Sage Hill School
Newport Coast · Orange County · Private independent
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Most similar nearby schools
Fairmont Preparatory Academy → Newport Christian School → Fairmont San Juan Capistrano → Calvary Chapel High School → Servite High School → Compare all similar →🧭 A parent's read
- The UC pipeline here is real. 223 admissions to the top six UC campuses for a class of 148 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.
- 8 National Merit Semifinalists in one class. That's roughly 1 in 18 seniors reaching the top ~1% of the PSAT nationally — a density few schools anywhere can match.
- 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)
- 🏆 8 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 Sage Hill School compares for families
One of California's strongest schools for college outcomes.
- ▸ NationallySAT mean 1430 (≈ top 4% of US test-takers) · ACT mean 32.0 (≈ top 4%) · 90% AP pass rate (US average: ~60%) · 8 National Merit Semifinalists last year (NMSF is the top 1% of US PSAT scorers).
- ▸ StatewideUC Reach Score of 151 — 133 points above the California median of 18. Ahead of 100% of California high schools.
- ▸ Locally🎓 #1 in Orange County on UC Reach — plus 1 more top-rank.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsBeats the peer median (UC Reach Score 151 vs a 29 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 Sage Hill School's 2025 number, statewide percentile, and 5-year trend.
Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+1.4%/yr, Total enrollment)
At tuition of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Tuition impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2026) | ~598 | +8 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2028) | ~615 | +25 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2030) | ~632 | +42 | $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 Sage Hill School really compare on getting kids to college?
We've ranked it #1 of 7 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
Fairmont Preparatory Academy · Newport Christian School · Fairmont San Juan Capistrano · Calvary Chapel High School · Servite High School · Saint Joseph High 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 330729698). 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.
Sage Hill School sent 661 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 33.7% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 151 — 133 points above the California median of 18, higher than 100% of California high schools. The school produces 25.7 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
+122 pts above peer median (29) · Ranked #1 of 7 similar schools
Sage Hill School earns admission to the six most selective UC campuses at a high rate (151 UC Reach Score), yet only about 29% of its UCLA admits go on to enroll there — well below the roughly 60% statewide. Few enroll at the other UCs either (about 11% yield), so these admits are leaving the UC system, not just picking a different UC. 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. Enrollee counts were reported for one of the two most selective UCs here, so the elite-UC yield reflects UCLA (17 admits); we corroborate with the school's low yield across the other UC campuses. Class of 2025, University of California Office of the President.
18
29
51
151
Higher than 99% of California high schools (980 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
151 is exceptional and very rare. For every 100 seniors at Sage Hill School, the school is generating roughly 151 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 Orange County — a competitive market where the median is already 25 — this still clears the county top-10% bar (71).
Against similar schools, Sage Hill School stands out clearly — the peer-group median is 29.
This places Sage Hill School in the elite tier statewide — the top-1% threshold is 97.
Overall, Sage Hill School's UC Reach is higher than 99% 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 | 4.15 | 4.25 | +0.09 | 18.9% | Peers +0.15 · wider |
| UCLA | 4.13 | 4.26 | +0.13 | 14.3% | Peers +0.19 · wider |
| UC San Diego | 4.14 | 4.26 | +0.11 | 19.8% | Peers +0.17 · wider |
| UC Santa Barbara | 4.13 | 4.26 | +0.13 | 51.0% | Peers +0.17 · wider |
| UC Irvine | 4.13 | 4.25 | +0.12 | 54.0% | Peers +0.12 · matches |
| UC Davis | 4.11 | 4.24 | +0.13 | 32.4% | Peers +0.15 · 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 Sage Hill School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants 8.2 points above what their GPAs predict (31.2% actual vs. 23.0% 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 | 115 | 21 | —† | 18.3% | 14 | — | 4.15 | 4.25 |
| UCLA → Elite | 123 | 17 | 5 | 13.8% | 11 | 29.4% | 4.13 | 4.26 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 122 | 26 | 3 | 21.3% | 18 | 11.5% | 4.14 | 4.26 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 115 | 64 | —† | 55.7% | 43 | — | 4.13 | 4.26 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 107 | 58 | 6 | 54.2% | 39 | 10.3% | 4.13 | 4.25 |
| UC Davis → | 79 | 37 | —† | 46.8% | 25 | — | 4.11 | 4.24 |