South El Monte High School

• ▸On UC Reach Score, South El Monte High School sits in the middle of its similar-school group (ranked #6 of 11): 19 vs. a peer median of 20.
• ▸South El Monte High School's UC Reach Score has stepped down from a peak of 26 in 2021 to 19 in 2025 — a 7-point decline worth tracking.
• ▸Across the top-6 UC campuses, South El Monte High School is admitting at roughly +9 percentage points above what its average applicant GPA (3.912) alone would predict (28% actual vs. 19% expected). That's a meaningful signal — it can reflect UC's track record with this school's graduates, students presenting strongly in UC's holistic review (essays, EC's, context), or institutional familiarity helping at the margin. The data can't distinguish which, but the pattern itself is real and worth understanding.
• ▸Senior-class enrollment is down 1% (306→302 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -21%.
• ▸In business terms, this is market-share growth during a market contraction. Los Angeles County's senior population shrank 8% over the same window — South El Monte High School only shrank 1%. So South El Monte High School picked up about 7 percentage points of relative share — families chose it over the alternatives even as the overall pool got smaller. That's overperforming the market in a shrinking market.
• ▸At its recent rate (-2.3%/yr), enrollment projects to ~1007 by 2029 — about 73 fewer students than today.

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UC Reach = top-6 UC admits ÷ senior class. Sources: UCOP Admissions by Source School, CDE enrollment, IRS Form 990, NCES F-33. Reach — by Test Prep Gurus · Methodology

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