Private school tuition
Is Junipero Serra High School worth the tuition?
Junipero Serra High School (San Mateo) set beside Henry M. Gunn High School (Palo Alto), 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 Junipero Serra High School cost?
Junipero Serra High School publishes tuition of $30,800 for 2026-27, which is $123,200 over four years at today's tuition.
| Published tuition | $30,800 (2026-27) |
| Four years at today's tuition (tuition × 4) | $123,200 |
- As the school lists it: $30,800 (2026-27; registration fee $1,150 grades 9-11 / $1,250 grade 12).
- 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?
Junipero Serra High School has a 34 UC Reach Score, from 74 UC admits counted at each campus for 215 seniors, and Henry M. Gunn High School has a 79 score, from 341 admits for 432 seniors, 34.4 and 78.9 admits per 100 seniors.
| Junipero Serra High School (private) | Henry M. Gunn High School (public) | |
|---|---|---|
| UC Reach Score 2025 | 34 | 79 |
| UC admits 2025, counted at each campus | 74 | 341 |
| Seniors | 215 | 432 |
| UC admits per 100 seniors | 34.4 | 78.9 |
| Publishes a counted college list | No | Yes |
Henry M. Gunn High School: five most-named colleges
- University of California - Santa Cruz (22)
- University of California - Berkeley (19)
- Foothill College (15)
- University of Washington (12)
- New York University (11)
From the school's own published list, matriculation (where graduates enrolled), 2026; College Matriculation (College & Career Center). Counts are the school's own.
Junipero Serra High School does not publish a counted college list that we hold, so only one list is shown.
What does the public school offer?
Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto is 14.3 miles from Junipero Serra High School, has a 79 UC Reach Score and enrolled 1,606 students in 2026.
- UC Reach Score 2025: 79, from 341 UC admits for 432 seniors.
- Enrollment: 1,606 students (2026).
- A-G completion: 91.4% of the 2024-25 graduating cohort of 433 met the UC/CSU course requirements (California median 55.9%).
- Students per counselor: 178 to 1 (Civil Rights Data Collection 2020; California median 337 to 1).
- Full profile: Henry M. Gunn High School.
What are families also paying for at Junipero Serra High School?
Some of what a family pays for at Junipero Serra 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.
- Class size. The National Center for Education Statistics' Private School Survey (2022) lists Junipero Serra High School at 15.8 students per teacher across 860 students.
- Size and grades served. Junipero Serra High School enrolled 890 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 Henry M. Gunn High School offers.
More on Junipero Serra High 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, 14.3 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.