Private school tuition
Is Cardinal Newman High School worth the tuition?
Cardinal Newman High School (Santa Rosa) set beside Healdsburg High School (Healdsburg), 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 Cardinal Newman High School cost?
Cardinal Newman High School publishes tuition of $24,300 for 2026-27, which is $97,200 over four years at today's tuition.
| Published tuition | $24,300 (2026-27) |
| Four years at today's tuition (tuition × 4) | $97,200 |
- As the school lists it: $24,300 (2026-27).
- 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?
Cardinal Newman High School has a 23 UC Reach Score, from 25 UC admits counted at each campus for 108 seniors, and Healdsburg High School has a 40 score, from 54 admits for 134 seniors, 23.1 and 40.3 admits per 100 seniors.
| Cardinal Newman High School (private) | Healdsburg High School (public) | |
|---|---|---|
| UC Reach Score 2025 | 23 | 40 |
| UC admits 2025, counted at each campus | 25 | 54 |
| Seniors | 108 | 134 |
| UC admits per 100 seniors | 23.1 | 40.3 |
| Publishes a counted college list | Yes | No |
Cardinal Newman High School: five most-named colleges
- California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo (13)
- Santa Rosa Junior College (9)
- Santa Clara University (5)
- California State University-Chico (4)
- California State University-San Marcos (4)
From the school's own published list, matriculation (where graduates enrolled), Class of 2025; Cardinal Newman High School 2025-2026 College Admissions Profile. Counts are the school's own.
Healdsburg High School does not publish a counted college list that we hold, so only one list is shown.
What does the public school offer?
Healdsburg High School in Healdsburg is 11.2 miles from Cardinal Newman High School, has a 40 UC Reach Score and enrolled 510 students in 2026.
- UC Reach Score 2025: 40, from 54 UC admits for 134 seniors.
- Enrollment: 510 students (2026).
- A-G completion: 67.7% of the 2024-25 graduating cohort of 132 met the UC/CSU course requirements (California median 55.9%).
- Students per counselor: 340 to 1 (Civil Rights Data Collection 2020; California median 337 to 1).
- Full profile: Healdsburg High School.
What are families also paying for at Cardinal Newman High School?
Some of what a family pays for at Cardinal Newman High School 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.
- A faith community. Cardinal Newman High School is a Catholic school, which matters to families who want faith to be part of the school day.
- Class size. The National Center for Education Statistics' Private School Survey (2022) lists Cardinal Newman High School at 12.2 students per teacher across 512 students.
- Size and grades served. Cardinal Newman High School enrolled 567 students in 2025 and serves grades 9–12.
- 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 Healdsburg High School offers.
More on Cardinal Newman High School: its full profile, and private vs public high schools in Sonoma 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, 11.2 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.