Private school tuition
Is Polytechnic School worth the tuition?
Polytechnic School (Pasadena) set beside San Marino High School (San Marino), 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 Polytechnic School cost?
Polytechnic School publishes tuition of $51,700 for 2026-27, which is $206,800 over four years at today's tuition.
| Published tuition | $51,700 (2026-27) |
| Four years at today's tuition (tuition × 4) | $206,800 |
- As the school lists it: $51,700 grades 9-12 (2026-27; tuition and fees adjusted annually).
- Form 990 tuition revenue per student: about $39,979 (program revenue of $35,221,793 for fiscal 2023, tuition and other earned revenue, divided by 881 students; the IRS filing, not the school's published price).
- 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?
Polytechnic School has a 76 UC Reach Score, from 71 UC admits counted at each campus for 93 seniors, and San Marino High School has a 72 score, from 151 admits for 209 seniors, 76.3 and 72.2 admits per 100 seniors.
| Polytechnic School (private) | San Marino High School (public) | |
|---|---|---|
| UC Reach Score 2025 | 76 | 72 |
| UC admits 2025, counted at each campus | 71 | 151 |
| Seniors | 93 | 209 |
| UC admits per 100 seniors | 76.3 | 72.2 |
| Publishes a counted college list | Yes | No |
Polytechnic School: five most-named colleges
- University of California - Berkeley (29)
- Stanford University (19)
- University of Southern California (19)
- New York University (16)
- Columbia University (14)
From the school's own published list, matriculation (where graduates enrolled), Class of 2022-2026; College Matriculation List 2022-2026 (Polytechnic School). Counts are the school's own.
San Marino High School does not publish a counted college list that we hold, so only one list is shown.
What does the public school offer?
San Marino High School in San Marino is 1.9 miles from Polytechnic School, has a 72 UC Reach Score and enrolled 961 students in 2026.
- UC Reach Score 2025: 72, from 151 UC admits for 209 seniors.
- Enrollment: 961 students (2026).
- A-G completion: 85.7% of the 2024-25 graduating cohort of 209 met the UC/CSU course requirements (California median 55.9%).
- Students per counselor: 192 to 1 (Civil Rights Data Collection 2020; California median 337 to 1).
- Full profile: San Marino High School.
What are families also paying for at Polytechnic School?
Some of what a family pays for at Polytechnic 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 Polytechnic School at 6.7 students per teacher across 871 students.
- Size and grades served. Polytechnic School enrolled 881 students in 2025 and serves grades K–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 Marino High School offers.
More on Polytechnic School: its full profile, more private high schools in Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, and private vs public high schools in Los Angeles 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, 1.9 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.