Bay Area high schools, as a group, had a lower acceptance rate to UC Berkeley than schools outside the Bay Area, according to Chronicle analysis of the latest admissions data available.
Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
Sather Gate, the main entrance to UC Berkeley, is shown in March.
Yalonda M. James/S.F. Chronicle
Among California high schools with top acceptance rates to UCLA, one in particular stands out: Geffen Academy at UCLA, a private school on campus that’s affiliated with the university. In the latest available data (for the 2025-2026 admissions cycle), its acceptance rate was 26% compared to the average acceptance rate for in-state applicants of 10%.
Beyond Geffen, many of the high schools that score top marks at getting students into the University of California’s most competitive campus are also located in Los Angeles or surrounding areas, according to an analysis of the data in the Chronicle’s tool on UC acceptance rates by high school.
And when looking at UC’s other highly competitive campus, UC Berkeley, a high school with potential “hometown advantage” also stands out: Mission High School in San Francisco, across the bay, had an acceptance rate of 45% — a whopping three times that of the in-state average of 14%.
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But do these schools’ high admissions rates indicate a wider trend at the top UCs?
A local advantage for high schools closer to a particular campus could make some sense, even if simply resulting from circumstantial factors: admissions officers may be more familiar with high schools in their region, particularly as they tend to see more applicants from these schools, and there may be more schools with longstanding connections to the UC, if not outright affiliation as in the case of Geffen.
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Officially, UC prioritizes in-state applicants, but beyond that only says on its website that all nine campuses use the same 13 comprehensive-review factors, that campuses can weigh those factors differently, and one of those factors is the “location of a student’s secondary school and residence.”
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Janet Gilmore, a UC Berkeley spokesperson, said, “We evaluate applicants fairly in the context of what’s offered at their high school, and the size and selectivity of our pool is not constant from year to year. Each class of applicants is unique, so we expect rates to vary annually.”
A UCLA spokesperson said that “proximity to campus does not play a role in the review or selection process” at the university.
The Chronicle analyzed admissions rates for high schools near Berkeley and UCLA to see how local applicants fared versus others across the state.
(To see the individual acceptance rates for a specific high school, go to our tool.)
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Do elite UCs show preference for local applicants?
For UC Berkeley, the Chronicle grouped high schools with at least 50 applicants in the nine-county Bay Area as local and compared them with schools elsewhere in California. Schools that were missing data because of a very small number of admissions were omitted from the analysis.
Bay Area high schools posted a combined UC Berkeley admit rate of about 12.3%; outside the Bay Area, the rate was higher: about 14.1%. The median UC Berkeley admit rate was also lower for Bay Area schools than for schools elsewhere, 12.3% versus 13.7%. In other words, Bay Area schools did not get a measurable edge in the aggregate.
Narrowing the analysis to schools in Alameda County, home to UC Berkeley, still followed the broader Bay Area pattern: Its schools’ admit rate was about 12.3%, below the 14.1% rate for schools outside the Bay Area.
Here are some of the high schools with notable UC Berkeley admit rates across the state:
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Berkeley High, which was No. 2 in the Chronicle’s recent ranking of public high schools for UC admissions and is located just a few blocks from the UC Berkeley campus, stood out as a strong local performer, with a 22.9% acceptance rate.
Bishop O’Dowd in Oakland was another top Bay Area example at 26.6%.
The academically elite Lowell in San Francisco was at 11.6%, much closer to the statewide average.
Dougherty Valley in San Ramon sent a huge number of applications to UC Berkeley (542) but received only 44 admits, for a rate of 8.1%.
Mira Loma in Sacramento posted 28 admits on 101 applications, or 27.7%.
Santa Monica, which came in at No. 15 in the Chronicle’s public school ranking, was another strong nonlocal example, with 67 admits on 259 applications, or 25.9%.
Calabasas also landed well above many Bay Area high schools, with 32 admits on 121 applications, or 26.4%.
For UCLA, the Chronicle looked at high schools with at least 50 applicants in Los Angeles County (which has a larger population than the nine-county Bay Area). High schools in L.A. County posted a combined UCLA admit rate of about 10.3%, while schools outside L.A. County came in at about 9.2%. The median school-level UCLA admit rate was also slightly higher in L.A. County: 10% versus 9.1% outside the county. That is not a huge gap, but it does point in the direction of a slight local advantage.
Here are some of the more notable examples of higher UCLA admit rates:
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts showed how strong some local UCLA feeders can be, with 16 admits on 64 applications, or 25%.
University High in Los Angeles — a larger public school — posted 17 admits on 114 applications, or 14.9%.
Orange County School of the Arts, which counts as nonlocal in this analysis, posted 38 admits on 240 applications, or 15.8%.
Carlsbad High in San Diego County beat many local schools, with 16 admits on 108 applications, or 14.8%.
Clovis North in Fresno also showed that high UCLA rates are not confined to Southern California’s core, posting 21 admits on 147 applications, or 14.3%.
Why Mission High is such an outlier
The data for both UCs makes clear just how much of an outlier Mission High is with its 45% acceptance rate to Berkeley.
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The Chronicle has previously reported on why Mission sees such high UC admissions rates, not just to UC Berkeley but to the other campuses, as well. Mission counselors stay with the same class for all four years, students can access the school’s Future Center for admissions help, and the school added a yearlong college access course for seniors to guide them through applications, financial aid and enrollment. Mission High Foundation support has also helped cover extra application fees and college-startup costs for students.
The simplest takeaway: going to a high school in the same region as UCLA may help a little, but high schools closer to UC Berkeley don’t see higher acceptance rates as a group. And when a school like Mission breaks the pattern, the Chronicle’s previous reporting suggests the reason may have less to do with geography than with how well a school helps students navigate the admissions process.
Nanette Asimov contributed to this report.
This article includes material generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence. AI was used for support analyzing the dataset, to help summarize the data and to summarize past Chronicle reporting. Chronicle journalists contributed reporting and writing to the article; they reviewed, fact-checked and edited all content.