Santa Cruz High School
Santa Cruz · Santa Cruz County · Santa Cruz City High · Public
Shareable scorecard →Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Harbor High School → Soquel High School → Aptos High School → Pacific Collegiate School → Pajaro Valley High School → Compare all similar →A parent's read
- The UC pipeline here is real. 122 admissions to the top six UC campuses for a class of 270 seniors puts this school in roughly the top 14% of California high schools.
- 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.
- Families don't leave. 94% of students who start the year here finish it here — top-tier retention statewide. Kids stay; that tells you something no test score does.
- Elite admits are rare — here and everywhere. Berkeley and UCLA admitted 21 of this class's 456 UC applications. The strong middle campuses — San Diego, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Davis — are where most real UC outcomes happen.
- Worth asking about on a tour: counselor load. One counselor serves about 353 students here — above the 250-to-1 level counseling experts recommend. Ask how junior-year college advising actually gets covered.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
At a glance
- 18 AP courses offered — Elite
- Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 10 calculus classes · 7 physics · 9 chemistry
- AP rigor: 90th percentile nationally
- SAT/ACT participation: 56th percentile by test-taker volume
- 4-yr grad rate: 95% in 2019 (75th 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
79.5% 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 82.6% had enrolled — CDE publishes a 16-month window alongside the 12-month one, 185 students.
Down 2.7 points from the 2021-22 class (82.2%).
Where the 2022-23 class enrolled
In California — 139 students (62.1%)
Out of state — 39 students (17.4%)
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 Santa Cruz High School compares for families
Top-tier college outcomes for California families.
- ▸ StatewideUC Reach Score of 45 — 26 points above the California median of 19. Ahead of 86% of California high schools.
- ▸ Locally📘 Top 4 in Santa Cruz County on ELA proficiency — plus 1 more top-rank.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsBeats the peer median (UC Reach Score 45 vs a 28 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
90th 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 · 2020-2156th 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?
75th 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 5.0 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 (-0.2%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~1,058 | -2 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~1,053 | -7 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~1,048 | -12 | $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 Santa Cruz High School really compare on getting kids to college?
We've ranked it #3 of 11 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
Harbor High School · Soquel High School · Aptos High School · Pacific Collegiate School · Pajaro Valley High School · Scotts Valley 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 Cruz County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Santa Cruz High School's enrollment is tracking Santa Cruz County's baseline (+2.5% vs. +3.1%), and 94.1% stability is elite. The demographic tide is the headwind; you're holding your share.
66 of 1,116 students who enrolled at Santa Cruz High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (5.9% 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.
Santa Cruz High School sent 456 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 26.8% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 45 (top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors, counting a student at each campus that admitted them) — 26 points above the California median of 19, higher than 86% of California high schools. The school produces 7.8 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
19
28
53
45
Higher than 86% of California high schools (1107 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Santa Cruz High School's UC Reach Score of 45 is in the top quartile statewide (median 19; top 25% bar 33) — but it's still below the top-10% bar of 53.
Against similar schools, Santa Cruz High School stands out clearly — the peer-group median is 28.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 95 — a gap of 50 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Santa Cruz High School's UC Reach is higher than 86% 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 | 3.98 | 4.22 | +0.23 | 17.3% | Peers +0.23 · matches |
| UCLA | 4.02 | 4.30 | +0.28 | 11.0% | Peers +0.25 · matches |
| UC San Diego | 3.93 | 4.27 | +0.34 | 21.4% | Peers +0.30 · steeper |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.95 | 4.26 | +0.31 | 25.0% | Peers +0.29 · matches |
| UC Irvine | 3.95 | 4.10 | +0.15 | 48.1% | Peers +0.25 · wider |
| UC Davis | 3.97 | 4.17 | +0.20 | 43.8% | Peers +0.22 · 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 Santa Cruz High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (26.8% actual vs. 22.1% 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 | 75 | 13 | 7 | 17.3% | 5 | 53.8% | 3.98 | 4.22 |
| UCLA → Elite | 73 | 8 | 4 | 11.0% | 3 | 50.0% | 4.02 | 4.30 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 84 | 18 | —† | 21.4% | 7 | — | 3.93 | 4.27 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 92 | 23 | 6 | 25.0% | 9 | 26.1% | 3.95 | 4.26 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 52 | 25 | 6 | 48.1% | 9 | 24.0% | 3.95 | 4.10 |
| UC Davis → | 80 | 35 | 6 | 43.8% | 13 | 17.1% | 3.97 | 4.17 |
What This Means
For School Admins
The full Reach Report for Santa Cruz 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 (45) ranked head-to-head against your closest competitor schools
- ✓Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently -0.2%/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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