As of October 2026: Across the five high schools serving Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita, UC admit rates for Fall 2025 run from 17.3% at Mission Viejo High School to 25.2% at Capistrano Valley High School, and UC Reach Scores run from 15 to 37. The most recent published list, Santa Margarita Catholic's Class of 2025, sends its largest groups to Saddleback College (31), the University of Utah (26), and Texas Christian University (16).
A school-by-school look at UC admit rates, UC Reach Scores, and the colleges local graduates actually enroll in.
By Nick Standlea, Test Prep Gurus. Figures may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.
UC admit rates in this pocket of Orange County span eight points Capistrano Valley High School posted a 25.2% UC admit rate for Fall 2025, the highest of the five schools we track here. Trabuco Hills High School sits at 23.1%, Santa Margarita Catholic at 21.6%, Tesoro at 20.0%, and Mission Viejo High School at 17.3%. That is a spread of about eight points between the top and the bottom of a group of schools that sit within a short drive of each other. For a parent, the gap is smaller than the local chatter suggests.
The UC Reach Score gap is much wider than the admit rate gap Santa Margarita Catholic High School carries a UC Reach Score of 37, while Mission Viejo High School carries a 15. Capistrano Valley is at 35, Tesoro at 32, and Trabuco Hills at 23. The score counts top-6 UC admits per 100 seniors, so it blends how many students apply with how many get in. Two schools can share a similar admit rate and still land far apart on this number.
The top landing spot on the one published list is a community college On Santa Margarita Catholic's Class of 2025 list, Saddleback College drew 31 graduates, more than any four-year school. The University of Utah drew 26 and Texas Christian University drew 16. UCLA drew 10, tied with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Chapman University. The real map of where local graduates enroll is wider and more out-of-state than the UC conversation implies.
UC outcomes and published college lists for the five high schools
These are the five high schools serving Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita in our data set. UC admit rate and UC Reach Score come from the UC Information Center for Fall 2025 admits by school. The college-going rate column comes from the California Department of Education, and the last three columns come from each school's own published list. Where a value is blank, the school or the state does not report it.
| High school | City | UC Reach Score | UC admit rate | College-going rate | List type | List year | Top colleges on the published list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Margarita Catholic High School | Rancho Santa Margarita | 37 | 21.6% | -- | matriculation | Class of 2025 | Saddleback College (31); University of Utah (26); Texas Christian University (16); Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (10); Chapman University (10); UCLA (10); University of San Diego (9); San Diego State University (8) |
| Capistrano Valley High School | Mission Viejo | 35 | 25.2% | -- | matriculation | Class of 2025 | -- |
| Tesoro High School | Rancho Santa Margarita | 32 | 20.0% | -- | matriculation | Class of 2024 | -- |
| Trabuco Hills High School | Mission Viejo | 23 | 23.1% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Mission Viejo High School | Mission Viejo | 15 | 17.3% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
UC Reach Score = top-6 UC admits (counted at each campus) per 100 seniors; it can exceed 100. Senior counts, top-6 admit counts, and college-going rates are not reported for these five schools in our current data.
Where do Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita graduates actually enroll?
The one published list we have in hand, Santa Margarita Catholic High School's Class of 2025, shows Saddleback College first with 31 graduates. The University of Utah follows with 26, then Texas Christian University with 16. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Chapman University, and UCLA each drew 10. The University of San Diego drew 9 and San Diego State University drew 8.
That shape surprises a lot of parents. The biggest single group stayed home at a two-year college. The second biggest left the state entirely. Only one UC campus, UCLA, cracks the top of the list, and it ties with two other options that sit much closer to home.
We read this as a map of real choice, not a ranking. Families in this area weigh cost, climate, sports, and distance from home. A student who lands at the University of Utah or TCU often had UC options and picked something else. A student who starts at Saddleback College often plans to transfer later.
Capistrano Valley High School and Tesoro High School also publish matriculation lists, for the Class of 2025 and the Class of 2024. We do not yet have the named colleges from those two lists in our data, so we do not guess at them. Trabuco Hills High School and Mission Viejo High School are not listed with a published matriculation list in our table at all.
For planning, the lesson is simple. Build a list that reaches past the UC system. The graduates ahead of your student already did.
Which local high school has the best UC admit rate?
Capistrano Valley High School leads the five schools with a 25.2% UC admit rate for Fall 2025. Trabuco Hills High School is next at 23.1%, then Santa Margarita Catholic High School at 21.6%, Tesoro High School at 20.0%, and Mission Viejo High School at 17.3%.
The full range is about eight points wide. That is real, but it is not the chasm that neighborhood talk often suggests. Four of the five schools sit between 20.0% and 25.2%, which is a tight band. Every one of these schools sends students to the UC system each year.
An admit rate is a rate, not a count. It tells you what share of a school's UC applications ended in an offer. It does not tell you how many students applied, and our data does not report senior counts for these five schools. A school where many students apply to many campuses can post a lower rate and still send more students to UC overall.
We would not pick a high school on this number alone. A student who takes hard classes, keeps grades high, and prepares for a test will do well at any of the five. The admit rate describes the group, not your child.
If your student is already enrolled, the number that matters more is the next one we cover: the UC Reach Score.
What is the UC Reach Score, and what do the local numbers mean?
The UC Reach Score counts top-6 UC admits, counted at each campus, per 100 seniors, and it can go above 100. Santa Margarita Catholic High School scores a 37, Capistrano Valley High School a 35, Tesoro High School a 32, Trabuco Hills High School a 23, and Mission Viejo High School a 15.
Because admits are counted at each campus, one student who gets into three of the top six UC campuses adds three to the count. That is why the score can pass 100. It measures the flow of strong UC offers into a school, not the number of students.
Notice how this ranks the schools differently than the admit rate did. Capistrano Valley has the top admit rate at 25.2% but sits second on Reach Score at 35. Santa Margarita Catholic has a lower admit rate at 21.6% and the top Reach Score at 37. The difference comes from how many students apply and how many campuses each one targets.
Mission Viejo High School's 15 is the lowest of the five. That gap often tracks how many students in a class aim at the most selective UC campuses in the first place. It is a signal about application habits as much as about readiness.
For a family, the takeaway is to look at both numbers together. One tells you the hit rate. The other tells you how much UC activity happens at the school at all.
How many Mission Viejo students get into the top UC campuses?
Our data does not report a raw count of top-6 UC admits for any of the five schools, so the UC Reach Score is the closest read we have. At Santa Margarita Catholic High School that score is 37 per 100 seniors, and at Mission Viejo High School it is 15.
Think of the score as a rate per 100 seniors rather than a headcount. A 37 means that for every 100 seniors, the school collected 37 admit offers from the top six UC campuses, counted campus by campus. A 15 means 15 such offers per 100 seniors.
Those offers cluster. In most classes, a small group of students collects several of them each. So the number of separate students holding a top-6 UC offer is smaller than the score suggests at every school on this list.
This is a gap in our data that we name plainly rather than fill. Senior counts and top-6 admit counts are not reported for these five schools in our current table. We will not multiply a rate by a class size we do not have.
What a parent can do with this is set expectations. A top-6 UC admit is not the normal outcome at any of the five schools. It is the strong outcome, and it usually follows four years of hard classes plus a clean testing plan.
What do the colleges on the published list tell us about testing?
Eight colleges appear on Santa Margarita Catholic's Class of 2025 list, and they sit in more than one state. Our data set records where graduates enrolled. It does not record the test policy of any college on that list.
So we will not state a rule here that our data does not hold. What we can say is that the list is mixed. Saddleback College, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Chapman University, UCLA, the University of San Diego, and San Diego State University are in California. The University of Utah and Texas Christian University are not.
That mix is the planning point. Utah drew 26 graduates and TCU drew 16. Those two schools together drew more graduates than UCLA did on its own. The out-of-state path is not a side road in this area. It is a main road.
Each college sets its own rules about scores, and those rules change from year to year. We check the current rule for each school on a student's own list before we set a test plan. That check takes one sitting and it keeps a family from guessing.
Our habit is to keep a score ready while the list is still forming. A junior who tests in the spring has a result in hand no matter how the list shifts by fall.
Does my student need the SAT if they are only applying in state?
Many local graduates do not stay in state, and the Class of 2025 list is the proof: 26 graduates went to the University of Utah and 16 went to Texas Christian University. A plan built on one state alone tends to break by senior fall.
We tell families to keep the door open. A single test date in the spring of junior year costs a few weekends of practice. If the list ends up small and local, little is lost. If the list grows, the score is already done.
Our data does not list the test rules for the colleges on this page, so we treat a score as a tool that may be needed rather than one that is surely needed. That is a cheap form of insurance for a junior.
There is a second reason to sit for a test. The practice itself sharpens timed reading and timed math. Those skills show up in senior year classes and in placement tests later.
Our rule of thumb: test once, early enough to repeat, and then decide where to send the result. A score you have and do not send costs you nothing.
When should a student at these schools start test prep?
We plan for a 6 to 12 week prep window before a student's first real test date. That window fits best in the winter or spring of junior year at all five schools in our table.
Here is why the timing works. By junior year a student has finished Algebra 2 or is deep inside it, which covers most of the math the SAT asks about. A spring test leaves room for a second try in the summer or early fall of senior year. Applications then go out with the best score already settled.
Start too early and the math has not been taught yet. Start too late and there is no second attempt. The fall of senior year is also when essays, visits, and the UC application all land at once. Adding test prep to that pile rarely goes well.
Sophomores are not too early to plan, though. A sophomore can take a free mock test to see a baseline, then come back in junior year to do the real work. Knowing the starting point makes the 6 to 12 week window far more useful.
If your student is a senior right now, the window shrinks but does not close. A focused block of weeks before a late fall or winter date can still change a score.
SAT or ACT -- which one fits a Mission Viejo student better?
The right test is the one a student scores better on, and a pair of mock tests settles that in two Saturdays. The colleges on the Santa Margarita Catholic Class of 2025 list include the University of Utah (26), Texas Christian University (16), Chapman University (10), and the University of San Diego (9).
The choice comes down to the student. The ACT moves faster and includes a science reasoning section. The SAT gives more time per question and leans harder on careful reading. Some students are clearly faster on one and calmer on the other.
We do not guess at which one fits. We have the student sit a full mock of each, under real timing, and we compare the results side by side. That takes two Saturdays and settles a question that families often argue about for months.
Once the test is chosen, the 6 to 12 week prep window applies the same way. Picking early matters more than picking right, because the practice is test-specific and time spent switching is time lost.
Call us at 949.229.5359 if you want both mocks scheduled. Our office is at 23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 150, in Newport Beach, a short drive from Mission Viejo.
What should a Capistrano Valley or Trabuco Hills family do differently?
Capistrano Valley High School posts the top UC admit rate of the five at 25.2%, and Trabuco Hills High School is second at 23.1%, so both families start from a strong in-state position. The planning question is what sits around the UC applications.
Capistrano Valley publishes a matriculation list for the Class of 2025, and its UC Reach Score is 35, just under Santa Margarita Catholic's 37. That pairing says a lot of students apply and a lot get in. The UC pathway is well worn at this school.
Trabuco Hills tells a different story. The admit rate is high at 23.1%, but the UC Reach Score is 23, well below Capistrano Valley's 35. That gap usually means fewer students are aiming at the top six campuses, not that the ones who do fare worse. Our table lists no published matriculation list for Trabuco Hills.
For both schools, we would push the student to apply wider than the UC system, because the enrollment pattern in this area reaches out of state. A ready score keeps those out-of-state doors open.
A clean plan: pick a test by sophomore spring, prep for 6 to 12 weeks, test by junior spring, and leave senior fall for the applications themselves.
What should a Mission Viejo High School or Tesoro family do differently?
Mission Viejo High School posts a 17.3% UC admit rate and a UC Reach Score of 15, the lowest pair of the five schools, so the plan there leans harder on building a wide list early. Tesoro High School sits at a 20.0% admit rate with a UC Reach Score of 32.
We want to be careful here. A lower school-level number does not predict a single student's result. These are school averages shaped by how many students apply and where they apply. A strong student at Mission Viejo High School competes on the same transcript and the same essays as a strong student anywhere.
What the numbers do suggest is that fewer classmates are walking the top-6 UC path at Mission Viejo High School. That can mean less peer momentum and fewer older students to copy. A family can replace that with a written plan and an outside timeline.
Tesoro's gap runs the other way. Its 20.0% admit rate is the second lowest, but its UC Reach Score of 32 is third highest. That pattern fits a school where many students apply to many campuses. Tesoro's published list covers the Class of 2024, while Santa Margarita Catholic's and Capistrano Valley's cover the Class of 2025.
For both schools, the same advice holds. Test early, apply past the UC system, and treat the out-of-state options as real, because the local data shows graduates taking them.
How much does the high school itself change a student's odds?
Less than most parents fear. The five schools here cover a UC admit rate range of 17.3% to 25.2%, which is about eight points across every public and private option in our table.
A school shapes the menu of classes, the strength of the counseling office, and the habits of the students around your child. Those things matter. But a UC application is read on the student's own transcript, course rigor, essays, and activities, in the context of their own school.
The UC Reach Score spread is wider, from 15 to 37, and that spread is mostly about application behavior. Schools where more students aim at the top six UC campuses collect more admits per 100 seniors. A single family can change their own behavior without changing schools.
We have seen students from all five of these schools land at selective colleges. We have also seen students at the highest-scoring school in the group take a quiet path to Saddleback College and transfer later. Both are good outcomes.
The practical move is to stop comparing campuses and start comparing plans. A junior with a chosen test, a 6 to 12 week prep window, and a list that spans California and out of state is in better shape than a junior at a higher-ranked school with none of that.
What is the first step for a family reading this in October?
Book a free mock SAT and a free mock ACT, then use the results to pick one test and set a date. That single step turns the numbers on this page into a plan for your own student.
Here is the order we use. First, the mock tests give a baseline and a clear answer on SAT versus ACT. Second, we count back 6 to 12 weeks from the chosen test date and build the prep window. Third, we walk the college list school by school and check the current rule on scores for each one.
That third step is where the enrollment data earns its place. If your student's list looks like the Santa Margarita Catholic Class of 2025 list, with the University of Utah (26) and Texas Christian University (16) near the top, the list spans more than one state. A list that crosses state lines takes more planning time.
Most families land somewhere in between, and that is fine. A score you have and do not send costs nothing. A score you need and do not have costs a lot.
You can reach us at 949.229.5359 or at 23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 150, Newport Beach. The mock tests are free, and the conversation after them is where the real planning starts.
Questions parents ask
Which Mission Viejo area high school has the highest UC admit rate?
Capistrano Valley High School leads the five schools with a 25.2% UC admit rate for Fall 2025.
What is the UC Reach Score?
The UC Reach Score counts top-6 UC admits, counted at each campus, per 100 seniors, and it can go above 100.
Where do Santa Margarita Catholic graduates enroll?
The one published list we have in hand, Santa Margarita Catholic High School's Class of 2025, shows Saddleback College first with 31 graduates.
Does this page say whether the UC campuses require a test score?
Our data set records where graduates enrolled. It does not record the test policy of any college on that list.
When should a junior start SAT or ACT prep?
We plan for a 6 to 12 week prep window before a student's first real test date.
Should my student take the SAT or the ACT?
We do not guess at which one fits. We have the student sit a full mock of each, under real timing, and we compare the results side by side.
How much does the choice of high school change admission odds?
The five schools here cover a UC admit rate range of 17.3% to 25.2%, which is about eight points across every public and private option in our table.
What is the first thing we should do this month?
Book a free mock SAT and a free mock ACT, then use the results to pick one test and set a date.
Method and sources: The UC admit rates and UC Reach Scores on this page come from the UC Information Center's Fall 2025 admits-by-school data, as compiled on highschoolreach.com. College-going rates come from the California Department of Education, and the named colleges come from each school's own published matriculation list. The population is the five high schools in our data set that serve Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita, including one private school. Senior counts, top-6 UC admit counts, and college-going rates are not reported for any of these five schools in our current table, and our data holds no test policy for any college named on the lists, so we leave those points blank rather than estimate them. Rows are sorted by UC Reach Score, highest first.
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