Private school tuition
Is Crystal Springs Uplands School worth the tuition?
Crystal Springs Uplands School (Hillsborough) set beside Lowell High School (San Francisco), 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 Crystal Springs Uplands School cost?
Crystal Springs Uplands School publishes tuition of $68,600 for 2026-27, which is $274,400 over four years at today's tuition.
| Published tuition | $68,600 (2026-27) |
| Four years at today's tuition (tuition × 4) | $274,400 |
- As the school lists it: $68,600 (2026-27); includes daily lunch, iPad, most field trips.
- 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?
Crystal Springs Uplands School has a 64 UC Reach Score, from 51 UC admits counted at each campus for 80 seniors, and Lowell High School has a 71 score, from 453 admits for 642 seniors, 63.7 and 70.6 admits per 100 seniors.
| Crystal Springs Uplands School (private) | Lowell High School (public) | |
|---|---|---|
| UC Reach Score 2025 | 64 | 71 |
| UC admits 2025, counted at each campus | 51 | 453 |
| Seniors | 80 | 642 |
| UC admits per 100 seniors | 63.7 | 70.6 |
| Publishes a counted college list | No | No |
Neither school publishes a counted college list that we hold.
What does the public school offer?
Lowell High School in San Francisco is 14.4 miles from Crystal Springs Uplands School, has a 71 UC Reach Score and enrolled 2,589 students in 2026.
- UC Reach Score 2025: 71, from 453 UC admits for 642 seniors.
- Enrollment: 2,589 students (2026).
- A-G completion: 83.1% of the 2024-25 graduating cohort of 624 met the UC/CSU course requirements (California median 55.9%).
- Students per counselor: 646 to 1 (Civil Rights Data Collection 2020; California median 337 to 1).
- Full profile: Lowell High School.
What are families also paying for at Crystal Springs Uplands School?
Some of what a family pays for at Crystal Springs Uplands 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.
- Class size. Class size is a fair question for the admissions office; we do not hold a student–teacher ratio for Crystal Springs Uplands School.
- Size and grades served. Crystal Springs Uplands School enrolled 347 students in 2025 and serves grades 6–12. 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 Lowell High School offers.
More on Crystal Springs Uplands School: its full profile, more private high schools in San Francisco Peninsula and Silicon Valley, and private vs public high schools in San Mateo 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, 14.4 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.