Irvine-Area Private High School Rankings

It depends on the type of school. Catholic high schools mostly use the HSPT; schools on this page that state an HSPT requirement are Mater Dei High School, JSerra Catholic High School, Rosary Academy, Servite High School, Santa Margarita Catholic High School. Independent schools mostly use the ISEE or SSAT, for example Sage Hill School, TVT Community Day School (Tarbut V'Torah), St. Margaret's Episcopal School. Many other schools use only a school assessment or an interview. Testing is usually completed between the fall and winter of grade 8.

Based on the high school tuition published on each school's website, schools on this page range from $5,400 at Bethel Baptist School (2022-23 school year) to $49,500 at Sage Hill School (2026-27 school year). Beyond tuition there are usually registration fees, books, uniforms, bus service and activity fees, so Irvine families should compare the four-year total.

It depends on the specific school and cannot be answered in general. The University of California publishes official application and admission counts by high school, and EDUBUS compiles these year-by-year figures in its guides to 14 private high schools, alongside comparable schools. Irvine families can use them to compare against their assigned public high school.

Some students in the high school division of a K-12 school move up from the school's own middle school, so the number of new grade 9 students admitted from outside depends on how many students move up that year. At a stand-alone high school, every grade 9 student is new. When applying to the high school division of a K-12 school, Irvine families should first ask how many grade 9 seats are open to outside applicants that year.