Buckley School
Sherman Oaks · Los Angeles County · Private independent
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Wildwood School → Geffen Academy at UCLA → Milken Community School → Windward School → Brentwood School → Compare all similar →🧭 A parent's read
- The UC pipeline here is real. 46 admissions to the top six UC campuses for a class of 87 seniors puts this school in roughly the top 10% of California high schools.
- 9 National Merit Semifinalists in one class. That's roughly 1 in 10 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 13 of this class's 202 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
- 📚 24 AP courses offered (school profile)
- 🏆 9 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 1430 (25-75: 1370–1490)
- 📝 ACT avg 32 (25-75: 30–34)
- 📚 AP exam pass rate 90% (avg score 4.3)
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 Buckley School compares for families
Top-tier college outcomes for California families.
- ▸ NationallySAT mean 1430 (≈ top 4% of US test-takers) · ACT mean 32.0 (≈ top 4%) · 90% AP pass rate (US average: ~60%) · 9 National Merit Semifinalists last year (NMSF is the top 1% of US PSAT scorers).
- ▸ StatewideUC Reach Score of 53 — 35 points above the California median of 18. Ahead of 90% of California high schools.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsTrails the peer median (UC Reach Score 53 vs a 64 median) 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 Buckley School's 2025 number, statewide percentile, and 5-year trend.
Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+0.2%/yr, Total enrollment)
At tuition of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Tuition impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2026) | ~830 | +1 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2028) | ~833 | +4 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2030) | ~836 | +7 | $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 Buckley School really compare on getting kids to college?
We've ranked it #7 of 11 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
Wildwood School · Geffen Academy at UCLA · Milken Community School · Windward School · Brentwood School · Crossroads 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 951750023). 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.
Buckley School sent 202 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 22.8% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 53 — 35 points above the California median of 18, higher than 90% of California high schools. The school produces 14.9 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
-12 pts vs. peer median (64) · Ranked #7 of 11 similar schools
18
64
51
53
Higher than 90% of California high schools (980 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Buckley School's UC Reach Score of 53 clears the statewide top-10% cutoff (51) — meaning roughly 52 top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors, well above what most California schools achieve.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 97 — a gap of 44 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Buckley School's UC Reach is higher than 90% 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 |
| 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 | 3.98 | 4.19 | +0.21 | 14.6% | Peers +0.23 · matches |
| UC San Diego | 3.90 | 4.17 | +0.27 | 16.3% | Peers +0.30 · matches |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.93 | 4.19 | +0.26 | 20.8% | Peers +0.29 · matches |
| UC Irvine | 3.91 | 3.98 | +0.07 | 15.2% | Peers +0.26 · wider |
| UC Davis | 3.98 | 4.09 | +0.12 | 42.9% | Peers +0.22 · wider |
📊 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 Buckley School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (17.8% actual vs. 21.0% expected), based on 2024 data.
UC Outcomes Trend — 2024–2025
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 | 38 | 7 | 3 | 18.4% | 8 | 42.9% | 3.98 | 4.19 |
| UCLA → Elite | 45 | 6 | —† | 13.3% | 7 | — | 3.93 | —† |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 37 | 8 | —† | 21.6% | 9 | — | 3.90 | 4.17 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 41 | 12 | —† | 29.3% | 14 | — | 3.93 | 4.19 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 21 | 3 | —† | 14.3% | 3 | — | 3.91 | 3.98 |
| UC Davis → | 20 | 10 | —† | 50.0% | 11 | — | 3.98 | 4.09 |