Santa Cruz Alternative

Santa Cruz · Santa Cruz County · Public

Public Santa Cruz County

Data Year

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Costanoa Continuation High → Alternative Family Education → Harbor High School → Santa Cruz High School → Pacific Collegiate School → Compare all similar →

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How Santa Cruz Alternative compares for families

What families should know about Santa Cruz Alternative.

▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Costanoa Continuation High, Alternative Family Education, Harbor High School and 2 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

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How does Santa Cruz Alternative really compare on getting kids to college?

Unlock a head-to-head snapshot of Santa Cruz Alternative against its 10 most similar nearby schools — matched on size, location, type. See exactly where it stands on the college pipeline.

The full head-to-head table — every peer school's UC Reach, side by side.

Enrollment trend + 3-year projection — is this school growing or quietly shrinking?

The plain-English read on what it all means for your family.

Your similar-school group includes

Costanoa Continuation High · Alternative Family Education · Harbor High School · Santa Cruz High School · Pacific Collegiate School · Soquel High School · +4 more

UC Reach Score ⓘ methodology

UC Application Reach Score ⓘ

N/A

16 applications

UC Admit Rate ⓘ

N/A

— / 16 applications

UC Yield Rate ⓘ

N/A

— enrolled of — admitted

Yield vs. Enrollment Reach: Yield answers "of UC admits, what % chose UC?" — denominator is just the admits. A small admitted cohort can post a low yield even when the school sends a healthy share of its class to UC.

UC Enrollment Reach Score ⓘ

N/A

— enrollees / — seniors

Enrollment Reach vs. Yield: Reach answers "of the whole senior class, what share ended up at UC?" — denominator is everyone. High Yield with low Enrollment Reach is common at elite privates: most admits matriculate, but the school sends most of its class to non-UC selective colleges.

Selective UC Reach (UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCI — incl. the Elite two) ⓘ

N/A

Elite UC Reach (UCB + UCLA) ⓘ

N/A

Senior Class Size ⓘ

N/A

Run CDE download to enable the Reach Score

Total School Enrollment ⓘ

N/A

All grades · CDE Census Day

Avg. Applicant GPA · top-6 UCs ⓘ

3.79

UC Outcomes Trend — 2019–2023

UC Admit Rate %

UC Reach Score (where available)

UC Admits (count, right axis)

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 — 2023

Campus	Applicants	Admits	Enrollees	Admit Rate	UC Reach Score	Yield	Avg GPA (App)	Avg GPA (Adm)
UC Berkeley → Elite	6	—^†	—^†	—^†	—^†	—	3.75	—^†
UC Santa Barbara → Selective	5	—^†	—^†	—^†	—^†	—	3.82	—^†
UC Irvine → Selective	5	—^†	—^†	—^†	—^†	—	3.82	—^†

† = UCOP-suppressed (count below 3 students, hidden for privacy — actual value is 0, 1, or 2, not necessarily zero). Campus-level totals may count one student admitted to multiple UC campuses more than once; Admit Volume metrics are not the same as UC Reach, which is measured against the whole senior class. See methodology →

What This Means

Note: the UC Reach Score sums campus-level admits across the top-six UC campuses, so a student admitted to both UCLA and UCSD is counted at each. It reflects competitive admit volume relative to class size — admit-events, not distinct students — which is why a Score can exceed 100.

Senior class size is estimated from CDE grade 12 enrollment data. Reach percentages should be interpreted as approximate.

Compare with other schools → See Santa Cruz County rankings →

For School Admins

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✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals

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At a glance

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Santa Cruz Alternative is a public high school in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California.

Sources: University of California Office of the President (admissions), California Department of Education (enrollment, A-G, college-going), and the school's own published documents where named.

Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com). These figures may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.