Pacifica Christian High School, Orange County:
Planning Guide

Pacifica Christian High School, Orange County is a nondenominational Christian liberal arts high school in Newport Beach, Orange County. The school opened in August 2015 with grades 9 and 10, added a grade each year after that, and moved to its main campus on Monrovia Avenue in the 2021-22 school year. According to the Class of 2027 Profile, the school has 366 students, an average class size of 14 to 17, and a student-teacher ratio of 12:1. Its most distinctive feature is the curriculum structure: all students take a chronologically sequenced core in English, history and theology for four years, built around reading Western classics and roundtable seminars. The school offers no history AP courses and instead uses honors dual credit courses taught in partnership with universities as its advanced track. This page does not rate the school. It answers two questions only: how to apply to this school, and how to plan the four years after enrolling.

UC A-G refers to the 7 course categories (a through g) that the University of California and the California State University require high school students to complete; only courses on a school’s A-G list are recognized by UC. AP (Advanced Placement) is the college-level course program of the College Board. Honors courses are advanced courses designed by the school. Dual Credit courses are the school’s honors courses for which a partner university also awards transferable college credit.

The College-Preparatory Structure at Pacifica Christian High School

The data the school publishes point to four defining features.

First, the school is small and its curriculum is fixed. The school has 366 students in total, 90 in the Class of 2027, and 31 full-time and part-time teachers. The core sequence in English, history and theology is required of all students: grade 9 covers the ancient world, grade 10 the medieval world, grade 11 modern Europe, and grade 12 America and the contemporary world. The school states that each four-year graduate completes more than 900 hours of seminar training. Course choice is narrower than at a large high school, and world languages are limited to Spanish and Latin.

Second, advanced coursework is mainly dual credit, while AP courses are concentrated in science and English. For 2026-27 the school offers 14 AP courses and 12 dual credit courses. All honors history courses in grades 10 to 12 are dual credit courses, and the school does not offer AP U.S. History, AP World History or AP U.S. Government. According to the UC 2026-27 A-G list, the school has 41 UC-approved honors courses, including 16 AP courses and 25 UC-certified honors courses; Honors Medieval History, Honors European History and Honors U.S. History are all on the UC-approved list.

Third, AP exam results have improved year over year. The school requires students enrolled in AP courses to take the exam. In 2026, 134 students took 233 AP exams, and 93% of those exams earned a 3 or higher; in 2025, 123 students took 199 exams, and 83% earned a 3 or higher. The school also schedules an on-campus ACT for the entire grade each spring, so its published ACT results cover the whole class: the Class of 2027 ACT average is 25.2, with a middle 50% range of 21 to 30.

Fourth, theology and service are graduation requirements. Graduation requires 230 credits, including 1 year (10 credits) of theology, and every student also completes 25 hours of service learning each year. The grade 12 theology course, Faith & Culture, is not on the UC A-G list, but it occupies a full-year slot in the grade 12 schedule.

How to Apply

Pacifica Christian High School admits students mainly at grade 9; transfer students may apply for grades 9 to 11 when space is available. The following summary follows the school website’s timeline for 2027-28 enrollment.

The school website does not describe an international student program, the I-20 (the school-issued document an international student needs to apply for an F-1 visa), or homestay arrangements. Families who need F-1 enrollment should confirm directly with the admissions office. The school also has no bus service, so families traveling from Irvine need to drive or carpool. The school website lists no school bus or shuttle service. The Admissions FAQ page suggests that families form carpools with nearby families and states that students come from Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Tustin, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Irvine, and throughout South Orange County. The Transportation page covers only parent drop-off and pick-up rules: no drop-off before 7:50, with classes starting at 8:40; afternoon pick-up is staggered by grade, 3:00 to 3:10 for grades 9 and 12 and 3:10 to 3:20 for grades 10 and 11; students are unsupervised after 3:30.

The following are the 2027-28 application dates published on the school website, followed by the EDUBUS advisor review.

Choosing a School: Total Tuition, Commute and Campus Visits

This section answers four questions parents often ask before deciding whether to apply: what kind of family the school suits, what four years cost, how students get to school from Irvine, and what to ask during a visit.

Which Families the School Suits

Pacifica Christian High School suits families who value a Christian liberal arts education and want students to practice reading and writing in small seminar classes. The school has 366 students; English, history and theology are sequenced chronologically, and all students read Western classics and take part in roundtable seminars for four years. Advanced courses consist mainly of 14 AP courses and 12 honors dual credit courses; history follows the dual credit track, with no history AP courses. The school states that it admits students of any religious background, but the grade 12 Faith & Culture course, Wednesday Chapel and 25 hours of service learning each year are all required. World languages are limited to Spanish and Latin, with no Chinese course. The school has no bus service and no published international student program, and both Irvine families and families holding F-1 visas need to consider these two points in advance.

Total Tuition Over Four Years

At the 2026-27 tuition of $25,490, attending grades 9 through 12, a total of 4 years, costs about $101,960 in tuition. There is a single tuition rate, and the $800 deposit paid at enrollment is applied toward tuition. Beyond tuition, the fees listed on the website include textbooks of about $500 to $700 per year, an all-school Retreat of $225 per year, uniforms of about $300 to $400, and an iPad of about $1,000. For families with two or more children enrolled who do not receive financial aid, the second child receives a 5% discount and each additional child a 10% discount. All figures use 2026-27 prices; the school has not published tuition for later years.

Commuting from Irvine

The school is on the west side of Newport Beach. Based on EDUBUS measurements from each community’s center point to the school address, the straight-line distance is about 7.1 miles from Turtle Rock in Irvine, 11.3 miles from Northwood, 12.1 miles from Woodbury, and 13.8 miles from Portola Springs. The school has no bus or shuttle; the admissions FAQ page recommends that families form carpools with nearby families and notes that some students come from Irvine. Students may not be dropped off before 7:50 a.m., classes begin at 8:40, and afternoon pick-up is staggered by grade between 3:00 and 3:20. Actual drive times depend on navigation, and families should test the commute once during school hours.

Questions to Confirm During a Campus Visit

• International students: the website does not describe an international student program, the I-20 or F-1 status, so families should ask directly whether international students are accepted.
• AP offerings: the school’s 2026-27 list includes AP Physics 1, while the UC list includes only AP Physics C: Mechanics; AP U.S. History is on the UC list but not on the school’s list.
• Grade 11 history: the 2026-27 course catalog lists the course as European Ethics & Politics, while the UC list shows European History; confirm whether they are the same course and whether the UC list has been updated.
• Enrollment: both the Class of 2027 Profile and the previous Profile state 366 students, which may be a figure carried over without an update.
• Course prerequisites: the 2026-27 student handbook has not been made public, so prerequisites for courses such as Honors Algebra II and Honors Calculus should be confirmed against the school’s latest information.
• Admission decisions: the website does not publish the date admission decisions are released.

Comparison with Similar Schools

The nearest private secondary schools differ from Pacifica Christian High School mainly in admission testing and religious affiliation. Distances in the table are straight-line distances calculated by EDUBUS from school addresses.

Among these schools, Sage Hill School is the one that also requires the ISEE; Mater Dei High School and Crean Lutheran High School have a religious affiliation and include theology or religion courses in their graduation requirements. For each school’s tuition and curriculum, refer to its own guide page.

Year-by-Year UC Application Data: Applicants, Admission Rates and GPA

The following data come from the UC Infocenter of the University of California Office of the President, reported by source high school with the school type set to California private high school, and are updated annually. They answer two questions: how many Pacifica Christian High School students apply and are admitted each year, and where the GPAs of admitted students fall. GPA is the UC weighted, capped GPA and counts only grade 10 and grade 11 courses. The school opened in 2015, UC data begin with fall 2018, and since then 6 to 24 students have applied to UC each year. UC does not publish categories with fewer than 5 applicants or fewer than 3 admits or enrollees; these appear as “—” in the tables.

Applications and Admissions by Campus in the Most Recent Year

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.

The School’s Published College List

Everything in this section comes from the Class of 2027 Profile published by Pacifica Christian High School. It differs from the official UC data above in three ways: it is compiled by the school itself; it covers 2021 through 2026 as one combined list, whereas the official UC data are listed year by year, with the most recent year being applicants for fall 2025 entry; and it covers all colleges rather than UC alone. Note the basis of the list: the school names representative admitting institutions for 2021 through 2026, not the institutions students ultimately attended, and it does not give the number of students at each institution.

This list shows two things. First, admissions are broad: the Class of 2026 (recorded as 90 students in the Class of 2026 Profile) received admission offers from 165 different four-year institutions, and the list includes private research universities such as Harvard University, Yale University and Duke University as well as Christian colleges such as Wheaton College, Westmont College and Baylor University. Second, the list is a six-year combined sample and cannot be used to estimate the number of students admitted or the admission rate at any single university. The school states that 95% of graduates are typically admitted to four-year colleges, but it does not specify the class year or the denominator. UC applications, admissions and enrollment should always be taken from the official UC data on this page.

GPA Weighting: The School’s Method and UC’s Method

This section answers the question parents most often get wrong: how the school and UC each weight the same transcript. The school’s rules come first.

Checked course by course against the official UC A-G list, the following courses are weighted by Pacifica Christian High School but are not on UC’s list of approved honors courses. For UC applications they count as regular courses, or the entire course does not count toward the UC GPA.

The practical impact of this list on UC applications falls in grades 10 and 11. UC does not count grade 9 grades, so Honors Ancient World Literature and Honors Ancient World History do not affect the UC GPA, and the grade 12 Honors Faith & Culture course is also outside the calculation. The courses that deserve attention are Honors Geometry and Honors Algebra II, both common in grade 10: they add 0.5 at the school but add nothing to the UC GPA. By contrast, Honors Chemistry, Honors Physics, Honors Precalculus and several honors dual credit courses are UC-certified honors courses; the school adds only 0.5 or 1.0 for them, while UC adds 1 point per semester. EDUBUS recommends placing UC-certified honors courses in the grade 10 schedule first, such as World Literature & Composition (H/DC), Medieval World History II (H/DC) or Chemistry (H); in math, students should choose Algebra II + Trigonometry (H) rather than Honors Algebra II. UC counts at most 4 honors points in grade 10, equivalent to two year-long honors courses, and additional honors courses do not raise the UC GPA further.

Four-Year Timeline

Three milestones determine the path. The first is grade 8 grades and the ISEE: Honors English, Honors History, Honors Biology and Honors Geometry in grade 9 all look at a cumulative grade 8 GPA of 3.5, and Honors Geometry also looks at ISEE math scores. The second is grades across all of grade 9: regular-track students who want to enter Honors World Literature, Honors Medieval History or Honors Chemistry in grade 10 need an A- in both semesters of the subject. The third is grade 10: AP English Literature, Honors European History, AP Chemistry and AP Biology in grade 11 all look at grade 10 grades, and grade 11 is the last year counted in the UC GPA.

Clubs and Academic Competitions

The school’s student life page lists clubs such as Student Council, the Prefect Board and the STEAM club, and states that there are also a number of student-run clubs, but it does not publish the total number of clubs or a complete list. The clubs listed on the page include:

• Associated Students
• Prefect Board
• STEAM Club
• Prayer Club
• Hiking Club

The school also has 7 academic teams. Academic teams practice twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) during the Innovation Block.

• Chemistry Olympiad: coached by the science department chair
• Speech & Debate
• Junior Classical League (JCL): coached by the Latin teacher
• VEX Robotics
• Math Team: competing at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) on October 10, 2026
• Biotech & Medical Cohort
• Chess Team

The academic teams cover chemistry, mathematics, robotics, debate and classics, a full range of fields, but all of them train on campus twice a week. The school does not publish team results, nor does it state which level of competition the chemistry and math teams enter. Students who want to demonstrate academic ability through results in the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO) or the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) need systematic training outside school.

Signature Programs

• The Pacifica Core: All students take a four-year core sequence in English, history, and theology arranged chronologically: the ancient world in grade 9, the medieval world in grade 10, modern Europe in grade 11, and America and the contemporary world in grade 12. Courses center on reading the Great Books of the Western tradition and Socratic seminar discussion; the school states that each four-year graduate completes more than 900 hours of seminar training
• The Great Conversation (TGC) Honors: Students who wish to graduate with honors may choose one of three pathways, earning a B or higher in every course listed in the pathway:
  • Liberal Arts pathwayFour years each of English, history, mathematics, and science, including at least one full-year AP or Dual Credit course in each of these four subjects; plus two semesters of Faith & Culture, 8 semesters of world language, and two semesters each of visual arts and performing arts
  • Humanities pathwayHonors World Literature, AP English Literature, AP English Language, Honors Medieval History, Honors European History, and Honors US History, plus one semester of a humanities elective, two semesters of Faith & Culture, 6 semesters of world language, and 4 semesters of arts
  • STEAM pathwayMathematics in grades 10 through 12, Chemistry (H), and science in grades 11 through 12, plus two semesters of physics, two semesters of Faith & Culture, 4 semesters of world language, and 4 semesters of arts; Algebra I, Geometry, Finite Math, and Kinesiology do not count
  • TGC ScholarsTGC Honors students may apply in the summer after grade 11 and, in grade 12, complete a year-long research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor. The project requires a research paper of at least 20 pages, at least one meeting with the mentor each month, and a 7- to 10-minute presentation at the year-end Senior Symposium. The Student Handbook anticipates that only one or two students choose this option each year
• Dual Credit: In 2026-27 the school offers 12 Dual Credit courses in partnership with Colorado Christian University and the University of Texas at Austin. The school weights them in the school GPA at +1.0, the same as AP courses, and the Student Handbook states that the credit transfer success rate exceeds 96% (as reported by the school)
• Grade 12 Senior Project: After final exams, seniors spend two weeks completing an off-campus project of at least 60 hours (30 hours per week), in areas such as outdoor adventure, artistic creation, research or entrepreneurship, internships, and community service. Final exams for grade 12 are held three weeks earlier than for other grades to make time for the project
• Declamations Contest: Held each year at the start of the second semester, with all students participating. Students first compete in rounds within their classes, and finalists recite classic texts before the whole school; awards are given in categories including Bible and theology, nonfiction and history, and literature
• Service Learning: Each student must complete 25 hours of service each year; projects must be approved in advance by the student's mentor and logged in the MobileServe app. The Student Handbook requires that at least 10 of these hours be completed during the school year
• The Pacifica Houses: All students and faculty are placed into four Houses named after the four Gospel writers, each with about 90 students and 13 faculty and staff members. Students are grouped by grade and gender into Mentor Groups of 10 to 12, which meet with their mentors on a rotating basis during Monday lunch
• Prefect Board: Open to students in grades 10 through 12 by application and selection; each year 19 Prefects are chosen and assigned to areas such as admissions, college counseling, the arts, athletics, and the Head of School's office, where they work alongside the responsible faculty and staff
• International Travel: An international trip is offered each spring, rotating annually among four routes: England, France, and the Netherlands; Spain and Portugal; Central and Eastern Europe; and Greece and Italy
• 1:1 iPad and Academic Support: All students use a school-managed iPad (approximately $1,000). Ninth graders have a required study hall every semester, in which the Academic Support Center leads the Skills for Life curriculum; in grade 9, each student develops a personal four-year plan with the administrative team, which is reviewed every year thereafter

Using the School’s College Counseling

This section explains what the school’s college counseling offers and when to use each service.

Naviance is a college planning platform used by many American high schools; students use it to organize college lists, search for scholarships and manage recommendation letters. The school’s public pages do not describe the process for requesting recommendation letters or publish the ratio of college counselors to students; both should be confirmed with the director of college counseling in the spring of grade 11. For each course’s grade level and prerequisites, see Courses and Course Selection; for the math sequence, see Math Pathway; for AP courses and prerequisites, see AP List and Course Selection Strategy.

Data verified on 2026-09-23. Course catalogs are updated each spring; prerequisites follow the school's current Course of Study.