Do private high school students get into UC more often? Only at some campuses. In fall 2025, California private high school applicants were admitted at slightly higher rates than public school applicants at UCLA (9.5% vs. 8.8%) and Berkeley (13.5% vs. 12.6%) -- but at noticeably lower rates at UC San Diego (19.4% vs. 25.4%) and across the system as a whole (71.1% vs. 78.2% admitted to at least one campus). Private school applicants also arrived with slightly higher GPAs, yet admitted students' GPAs were nearly identical.
All figures are fall 2025 freshman applicants from California high schools, from the University of California Information Center's "Admissions by source school" dashboard (updated March 12, 2026). Admit rates are our calculation.
Public vs. private admit rates by campus
| Campus | Public HS admit rate | Private HS admit rate | Private applicants |
|---|---|---|---|
| UCLA | 8.8% | 9.5% | 12,211 |
| Berkeley | 12.6% | 13.5% | 10,058 |
| UC Irvine | 22.0% | 20.4% | 9,679 |
| UC San Diego | 25.4% | 19.4% | 11,517 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 32.7% | 29.2% | 11,206 |
| UC Davis | 36.8% | 37.6% | 8,891 |
| UC Santa Cruz | 71.3% | 71.7% | 6,735 |
| UC Riverside | 87.1% | 86.7% | 5,384 |
| UC Merced | 96.4% | 96.0% | 3,360 |
| Any UC campus | 78.2% | 71.1% | 16,029 |
Private school applicants' average UC GPA was higher than public school applicants' at every campus -- 4.01 vs. 3.92 at UCLA, 4.03 vs. 3.95 at Berkeley -- but admitted students' averages were essentially the same (4.24 vs. 4.24 at UCLA). See UC admitted GPA by high school.
Private high schools with the most UCLA and Berkeley admits
| High school | City | UCLA (applied / admitted / rate) | Berkeley (applied / admitted / rate) | UC San Diego (applied / admitted / rate) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valley Christian High School | San Jose | 250 / 27 / 10.8% | 223 / 37 / 16.6% | 251 / 76 / 30.3% |
| Bishop O'Dowd High School | Oakland | 179 / 17 / 9.5% | 139 / 37 / 26.6% | 170 / 34 / 20.0% |
| Saint Ignatius College Preparatory | San Francisco | 205 / 17 / 8.3% | 199 / 32 / 16.1% | 188 / 27 / 14.4% |
| Harker Upper School | San Jose | 177 / 21 / 11.9% | 169 / 26 / 15.4% | 177 / 31 / 17.5% |
| Loyola High School of Los Angeles | Los Angeles | 179 / 20 / 11.2% | 151 / 25 / 16.6% | 137 / 34 / 24.8% |
| Harvard-Westlake School | Studio City | 178 / 15 / 8.4% | 180 / 29 / 16.1% | 161 / 16 / 9.9% |
| Sage Hill School | Newport Coast | 123 / 17 / 13.8% | 115 / 21 / 18.3% | 122 / 26 / 21.3% |
| Archbishop Mitty High School | San Jose | 254 / 22 / 8.7% | 210 / 14 / 6.7% | 256 / 36 / 14.1% |
| Mater Dei High School | Santa Ana | 201 / 17 / 8.5% | 125 / 19 / 15.2% | 176 / 35 / 19.9% |
| Santa Margarita Catholic High School | Rancho Santa Margarita | 148 / 16 / 10.8% | 98 / 20 / 20.4% | 138 / 26 / 18.8% |
| Geffen Academy at UCLA | Los Angeles | 61 / 16 / 26.2% | 61 / 19 / 31.1% | 57 / 9 / 15.8% |
| Bellarmine College Preparatory | San Jose | 185 / 14 / 7.6% | 160 / 20 / 12.5% | 179 / 20 / 11.2% |
| Lick-Wilmerding High School | San Francisco | 105 / 13 / 12.4% | 100 / 19 / 19.0% | 93 / 8 / 8.6% |
| Fairmont Preparatory Academy | Anaheim | 104 / 11 / 10.6% | 93 / 19 / 20.4% | 104 / 26 / 25.0% |
| Notre Dame High School | Sherman Oaks | 162 / 17 / 10.5% | 118 / 13 / 11.0% | 146 / 48 / 32.9% |
Two patterns stand out. First, rates vary as much among private schools as among public ones: Archbishop Mitty's 6.7% Berkeley rate was among the lowest in the state for a school its size, while Bishop O'Dowd's 26.6% was among the highest. Second, a school's selectivity elsewhere doesn't predict its UC results -- Harvard-Westlake's UCLA (8.4%) and UC San Diego (9.9%) rates were below the statewide averages for private schools.
How concentrated private school admits are
Of 293 California private high schools with UCLA applicants, 161 (55%) had at least one admit; at Berkeley, 148 of 274 (54%) did. Half of all private-school UCLA admits came from 45 schools, and half of Berkeley's from 37.
What this means for you
- Don't assume a private school is an admissions advantage at UC. Private school applicants were admitted at lower rates at five of nine campuses and systemwide, and the edge at UCLA and Berkeley was under one percentage point.
- Look at your own school's numbers at each campus -- the variation between schools dwarfs the public-private difference.
- For the full statewide picture, see UC acceptance rate by high school, plus UCLA and Berkeley by high school.