New data for fall 2025 shows which high schools send the most graduates to the University of California system, as the overall acceptance rate for in-state applicants reaches its highest level in nearly a decade.
According to UC data, more than 77% of California students who applied to UC campuses in fall 2025 were accepted to at least one school. According to a data visualization from the San Francisco Chronicle (both SFGATE and the Chronicle are owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms), admissions rates haven’t reached this level in nine years.
The most competitive campuses in the system are UCLA (9.4% acceptance rate), UC Berkeley (11.4%), UC San Diego (28.4%), UC Irvine (28.7%), and UC Santa Barbara (38.3%).
The Chronicle’s visualization shows that San Francisco’s Mission High School has the highest UC Berkeley acceptance rate, well ahead of all other public and private schools in the state. The school’s admission rate to top universities is 45%, with 34 out of 76 applicants successfully advancing.
According to UC Berkeley, the average GPA of applicants to UC Berkeley’s Mission High is 3.93, while the average GPA of admitted students is 4.08. The trend follows a growing trend at Mission High, a school with a large socioeconomically disadvantaged student population that has been a high-performing school for many years and ranked among the top in admissions to UC Berkeley.
Edison High School, a public school in Fresno, ranks second in UC Berkeley acceptance rate at 34%, with 21 students admitted out of 62 applicants. Next on the list is the highest-ranked private school, Geffen College at UCLA, with an acceptance rate of 31% (19 admitted out of 61 applicants).
Other Bay Area schools with high acceptance rates at UC’s flagship campus include Stanford Online High School in Redwood City (27%), Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland (27%), Berkeley High School (23%), El Cerrito High School (23%), Hercules High School (22%) and San Ramon Valley High School in Danville (22%).
Schools that lag well behind the average acceptance rate include Westmont High in Campbell (4 per cent), Aquinas International Academy in Ontario (2 per cent), Pleasant Grove High in Elk Grove (4 per cent) and River City High in West Sacramento (5 per cent).
The most competitive major at UC Berkeley is Public Health, with an acceptance rate of 2%, and the least competitive is Arts and Humanities, with an acceptance rate of 25%.
Geffen Academy at UCLA had the highest acceptance rate at 26%, or 16 out of 61 applicants. Following closely behind is Los Angeles County High School for the Arts with an acceptance rate of 25%.
Southern California high schools rank high in UCLA acceptance rates, while Bay Area high schools lag slightly behind. Some of the top schools in the area include BASIS Independent Silicon Valley in San Jose (14%), De La Salle High School in Concord (13%), Prospect High in Saratoga (13%), Miramonte High in Orinda (12%) and American Canyon High (11%).
UCLA’s most selective major for applicants is nursing, with an acceptance rate of 1%. Physical Sciences and Mathematics had the highest acceptance rates at 15% each.
In addition to the two most selective UC campuses, there are colleges that admit large numbers of students.
In San Francisco, UC Merced, which has 13 high schools, has a 100% acceptance rate. Overall, UC Merced’s acceptance rate is 95.1%. Several other Bay Area counties have a large number of high schools, and UC Merced has a 100% acceptance rate. The list includes Alameda County (23 schools), Contra Costa County (18 schools), Napa County (4 schools), San Mateo County (14 schools), Santa Clara County (27 schools), Solano County (6 schools) and Sonoma County (8 schools).
UC Riverside is another UC campus with a 100% admission rate to high schools in the Bay Area. The university’s overall acceptance rate for first-time students is 87.1%.
Of all the counties in the Bay Area, Alameda, Santa Clara, Solano and San Francisco counties have the largest number of schools, with a 100% acceptance rate for the University of California, Riverside. Alameda has eight, Santa Clara has five, and Solano and San Francisco have four.
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This article was originally published on These California high schools have the highest admission rates to UCLA and UC Berkeley.
