St. Margaret's Episcopal School

Overview

St. Margaret’s Episcopal School is an Episcopal K-12 private school in San Juan Capistrano, California, serving grades K-12, founded in 1979, with about 1,234 students. Tuition for 2026-27 is $37,000 to $52,950, which puts it in the upper range among Orange County private schools at this level. Religion classes are required, so confirm your family is comfortable with that before applying. The school offers 26 AP courses. Mandarin is offered. The school accepts F-1 international students and issues the I-20 needed for a student visa. Bus service is available, covering Irvine, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Newport Coast, San Juan Capistrano.

Admissions

The ISEE is required for applicants.

The school publishes the following application details. The school website’s Apply page publishes the process for the 2027-28 school year: applicants in every division must submit the application form (Form 1) by December 15, 2026 and complete all materials by February 1, 2027. Testing: applicants in grades 2 through 11 must take the “At-Home” online version of the ISEE Entrance Exam and complete it by February 1; the school website states plainly that TOEFL is not accepted. Campus visit: every applicant must complete an on-campus interview, assessment or early childhood playgroup for the file to count as complete, and there is no online alternative (a playgroup for early childhood and kindergarten, the At-Home ISEE plus an on-campus interview for the lower school, and the At-Home ISEE plus an on-campus interview and visit day for the middle and upper school). Middle and upper school applicants may choose the Early Admission Review track: sign up by email by November 15, complete all materials by December 1, and receive a decision in mid-December; standard-round decisions are released in early March. Language and international students: the school has no ESL program, applicants must be fluent in reading, writing, listening and speaking English and have at least two years of instruction in English, and all students must live in Orange County with immediate family or a legal guardian. The school is SEVP certified, and students who need an I-20 must first be admitted and pay the tuition deposit in full before applying for a visa; the school website says it currently supports 3 to 5 families who need an I-20. The school website does not publish the application fee amount.

The main entry points at a K-12 school are kindergarten, grade 6 and grade 9; seats in other grades open only when a family leaves. Plan on a 12-month runway: visit in the fall, submit materials and test in the winter, and receive decisions in the spring. Applications for mid-year grades can be filed at any time, but availability depends on that year’s openings.

Tuition and fees

$37,000-$52,950 per year (2026-27, by division: early childhood $37,000, lower school $42,460, middle school $47,800, upper school $52,950, tuition refund plan included, school website)

The school website’s Tuition and Financial Support page states that tuition already includes the Tuition Refund Plan, and the page itself does not list any other fees separately; bus service, after-school Extension Programs, SEA Term, athletics and travel programs are charged by program, and the school website does not publish those amounts. Payment plans and down payment percentages are given in the downloadable “2026-2027 Tuition and Payment Plan Options” on the school website (also available in Chinese and Spanish translations). The school website lists neither the application fee amount nor the processing fee for the Clarity financial aid application. International tuition is not listed separately on the school website and is the same as for domestic students.

Financial aid: All aid is need-based. The school website states plainly that “St. Margaret’s does not offer academic, athletic, or other merit scholarships”, meaning there are no academic, athletic or other merit awards. Aid is available from kindergarten through grade 12 (early childhood is not eligible) and is applied for through the third-party platform Clarity, with applications opening October 1. Deadlines for the 2027-28 school year are December 1, 2026 for early admission families, November 15, 2026 for currently enrolled returning families and February 15, 2027 for new families, with results released in early March along with admission letters and enrollment contracts. The school website’s At a Glance page reports more than $6 million in need-based aid awarded for the 2026-2027 school year. (School website, Tuition and Financial Support page and At a Glance page)

Academics and programs

• 26 AP courses (school website, At a Glance)
• World languages: a choice of Latin, Spanish or Chinese, beginning in grade 7 (school website, middle school curriculum page); graduation requires three years of the same language through Level III, at least two of them completed in grades 9-12, with a second-semester grade of C- or better required to move up to the next level (school website, Academic Departments page)
• Religion and Philosophy is a separate academic department: Spirituality 6 is required in grade 6, and upper school students take three semesters of department electives, at least one of which must be Hebrew Bible as Literature or New Testament as Literature (school website, Religion & Philosophy Department Overview PDF)
• STEAM: 19 technology labs and 10 research and lecture labs, including robotics and engineering labs, a Makerspace, and audio and video production studios (school website, At a Glance)
• Arts: a 450-seat proscenium theater plus a 150-seat black box theater, and an All-Steinway School; 13 theater, music and dance performances a year, 31 visual arts courses and 8 visual arts exhibitions (school website, At a Glance)
• Athletics: 26 varsity teams and 13 middle school sports, 47 CIF championships and 8 state championships, with 83% of middle and upper school students on a team (school website, At a Glance)

How this school compares

These are the nearest schools at the same level and a comparable price. Select a name to open that school’s admissions guide:

School	City	Grades	Tuition	Entrance test	Class size	Distance
St. Margaret’s Episcopal School	San Juan Capistrano	K-12	$37,000	ISEE	—	—
Capistrano Valley Christian Schools	San Juan Capistrano	K-12	$19,500	On-campus assessment	15	1.2 mi
TVT Community Day School (Tarbut V’Torah)	Irvine	K-12	$37,285	On-campus assessment	—	13.5 mi
The Geneva School	Lake Forest	K-11	$12,000	On-campus assessment	15	8.9 mi
Newport Christian School	Newport Beach	K-12	$9,912	ISEE	17	15.6 mi

Where students go next

The 115 graduates in the class of 2026 enrolled at 59 colleges in 21 states, including Princeton, UPenn, Cornell, Caltech, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley and UCLA; the school website states that 100% of graduates are prepared for a four-year college (school website, June 5, 2026 news item, and At a Glance)

Students continuing internally generally do not test again, but families planning to move to a different high school in grade 9 should start preparing in the spring of grade 7.

Total tuition through graduation

At the 2026-27 rate of $37,000, 13 years covering grades K-12 come to roughly $481,000 in tuition alone. Assuming the 4% annual increase common at private schools, the figure is closer to $615,000. Neither number includes registration fees, deposits, uniforms or activity fees. A California 529 plan can cover up to $10,000 per child per year of K-12 tuition.

Getting there from Irvine

These are straight-line distances from neighborhoods where many Irvine families live. Actual drive times will be longer, and a morning rush-hour trip typically takes 1.5 to 2 times as long as an off-peak one:

Neighborhood	Straight-line distance
Woodbury	14.5 miles
Northwood	16.8 miles
Turtle Rock	13.0 miles
Portola Springs	14.6 miles

The school runs bus service, covering Irvine, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Newport Coast, San Juan Capistrano.

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• Scheduling of religious observances — the school website’s Chapel page and the Religion & Philosophy Department Overview PDF give only the frequency of services and the course requirements, and do not explain how Episcopal observances su…
• Application fee amount — the school website’s Apply page says only “There is a nonrefundable application fee” without publishing the amount; the processing fee for the Clarity financial aid application is likewise described …
• Average class size — the school website’s At a Glance page gives only a 10:1 student/advisor ratio for the middle and upper school and does not publish class sizes
• Fees beyond tuition — the school website’s Tuition and Financial Support page lists only tuition and the included Tuition Refund Plan; no amounts are published for bus service, after-school Extension Programs, SEA Term, a…
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition

How EDUBUS helps

Our Irvine-based counselors work in both Chinese and English. We track St. Margaret’s Episcopal School’s admissions calendar, prepare students for the ISEE, and review application materials before they are submitted. Book a school-selection consultation or read the Chinese version of this page.