How to Enroll at Garden Grove High School
Garden Grove High School enrolls students by Garden Grove Unified attendance area: students who live inside the boundary register by address, with no entrance exam. The district's Find Your School locator is the authority on which school an address is assigned to.
District residents who want a school other than their assigned one can apply for a Parental Choice Transfer; the district sets the number of seats at each school and fills them by random lottery. For 2026-27 the application window ran from January 12 to February 13, 2026. The district also accepts Specified Reason transfers for childcare, siblings, completing the school year, a special program, or parent/guardian employment. Parents must provide transportation for approved transfers, and students must reapply when moving from 8th to 9th grade.
Students who live outside the district, including Irvine residents, must first obtain a release from their home district and then submit an inter-district transfer application on the Garden Grove Unified website with the release attached. The district accepts inter-district requests only for childcare, siblings, completing the school year, a special program, or parent/guardian employment, and decides based on space at the requested school; 2026-27 applications have been accepted on a rolling basis since January 12, 2026. New applicants placed on a waitlist must plan to attend their school of residence until they receive an approval email, and inter-district students are not eligible for district transportation.
New students first complete the district's online New Student Enrollment and then bring to Garden Grove High School a birth certificate, immunization records, a parent/guardian photo ID, a report card or unofficial transcript from the previous school, and two proofs of residency dated within 30 days. Students whose address is outside the school's boundary must first have an approved transfer on file with district Student Services.
Courses and Signature Programs at Garden Grove High School
In the 2026-27 University of California A-G course list, Garden Grove High School has 159 approved courses, including 24 AP courses and 30 UC-approved honors courses (courses that receive extra weight in the UC GPA). See the full A-G list.
- Advanced Placement, Including AP Seminar and AP Research
- AP is the College Board's program of college-level courses. According to the 2026-27 School Profile, Garden Grove High School offers AP courses in English, social science, math, science, computer science, Spanish and art, along with AP Seminar and AP Research. Garden Grove Unified weights AP grades in the GPA.
- Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathways
- The school website lists six pathways: Computer Science; Design, Visual, and Media Arts; Criminal Justice; Culinary Arts; Mental and Behavioral Health; and Medical Patient Care. Students can earn industry certifications and college credit, and can take part in the district's summer internship between 11th and 12th grade.
- Santa Ana College Dual Credit Culinary Courses
- The school partners with Santa Ana College to offer dual credit Culinary and Restaurant Management and Baking and Pastry courses on campus: students earn 5 CSU-transferable units for CULN120 and CULN140 at no cost, taught by an instructor who is both the college professor and the teacher of record. College courses on campus are closed to outside adult students.
- AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination)
- AVID is a four-year elective that gives students academic, social and emotional support to succeed in the school's most rigorous courses, including study skills, Focused Notes, organization and time management; students attend tutorials led by college tutors twice a week.
- Vietnamese and Spanish
- According to the 2026-27 School Profile, the school offers Vietnamese 1 through 3 and Vietnamese 4 Honors, as well as Spanish, Heritage Spanish and AP Spanish Language.
Academic Results at Garden Grove High School: CAASPP and Graduation
In the 2024-25 California state tests (CAASPP), 72.1% of Garden Grove High School 11th graders met or exceeded the English language arts standard and 46.5% met or exceeded the math standard; the statewide figures for 11th graders were 57% and 30.5%. For the class of 2025, 93.9% of the 523 students in the four-year cohort graduated, and 68.2% of graduates completed the A-G courses required for UC and CSU admission.
| Garden Grove High School | California | |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 11 ELA met or exceeded | 72.1% | 57% |
| Grade 11 math met or exceeded | 46.5% | 30.5% |
Twelve Years of UC Application Data at Garden Grove High School: Applicants, Admit Rates and GPA
The University of California publishes applicants, admits and enrollees for every California high school. Combined 2023–2025, 348 of 489 applications from Garden Grove High School to the UC system were admitted (71%). Categories with fewer than five students are not published by UC and appear as "—", not zero.
The ten lines are hard to tell apart where they overlap. Hover over any campus name below to highlight that campus’s trend; click to keep it highlighted, and click again to clear it.Tap any campus name below to highlight that campus’s trend; tap again to clear it.
| UC campus (fall 2025) | Applicants | Admits | Admit rate | Enrollees | Admit GPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 77 | 14 | 18% | — | 4.27 |
| UC Los Angeles | 131 | 11 | 8% | 8 | 4.28 |
| UC San Diego | 130 | 68 | 52% | 22 | 4.18 |
| UC Davis | 38 | 15 | 39% | — | 4.11 |
| UC Irvine | 155 | 41 | 26% | 24 | 4.25 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 71 | 29 | 41% | 3 | 4.19 |
| UC Merced | 53 | 53 | 100% | — | 3.86 |
| UC Riverside | 100 | 93 | 93% | 4 | 3.90 |
| UC Santa Cruz | 24 | 13 | 54% | — | 3.83 |
Student Body at Garden Grove High School
In 2025-26, 81.4% of Garden Grove High School students were socioeconomically disadvantaged and 17.4% were English learners.
Garden Grove High School: Frequently Asked Questions
Can Irvine families transfer to Garden Grove High School?
Garden Grove High School belongs to Garden Grove Unified, so a family living in Irvine is out of district: the student must first obtain a release from the home district, such as Irvine Unified, and then submit an inter-district transfer application to Garden Grove Unified. The district accepts such requests only for childcare, siblings, completing the school year, a special program, or parent/guardian employment, and decides based on space at the school; Irvine students who do not fit one of these reasons have limited chances of approval. Approved students are not eligible for district transportation.
Which AP courses does Garden Grove High School offer, a question Irvine families often ask?
Garden Grove High School's 2026-27 School Profile lists AP courses including AP Calculus AB and BC, AP Precalculus, AP Statistics, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Chemistry, AP Computer Science A, AP Seminar and AP Research. Honors courses include English 1 to 3 Honors, Vietnamese 4 Honors and Cybersecurity 1 Honors.
Can students from Irvine families earn college credit at Garden Grove High School?
Garden Grove High School students can earn college credit in three ways: CTE courses covered by articulation agreements, concurrent enrollment in college classes outside the school day, and dual credit courses taught on campus that count for both high school and college. The dual credit culinary courses offered with Santa Ana College are free, and students earn 5 CSU-transferable units for CULN120 and CULN140. According to the district course catalog, dual enrollment requires a college application and a special admit form with parental consent.
What documents do Irvine families need to enroll a new student at Garden Grove High School?
Garden Grove High School asks parents to complete Garden Grove Unified's online New Student Enrollment first and then bring a birth certificate, immunization records (records from outside the country must be transcribed by a U.S. medical office), a parent/guardian photo ID, the previous school's transcript, special education documents if applicable, and two proofs of residency dated within 30 days showing the parent's name and current address. Students living outside the school's boundary must first have an approved transfer.
Other Public High Schools in Garden Grove
- Bolsa Grande High SchoolGarden Grove Unified School District
- Pacifica High SchoolGarden Grove Unified School District
- Rancho Alamitos High SchoolGarden Grove Unified School District
- Santiago High SchoolGarden Grove Unified School District
Compare all public high schools in Garden Grove → · Orange County public high schools by city →
Sources18 sources · checked 2026-11-14
Enrollment, student body, CAASPP and graduation data come from the California Department of Education. UC admissions data come from the University of California Information Center public data tables, downloaded Nov 2026.
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