Henry M. Gunn High School
Palo Alto · Santa Clara County · Palo Alto Unified · Public
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Palo Alto Senior High School → Palo Alto High → Woodside High School → Monta Vista High School → Los Altos High School → Compare all similar →A parent's read
- The UC pipeline here is real. 341 admissions to the top six UC campuses for a class of 432 seniors puts this school in the top handful of schools in California.
- Kids here turn down top UCs. Students admitted to Berkeley and UCLA from this school often enroll somewhere even more selective — a pattern seen only at schools whose graduates have elite options beyond the UC system.
- And it's a rising stock. UC admissions per senior have climbed three years running — the trend line, not just the snapshot, is moving the right way.
- Where grads land in the UC system: Berkeley. Within the UC system, more graduates enroll at Berkeley than any other campus — and with Berkeley and UCLA admitting just 67 of this class's 1,650 UC applications, those seats are genuinely hard-won.
- 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
- 26 AP courses offered — Elite
- Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 12 calculus classes · 21 physics · 23 chemistry
- AP rigor: 73rd percentile nationally
- SAT/ACT participation: 87th percentile by test-taker volume
- 4-yr grad rate: 94% in 2019 (69th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts graduation data, 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 aid-receiving family's net price — yours depends on whether you qualify for aid — 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 costs →Sources: UC Office of the President (admits); IPEDS net price + College Scorecard 10-yr earnings (cost & payoff). Full campus-by-campus breakdown below.
California College-Going Rate
87% of the 2022-23 graduating class enrolled in college within a year.
The share of 2022-23 graduates who enrolled at a college anywhere in the U.S. within 12 months, per the National Student Clearinghouse match the California Department of Education publishes.
Give the same class four more months and 91.2% had enrolled — CDE publishes a 16-month window alongside the 12-month one, 434 students.
Up 2.8 points from the 2021-22 class (84.2%).
Where the 2022-23 class enrolled
In California — 201 students (42.2%)
Out of state — 213 students (44.7%)
CDE puts each graduate in one bucket only — whichever kind of college they were enrolled in longest — so these add up to the rate above. That is a different count from the UC Reach Score on this page, which counts a student at every UC campus that admitted them.
Source: California Department of Education, College-Going Rate (DataQuest) ↗, cohort 2022-23, posted 17-Sep-2025. Data file: cgr12mo23.txt ↗ (and the 16-month file ↗). CDE builds the rate by matching California high school completers to National Student Clearinghouse enrollment records; we publish CDE’s aggregates and hold no student-level data.
How Henry M. Gunn High School compares for families
One of California's strongest schools for college outcomes.
- ▸ StatewideUC Reach Score of 79 — 60 points above the California median of 19. Ahead of 98% of California high schools.
- ▸ Locally🎓 Top 5% in California on UC Reach — plus 5 more top-ranks.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsBeats the peer median (UC Reach Score 79 vs a 51 median) across the 5 most similar nearby schools.
For Parents
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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.
Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
73rd percentile nationally
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-2187th percentile by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
69th percentile nationally
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
Federal Title I context
Lower-need school
Not Title I eligible (FRPL < 25%)
<25% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Well below the Title I threshold; expect a higher-income student body on average.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
SBAC academic outcomes — grade 11, 2025
Share of grade-11 students meeting or exceeding the California standard on Smarter Balanced ELA and Math. This is the academic-readiness signal that pairs with UC Reach (post-grad outcomes), stability (retention), and absenteeism (engagement). Note: statewide median Math is only ~20% — a school at 20% isn't an outlier; one at 45%+ genuinely is.
Source: California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Smarter Balanced research files. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥30 tested students.
Student composition — 2025-26
HS grades 9–12 racial/ethnic composition and program subgroups, from CDE Census Day Enrollment. Two-year shift shown when ≥1 pt — surfaces how the community served has changed since 2023-24.
Race / ethnicity
Program subgroups
Source: California Department of Education, Census Day Enrollment 2025-26 (HS grades 9–12). Δ shown when shift is ≥1 pt since 2023-24. Categories below 0.5% omitted.
Chronic absenteeism — 2024-25
Share of students missing 10% or more of expected attendance — the leading indicator that often precedes the demand decline shown above. Families disengaging tend to raise absenteeism first, then formally leave. Basis: grades 9–12.
Absenteeism is up 10.2 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.
Source: California Department of Education, Chronic Absenteeism 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 eligible students. CDE didn't publish a usable 2019-20 file (COVID).
Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (-3.1%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~1,557 | -49 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~1,462 | -144 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,373 | -233 | $0 |
Straight-line extrapolation of the recent annual rate — a what-if, not a forecast of intent. Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423/ADA). Edit the figure to match your school.
How does Henry M. Gunn High School really compare on getting kids to college?
We've ranked it #3 of 10 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
Palo Alto Senior High School · Palo Alto High · Woodside High School · Monta Vista High School · Los Altos High · Lynbrook High School · +4 more
Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25
Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the Santa Clara County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Henry M. Gunn High School's enrollment is shrinking 5.1× the county rate (school -15.9% vs. county -3.1%). Stability of 95.6% means every family you keep is one fewer; the leverage is at recruitment, not retention. This is the case the high stability number alone would hide.
73 of 1,675 students who enrolled at Henry M. Gunn High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (4.4% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.
Stability by student group
Nearest peer high schools
Source: California Department of Education, Stability Rate 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 cumulative enrollees so by-design-high-churn continuation schools don't dominate the bottom of the distribution. Cumulative enrollment counts every student on the rolls during the year, so it can exceed peak-day enrollment.
District financial profile — Palo Alto Unified (FY2020)
From 4 years of NCES F-33 filings (the federally-mandated district finance survey). Public schools don't have their own books — the district does. These figures show the financial scale, revenue dependence, instruction-vs-overhead mix, and long-term debt that shape what a school can sustain.
Local: 85.2%
Federal: 3.3%
Source: NCES F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances (Urban Institute Education Data API). Latest year currently published: FY2020. F-33 is a district-level federal filing — it reflects the Palo Alto Unified as a whole, not this individual school's books. Revenue mix shows where the district's dollars come from (state aid dominates in CA via LCFF). Instruction share is current expenditure on instruction ÷ total current expenditure (national benchmark ~60%). Long-term debt is end-of-year outstanding (mostly facilities bonds).
Henry M. Gunn High School sent 1,650 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 20.7% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 79 (top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors, counting a student at each campus that admitted them) — 60 points above the California median of 19, higher than 98% of California high schools. The school produces 15.5 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
Henry M. Gunn High School earns admission to the six most selective UC campuses at a high rate (79 UC Reach Score), yet only about 37% of its Berkeley and UCLA admits go on to enroll there — well below the roughly 60% statewide. High admit rates paired with low enrollment at the very top UCs is the data signature of a class with options even more selective than the UCs — the kind of student who turns down Berkeley or UCLA only for a college even harder to get into.
An honest read of what the data holds: admissions and enrollment counts, not destinations. We don't track where any student enrolled, so this is a signature consistent with more-selective choices — not a claim about specific colleges. We measure Berkeley and UCLA together and against the statewide rate, so it isn't just a student picking a different UC (which would lower one campus's yield without leaving the system). Class of 2025, University of California Office of the President.
19
51
53
79
Higher than 98% of California high schools (1107 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Henry M. Gunn High School's UC Reach Score of 79 clears the statewide top-10% cutoff (53) — meaning roughly 78 top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors, well above what most California schools achieve.
Against similar schools, Henry M. Gunn High School stands out clearly — the peer-group median is 51.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 95 — a gap of 16 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Henry M. Gunn High School's UC Reach is higher than 98% of California high schools (1107 ranked).
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 | Moderate | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Santa Barbara | Strong shot | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Irvine | Strong shot | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Davis | Strong shot | Strong shot | Real shot | Filtered out |
The numbers behind it
| Campus | Applicant GPA | Admit GPA | Lift ⓘ | Admit rate | vs peer schools @ same GPA ⓘ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 4.07 | 4.22 | +0.15 | 15.3% | Peers +0.19 · wider |
| UCLA | 4.05 | 4.26 | +0.21 | 9.9% | Peers +0.23 · matches |
| UC San Diego | 4.03 | 4.23 | +0.20 | 15.8% | Peers +0.25 · wider |
| UC Santa Barbara | 4.02 | 4.24 | +0.22 | 34.9% | Peers +0.26 · wider |
| UC Irvine | 4.02 | 4.23 | +0.21 | 20.2% | Peers +0.21 · matches |
| UC Davis | 4.02 | 4.20 | +0.17 | 27.5% | Peers +0.20 · matches |
Statewide CA admit rates by individual GPA band, 2025 (for reference)
| GPA band | UCB | UCLA | UCSD | UCSB | UCI | UCD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.00+ | 17.0% | 15.1% | 45.2% | 62.3% | 46.3% | 65.9% |
| 3.70–3.99 | 3.1% | 1.6% | 9.3% | 17.6% | 17.0% | 31.1% |
| 3.30–3.69 | 0.8% | 0.5% | 1.5% | 2.8% | 2.4% | 10.3% |
| 3.00–3.29 | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 1.9% |
| < 3.00 | 0.7% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.7% |
Where Henry M. Gunn High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (20.7% actual vs. 22.9% expected).
UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2025
Class size from CDE grade 12 enrollment. Campus-level data: applicant and admit totals count a student once at EACH campus. A senior admitted to UCLA and UC San Diego adds 2 to the admit total, so the total can exceed the senior class — that is the metric working as defined, not an error. The admit RATE is unaffected: both its numerator and denominator are campus-level.
Campus Breakdown — 2025
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach Score | Yield | Avg GPA (App) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 261 | 40 | 18 | 15.3% | 9 | 45.0% | 4.07 | 4.22 |
| UCLA → Elite | 274 | 27 | 7 | 9.9% | 6 | 25.9% | 4.05 | 4.26 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 291 | 46 | 5 | 15.8% | 11 | 10.9% | 4.03 | 4.23 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 284 | 99 | 8 | 34.9% | 23 | 8.1% | 4.02 | 4.24 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 267 | 54 | 6 | 20.2% | 12 | 11.1% | 4.02 | 4.23 |
| UC Davis → | 273 | 75 | 10 | 27.5% | 17 | 13.3% | 4.02 | 4.20 |
What This Means
For School Admins
The full Reach Report for Henry M. Gunn High School
A board- and LCAP-ready intelligence brief: your enrollment retention and college outcomes, benchmarked against your closest competitors, with a 5-year forecast, concrete steps to act on, and the rigor + outcomes story you can share with your families. Built from primary public data — prepared for you, not auto-generated.
- ✓Your UC Reach Score (79) ranked head-to-head against your closest competitor schools
- ✓Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently -3.1%/yr) with the revenue at stake
- ✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals
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