FILE: Sather Tower and the UC Berkeley libraries on Nov. 27, 2016.
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New data for fall 2025 shows which high schools sent the most graduates into the University of California system, as overall acceptance rates for in-state applicants reached their highest level in nearly a decade.
More than 77% of California students who applied to a UC campus for fall 2025 were accepted into at least one school, according to UC data. Acceptance rates hadn’t reached that level in nine years, according to a data visualization by the San Francisco Chronicle (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms).
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The most competitive campuses in the system were UCLA (9.4% acceptance rate), UC Berkeley (11.4%), UC San Diego (28.4%), UC Irvine (28.7%) and UC Santa Barbara (38.3%).
San Francisco’s Mission High School had the highest acceptance rate to UC Berkeley, finishing far ahead of all other public and private schools in the state, the Chronicle’s visualization showed. The school had a 45% acceptance rate into the top university, with 34 out of its 76 applicants making the cut.
The average GPA for Mission High applicants who applied to UC Berkeley was 3.93, and for the students who got accepted, the GPA was an average of 4.08, according to UC data. This follows a growing trend for Mission High, a school with a large student population who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and which has been a standout school for years, leading the pack in UC Berkeley acceptances.
Edison High School, a public school in Fresno, had the second-highest UC Berkeley acceptance rate of 34%, with 21 students being admitted out of 62 applicants. Next in line, and the highest private school on the list, was Geffen Academy at UCLA with a 31% acceptance rate (19 out of its 61 applicants accepted).
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Other Bay Area schools with high acceptance rates to the UC’s flagship campus were Stanford Online High School in Redwood City (27%), Bishop O’Dowd High School, a private school in Oakland (27%), Berkeley High (23%), El Cerrito High (23%), Hercules High (22%) and San Ramon Valley High in Danville (22%).
Schools that fell far behind the average acceptance rate were Westmont High in Campbell (4%), Aquinas International Academy in Ontario (2%), Pleasant Grove High in Elk Grove (4%), River City High in West Sacramento (5%).
The most competitive major at UC Berkeley was public health, with a 2% acceptance rate, and the least competitive was arts and humanities at a 25% acceptance rate.
Geffen Academy at UCLA had the highest acceptance rate for UCLA with 26%, or 16 out of 61 applicants, gaining admission. Not far behind was the LA County High School for the Arts, with a 25% acceptance rate.
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Southern California high schools were at the forefront of the UCLA acceptance rates while Bay Area high schools were slightly farther behind. Some of the highest in the region were BASIS Independent Silicon Valley, a private school in San Jose (14%), De La Salle High School, a private school in Concord (13%), Prospect High in Saratoga (13%), Miramonte High in Orinda (12%) and American Canyon High (11%).
The most selective UCLA major for applicants was nursing with a 1% acceptance rate. Physical sciences and math had the highest acceptance rates of 15% each.
Beyond the two most selective UC campuses, there were some colleges that accepted large numbers of students.
In San Francisco, 13 high schools had 100% acceptance rates to UC Merced. Overall, UC Merced’s acceptance rate was 95.1%. Several other Bay Area counties saw a large number of high schools with 100% acceptance rates into UC Merced. The list includes Alameda County (23 schools), Contra Costa County (18 schools), Napa County (four schools), San Mateo County (14 schools), Santa Clara County (27 schools), Solano County (six schools) and Sonoma County (eight schools).
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Another UC campus that had a 100% acceptance rate at Bay Area high schools was UC Riverside. The university’s overall acceptance rate for first-time students was 87.1%.
Out of all the Bay Area counties, Alameda, Santa Clara, Solano and San Francisco counties had the most schools with 100% acceptance rates into UC Riverside. Alameda had eight, Santa Clara had five and Solano and San Francisco had four.