Martin Luther King High School
Riverside · Riverside County · Monterey Peninsula Unified · Public
📄 Shareable scorecard →Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Bay View Academy → Dual Language Academy Of The Monterey Peninsula → Pacific Grove High School → Monterey Bay Charter → Carmel High School → Compare all similar →🧭 A parent's read
- The UC pipeline here is real. 126 admissions to the top six UC campuses for a class of 137 seniors puts this school in the top handful of schools in California.
- A deeply UC-focused culture. Seniors here file about 4.1 UC applications each — among the most UC-oriented schools in California. The counseling office lives and breathes this system.
- Elite admits are rare — here and everywhere. Berkeley and UCLA admitted 21 of this class's 561 UC applications. The strong middle campuses — San Diego, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Davis — are where most real UC outcomes happen.
- Who actually gets in: the top half of applicants. UC admits from this school average about a 4.3 weighted GPA — noticeably above the average applicant. Being near the top of THIS school's class is what converts to admits; UC reads applications in each school's own context.
- 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
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 6% of US high schools
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, 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 Martin Luther King High School compares for families
One of California's strongest schools for college outcomes.
- ▸ StatewideUC Reach Score of 92 — 74 points above the California median of 18. Ahead of 99% of California high schools.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsBeats the peer median (UC Reach Score 92 vs a 24 median) across the 5 most similar nearby schools.
For Parents
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SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Source: 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.
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: total enrollment.
Absenteeism is up 5.3 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 (+4.9%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~535 | +25 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~588 | +78 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~647 | +137 | $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 Martin Luther King High School really compare on getting kids to college?
We've ranked it #1 of 5 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
Bay View Academy · Dual Language Academy Of The Monterey Peninsula · Pacific Grove High School · Monterey Bay Charter · Carmel High School · Marina High · +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 Riverside County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
52 of 583 students who enrolled at Martin Luther King High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (8.9% 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 — Monterey Peninsula 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: 46.2%
Federal: 14.9%
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 Monterey Peninsula 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).
Martin Luther King High School sent 561 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 22.5% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 92 — 74 points above the California median of 18, higher than 99% of California high schools. The school produces 15.3 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
+67 pts above peer median (24) · Ranked #1 of 5 similar schools
18
24
51
92
Higher than 99% of California high schools (980 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Martin Luther King High School's UC Reach Score of 92 clears the statewide top-10% cutoff (51) — meaning roughly 92 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 5 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Martin Luther King High School's UC Reach is higher than 99% of California high schools (980 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 | 3.95 | 4.27 | +0.32 | 17.5% | Peers +0.26 · steeper |
| UCLA | 3.92 | 4.34 | +0.42 | 9.6% | Peers +0.32 · steeper |
| UC San Diego | 3.87 | 4.21 | +0.34 | 22.8% | Peers +0.33 · matches |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.88 | 4.29 | +0.41 | 28.6% | Peers +0.32 · steeper |
| UC Irvine | 3.84 | 4.25 | +0.41 | 25.4% | Peers +0.31 · steeper |
| UC Davis | 3.83 | 4.22 | +0.40 | 36.0% | Peers +0.29 · steeper |
📊 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 Martin Luther King High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (22.5% actual vs. 20.3% expected).
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) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 63 | 11 | 6 | 17.5% | 8 | 54.5% | 3.95 | 4.27 |
| UCLA → Elite | 104 | 10 | 5 | 9.6% | 7 | 50.0% | 3.92 | 4.34 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 123 | 28 | 10 | 22.8% | 20 | 35.7% | 3.87 | 4.21 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 91 | 26 | 4 | 28.6% | 19 | 15.4% | 3.88 | 4.29 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 130 | 33 | 10 | 25.4% | 24 | 30.3% | 3.84 | 4.25 |
| UC Davis → | 50 | 18 | —† | 36.0% | 13 | — | 3.83 | 4.22 |
What This Means
For School Admins
The full Reach Report for Martin Luther King 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 (92) ranked head-to-head against your closest competitor schools
- ✓Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently 4.9%/yr) with the revenue at stake
- ✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals