Private school tuition
Is Army and Navy Academy worth the tuition?
Army and Navy Academy (Carlsbad) set beside San Dieguito Academy (Encinitas), the highest-scoring public high school within 15 miles that has at least 100 seniors. The two are compared on cost, on 2025 UC outcomes and on what each offers.
What does Army and Navy Academy cost?
Army and Navy Academy publishes tuition of $62,000 for 2026-27, which is $248,000 over four years at today's tuition.
| Published tuition | $62,000 (2026-27) |
| Four years at today's tuition (tuition × 4) | $248,000 |
- As the school lists it: 2026-27: $62,000 boarding / $43,000 day / $70,000 international boarding; plus roughly $5,500 for uniforms, books, and C.
- The four-year figure holds tuition constant. It leaves out fees, books, transportation and any financial aid, which Reach does not hold; the school's admissions office can say what applies.
How do their UC outcomes compare?
Army and Navy Academy has a 23 UC Reach Score, from 14 UC admits counted at each campus for 60 seniors, and San Dieguito Academy has a 42 score, from 231 admits for 547 seniors, 23.3 and 42.2 admits per 100 seniors.
| Army and Navy Academy (private) | San Dieguito Academy (public) | |
|---|---|---|
| UC Reach Score 2025 | 23 | 42 |
| UC admits 2025, counted at each campus | 14 | 231 |
| Seniors | 60 | 547 |
| UC admits per 100 seniors | 23.3 | 42.2 |
| Publishes a counted college list | No | No |
Neither school publishes a counted college list that we hold.
What does the public school offer?
San Dieguito Academy in Encinitas is 9.9 miles from Army and Navy Academy, has a 42 UC Reach Score and enrolled 1,723 students in 2026.
- UC Reach Score 2025: 42, from 231 UC admits for 547 seniors.
- Enrollment: 1,723 students (2026).
- A-G completion: 81.3% of the 2024-25 graduating cohort of 550 met the UC/CSU course requirements (California median 55.9%).
- Students per counselor: 345 to 1 (Civil Rights Data Collection 2020; California median 337 to 1).
- Full profile: San Dieguito Academy.
What are families also paying for at Army and Navy Academy?
Some of what a family pays for at Army and Navy Academy is something only a private school can offer. None of it shows up in a UC Reach Score, and each item is a question of fit rather than a ranking.
- A community chosen by fit. A private school runs its own admissions process, so the application, the entrance exam and the interview work as a fit signal in both directions: the school learns about the student, and the family learns how the school talks about its students.
- Its own values and program. A private school sets its own curriculum, calendar and expectations rather than inheriting a district's, so a family can look for a philosophy it shares.
- Class size. The National Center for Education Statistics' Private School Survey (2022) lists Army and Navy Academy at 5.8 students per teacher across 192 students.
- Size and grades served. Army and Navy Academy enrolled 272 students in 2025 and serves grades 7–12. A school that starts in the middle grades keeps a student in one community for more than four years.
- Advising, arts and athletics. A private school builds its own college advising and its own arts and athletics offerings, and a smaller school can mean more students on each team and in each production. Ask what the counselor caseload and the participation look like.
Parents are not only shopping for college outcomes. The UC Reach Score counts one thing, UC admits per 100 seniors, and it says nothing about whether a teenager will be known, challenged and happy at a school for four years.
Public schools are a great choice when a family cannot afford a private school, and the section above shows what San Dieguito Academy offers.
More on Army and Navy Academy: its full profile, more private high schools in San Diego County, and private vs public high schools in San Diego County. Other schools are on the is it worth the tuition? index.
UC Reach Score is top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors in 2025, counted at each campus, so a student admitted to several campuses counts at each; a "~" marks an estimated senior count. Tuition is the figure the school publishes on its admissions pages, for the year shown. The public school is the highest-scoring district or charter high school within 15 miles (straight-line distance, 9.9 miles here) that reaches grade 12, has at least 100 seniors and is not an online, independent-study or alternative program. Form 990 figures come from the school's IRS filing, as reported through ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer; its program revenue includes tuition and other earned revenue. A-G completion is the California Department of Education's adjusted cohort graduation file; the counselor ratio is the federal Civil Rights Data Collection.