot | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Santa Barbara | Strong shot | Moderate | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Irvine | Strong shot | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Davis | Strong shot | Real shot | Moderate | Filtered out |
The numbers behind it
| Campus | Applicant GPA | Admit GPA | Lift ⓘ | Admit rate | vs peer schools @ same GPA ⓘ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 3.93 | 3.98 | +0.05 | 14.7% | Peers +0.26 · wider |
| UCLA | 3.96 | 3.97 | +0.01 | 16.8% | Peers +0.28 · wider |
| UC San Diego | 3.93 | 4.15 | +0.23 | 25.3% | Peers +0.29 · wider |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.92 | 4.14 | +0.22 | 26.7% | Peers +0.30 · wider |
| UC Irvine | 3.92 | 4.11 | +0.19 | 46.9% | Peers +0.25 · wider |
| UC Davis | 3.89 | 4.12 | +0.23 | 43.6% | Peers +0.26 · matches |
📊 Statewide CA admit rates by individual GPA band, 2024 (for reference)
| GPA band | UCB | UCLA | UCSD | UCSB | UCI | UCD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.00+ | 17.1% | 14.4% | 43.5% | 57.3% | 46.0% | 64.1% |
| 3.70–3.99 | 2.8% | 1.5% | 11.2% | 9.2% | 16.5% | 27.5% |
| 3.30–3.69 | 0.8% | 0.9% | 1.4% | 2.3% | 3.4% | 9.1% |
| 3.00–3.29 | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 2.1% |
| < 3.00 | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.6% |
Where Jserra Catholic High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants 6.4 points above what their GPAs predict (27.4% actual vs. 21.0% expected), based on 2024 data.
UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2025
Class size from CDE grade 12 enrollment. Campus-level data — applicant/admit totals may count a student at multiple campuses more than once.
Campus Breakdown — 2025
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach Score | Yield | Avg GPA (App) '24 | Avg GPA (Adm) '24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 61 | 10 | 4 | 16.4% | 3 | 40.0% | 3.93 | 3.98 |
| UCLA → Elite | 107 | 14 | 8 | 13.1% | 4 | 57.1% | 3.96 | 3.97 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 89 | 25 | 9 | 28.1% | 8 | 36.0% | 3.93 | 4.15 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 94 | 21 | —† | 22.3% | 7 | — | 3.92 | 4.14 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 58 | 16 | —† | 27.6% | 5 | — | 3.92 | 4.11 |
| UC Davis → | 46 | 19 | —† | 41.3% | 6 | — | 3.89 | 4.12 |