Castilleja School
Palo Alto · Santa Clara County · Private independent
Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Pinewood School → Eastside College Prep School → Crystal Springs Uplands Sch → Basis Independent Fremont Upper Sch → Woodside Priory School → Compare all similar →📋 At a glance
- 📚 22 AP courses offered (school profile)
- 🏆 11 National Merit Semifinalists last year
- 📝 SAT avg 1480 (25-75: 1430–1540)
- 📝 ACT avg 33.5 (25-75: 32–35)
- 📚 AP exam pass rate 95.0% (avg score 4.5)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, the school's own published profile, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
🎓 Where grads go
UC admits by campus · Class of 2025
Source: University of California Office of the President, Admissions by Source School. Full campus-by-campus breakdown below.
How Castilleja School compares for families
One of California's strongest schools for college outcomes.
- ▸ NationallySAT mean 1480 (≈ top 3% of US test-takers) · ACT mean 33.5 (≈ top 2%) · 95% AP pass rate (US average: ~60%) · 11 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 SAT mean.
- ▸ Statewide113.7% UC Reach — 95.6 points above the California median of 18.1%. Ahead of 100% of California high schools.
- ▸ Locally🎓 Top 1% in California on UC Reach — plus 1 more top-rank.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsBeats the peer median (113.7% UC Reach vs 62.4% median) across the 5 most similar nearby schools.
For Parents
Follow Castilleja School
Get an email when Castilleja School's numbers change — new admissions results, enrollment shifts, test scores. A few updates a year, no spam.
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 Castilleja School's 2025 number, statewide percentile, and 5-year trend.
Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-0.6%/yr, Total enrollment)
At tuition of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Tuition impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2026) | ~414 | -2 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2028) | ~409 | -7 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2030) | ~405 | -11 | $0 |
Straight-line extrapolation of the recent annual rate — a what-if, not a forecast of intent. Edit the figure to match your school.
Castilleja School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Private · secular · Palo Alto · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach Score, Castilleja School sits near the top of its similar-school group (ranked #2 of 10): 114 vs. a peer median of 62.
- ▸Its UC Reach Score has risen 27 points since 2020.
- ▸Across the top-6 UC campuses, Castilleja School is admitting at roughly -6 percentage points below what its average applicant GPA (4.213) alone would predict (18% actual vs. 24% expected). That's worth understanding — it can reflect grade inflation that UC sees through, weaker holistic-review materials at the margin, or applicants concentrating at more selective campuses than typical. Not a verdict; a signal.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 15% (60→51 from 2020 to 2025), trailing the peer-group median of +8%.
- ▸At its recent rate (-0.7%/yr), enrollment projects to ~408 by 2028 — about 8 fewer students than today.
Enrollment projection
That's about 8 fewer students. At a tuition of $ per student, that's roughly $0 in annual tuition revenue at risk.
Default derived from this school's own IRS Form 990 (FY2023): program-service revenue ÷ enrollment, rounded to the nearest $1k — an authoritative average that includes auxiliary revenue (athletics, food service). Your published tuition may differ; adjust if needed. Projection extrapolates the recent annual rate — not a forecast of intent.
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach Score | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castilleja School | Private · secular | 416 | 114 | -15% |
| Peer-group median | 62 | +8% | ||
| Pinewood School | Private · secular | 612 | 60 | +0% |
| Eastside College Prep School | Private · secular | 251 | 26 | -5% |
| Crystal Springs Uplands Sch | Private · secular | 347 | 64 | +11% |
| Basis Independent Fremont Upper Sch | Private · secular | 350 | 212 | +23% |
| Woodside Priory School | Private · Other religious | 436 | 70 | +14% |
| Menlo School | Private · secular | 805 | 62 | +6% |
| Fremont Christian High School | Private · Other religious | 406 | 34 | -42% |
| Notre Dame High School | Private · Catholic | 356 | 69 | -34% |
| Granada Islamic School | Private · Other religious | 456 | — | +450% |
| Bridges Academy | Private · secular | 310 | 13 | +12% |
UC Reach Score = top-6 UC admits ÷ senior class (can exceed 100 when students are admitted to multiple campuses). Enrollment trend = first-to-latest grade-12 change on file. Similar schools matched on proximity, size, type, and religious orientation. Methodology →
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 940373222). 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.
Castilleja School sent 215 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 27.0% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 114 — 96 points above the California median of 18, higher than 100% of California high schools. The school produces 27.5 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
+51 pts above peer median (62) · Ranked #2 of 10 similar schools
18
62
51
114
Higher than 99% of California high schools (978 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
114 is exceptional and very rare. For every 100 seniors at Castilleja School, the school is generating roughly 114 admissions to California's six most selective UCs (UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD). The typical strong senior here is winning admission at multiple top campuses — a result fewer than 1% of California high schools achieve.
In Santa Clara County — a competitive market where the median is already 33 — this still clears the county top-10% bar (83).
Against similar schools, Castilleja School stands out clearly — the peer-group median is 62.
This places Castilleja School in the elite tier statewide — the top-1% threshold is 97.
Overall, Castilleja School's UC Reach is higher than 99% of California high schools (978 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 | 4.25 | 4.28 | +0.03 | 18.9% | Peers +0.09 · wider |
| UCLA | 4.22 | 4.29 | +0.07 | 11.9% | Peers +0.13 · wider |
| UC San Diego (2023) | 4.25 | 4.32 | +0.07 | 22.9% | Peers +0.11 · wider |
| UC Santa Barbara | 4.22 | 4.31 | +0.09 | 20.6% | Peers +0.11 · matches |
| UC Irvine | 4.18 | 4.23 | +0.06 | 23.1% | Peers +0.08 · matches |
| UC Davis | 4.16 | 4.23 | +0.07 | 24.1% | Peers +0.12 · 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 Castilleja School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants 6.4 points below what their GPAs predict (17.6% actual vs. 24.0% 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 | 39 | 9 | —† | 23.1% | 18 | — | 4.25 | 4.28 |
| UCLA → Elite | 41 | 5 | —† | 12.2% | 10 | — | 4.22 | 4.29 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 38 | 7 | —† | 18.4% | 14 | — | 4.23 | —† |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 36 | 14 | —† | 38.9% | 27 | — | 4.22 | 4.31 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 28 | 11 | —† | 39.3% | 22 | — | 4.18 | 4.23 |
| UC Davis → | 33 | 12 | —† | 36.4% | 24 | — | 4.16 | 4.23 |