Rancho Alamitos High School

How to Enroll at Rancho Alamitos High School

Rancho Alamitos 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.

Rancho Alamitos High School's FACT program (Freshman Advanced Curriculum Team) serves Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) and high-achieving freshmen, and the school website does not publish an application process. Seats in Cypress College dual enrollment courses are limited and filled first come, first served; students submit a dual enrollment application, and the district course catalog also requires a college application and a special admit form with parental consent.

Courses and Signature Programs at Rancho Alamitos High School

In the 2026-27 University of California A-G course list, Rancho Alamitos High School has 129 approved courses, including 21 AP courses and 27 UC-approved honors courses (courses that receive extra weight in the UC GPA). See the full A-G list.

AP Capstone

AP Capstone is the College Board's research-based program made up of AP Seminar and AP Research. According to the school's 2023 WASC report, Rancho Alamitos High School has offered it since 2018-19, with a focus on writing college-level research papers based on student interests.

FACT (Freshman Advanced Curriculum Team)

Founded in 1998, FACT is the school's only cross-curricular program: 9th graders take Honors English, AP Human Geography and Biology together, taught by an interdisciplinary team of teachers. According to the 2023 WASC report, it serves GATE and high-achieving freshmen.

Cypress College Dual Enrollment

Cypress College partners with the district so that high school students can take free college courses that may transfer to a CSU or UC, in fall, spring and summer terms, with seats filled first come, first served. According to the 2023 WASC report, cybersecurity and business courses are part of the dual enrollment program.

Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathways

According to the 2023 WASC report, the school offers pathway certificates in Culinary Arts, Business, Automotive and Graphic Arts, plus a cybersecurity pathway; students who take two years of the same CTE subject become pathway completers. Culinary students who complete a two-course sequence earn a Kitchen Food Safe certificate.

AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination)

The school has offered the AVID elective since 2006, with tutorial groups led by college tutors, and AVID students in grades 9 to 11 visit several college campuses each year.

Academic Results at Rancho Alamitos High School: CAASPP and Graduation

In the 2024-25 California state tests (CAASPP), 63.7% of Rancho Alamitos High School 11th graders met or exceeded the English language arts standard and 32.8% met or exceeded the math standard; the statewide figures for 11th graders were 57% and 30.5%. For the class of 2025, 91.4% of the 373 students in the four-year cohort graduated, and 58.9% of graduates completed the A-G courses required for UC and CSU admission.

Twelve Years of UC Application Data at Rancho Alamitos High School: Applicants, Admit Rates and GPA

The University of California publishes applicants, admits and enrollees for every California high school. Combined 2023–2025, 208 of 259 applications from Rancho Alamitos High School to the UC system were admitted (80%). Categories with fewer than five students are not published by UC and appear as "—", not zero.

Campuses are listed in order of the U.S. News national university rankings. UC leaves a category blank when it has fewer than five applicants or fewer than three admits or enrollees.

Student Body at Rancho Alamitos High School

In 2025-26, 88.5% of Rancho Alamitos High School students were socioeconomically disadvantaged and 24.6% were English learners.

• Hispanic or Latino64%
• Asian27.8%
• White3.7%
• Filipino1.6%
• Two or more races1.4%

Other Public High Schools in Garden Grove

• Bolsa Grande High SchoolGarden Grove Unified School District
• Garden Grove High SchoolGarden Grove Unified School District
• Pacifica High SchoolGarden Grove Unified School District
• Santiago High SchoolGarden Grove Unified School District

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