A detailed look at where the best public Bay Area high schools stand in terms of academics, sports, and other categories

Both the 2021 U.S. News and Niche rankings for California public high schools were just released! After looking back at last year’s rankings, there are a lot of changes that have been made. In this article, we will discuss where some of the best public Bay Area high schools ranked on this list!

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Top Public Bay Area High Schools Ranking

After reading this year’s rankings, I focused on two high schools in Palo Alto. These two high schools included Gunn High and Palo Alto High. This year, Gunn High was surpassed by Saratoga High and ranked 5th in the Bay Area. Palo Alto High’s ranking dropped by 15 and was  surpassed by Cupertino High. Palo Alto High ranked 43 in California, but fell to 333 in the national ranking.

It should be noted here that in order to compare with last year’s ranking, some other high schools in the Bay Area (Lowell, Doughy Valley High) are temporarily not included.

Mission San Jose High School

The main source of Ivy League competitors

U.S. News #5 

Niche #62

Mission San Jose solidified a very good ranking this year and had an impressive performance as a whole. According to the school profile, a total of 29 students were admitted to UC Berkeley in 2020 and 10 were admitted to UCLA. The overall admission rate to the UC system was 90% (368/410). In addition, more than 10+ students were admitted to Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and other prestigious schools.

Among the Mission San Jose students this year, the Asian population remains at 90% and the emphasis on mathematics is also very high. The school encourages students to solve problems with each other and invites outstanding students to share and teach. On the other hand, teachers are not particularly able to provide much help and students still rely heavily on extracurricular tutors and self-study.

In terms of sports, compared to the traditional mainstream football in American high schools; volleyball, swimming, golf, and other sports are more popular. In fact, it is not difficult to see that Mission San Jose is a very suitable school for Ivy League competitors. Because of this, it has extremely high requirements for students’ academic abilities, time management skills, and psychological adjustment abilities.

Lynbrook High School

Awesome competition results and resource faculty

U.S. News #14

Niche #12

The admission rate of Lynbrook students to UC Berkeley plummeted to 8% from 29% last year. In turn, this immediately pushed this school known for its stem education to the forefront. The comparison of the school’s GPA, ACT, and National Merit numbers from this year to last year shows that the results in all categories have improved. ACT scores have noticeably increased from 31.80 to 33.14 which makes this year’s low admission rate difficult to understand.

It is worth mentioning that Lynbrook has made efforts to improve its faculty in the past year. In the 2020-2021 school year, 93% of the teachers held advanced master’s degrees. This is an increase of 25% compared to last year.

Lynbrook’s performance at the USAMO competition is particularly outstanding. Five students received awards which surpassed all other schools in the Bay Area. To compare, Gunn High School received one award, Saratoga High School received three, Nueva School received two, Basis Independent received three, and Harker School received two.

Furthermore, Lynbrook won a scientific genius award this year. In 2021, only four California students were shortlisted for this award and Eshani Jha of Lynbrook won one of the spots. In summary, students who want to apply for Ivy League schools in the future should heavily consider Lynbrook. 

Monta Vista High School

A decrease in the students’ performance

U.S. News #16

Niche #39

Compared to the previous schools, Monta Vista obviously pays more attention to activities. To put into perspective, there are 85 student clubs at Monta Vista. In addition, the school proudly put El Estoque, the Monta Vista student newspaper on the official school website. El Estoque earned recognition as a top 10 American high school newspaper.

Although there are plenty of extracurricular activities, based on the student feedback, Monta Vista still has a lot of peer pressure problems. Students care about academic grades very much and children often get lost in the fight for good grades.

As one of the top three public high schools in the Bay Area, Monta Vista has experienced a sharp decline in performance. Monta Vista fell four spots in the U.S. News ranking and fell eight spots in the Niche ranking. When I checked the school profile, I found that they had not updated some of the scores. For instance, the GPA, SAT, ACT, and other information regarding the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years were exactly the same. Only the AP scores and Nation Merit data have been changed. 

Saratoga High School

Academic improvement, sports is a disadvantage

U.S. News #20

Niche #3

Saratoga High School earned third place in the Niche California Public School rankings both last year and this year. In addition, the school’s ranking by U.S. News increased by one spot. As a “private-school-type” public high school, Saratoga High’s teacher to student ratio is consistently at 1:20.

Compared to Lynbrook and Monta Vista, whose Asian students account for 80% of the student population. At Saratoga High School, about 62% of the student population is Asian and around 25% of the student population is white. It is a relatively diverse school.

In this year’s ranking in U.S. News, Saratoga High School is one spot higher than Gunn High School. Both the math and reading scores are especially impressive at 91 and 94 which are much higher than Gunn High’s scores of 83 and 86. The reading score of Los Gatos High, another high school in the school district area, is only 81 while the math score is 69.

In terms of admissions however, Saratoga High School’s UC Berkeley admission rate was 14.6%. A significant amount lower than Los Gatos High’s 19.7%. On the other hand, Saratoga High’s SAT, ACT, and AP scores were all higher than last year’s average. 

In terms of sports, Saratoga High School’s performance is not very good. Whether it is football or volleyball, it remains low in the rankings among California schools. If you want your children to excel at sports, Saratoga High School may not be a particularly suitable choice. 

Gunn High School

Academic decline, but well rounded development

U.S. News #21

Niche #2

Gunn High School has dropped six spots in the U.S. News ranking this year. After analysing, I realized that the school needs improvement in the “Mathematics Proficiency” category. For example, in the California State Mathematics Test (Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments), 83% of Gunn High mathematics were excellent or above while Mission San Jose and Lynbrook both exceeded 93%.

However, Gunn High’s academic diversity is quite prominent. In addition to the math pathway programs, computer science also specializes in different tracks. For instance, the school has a very strong robotics club. In terms of graduation, there are high requirements in different fields. For example, arts and world language require 10/20 credits respectively. Mission San Jose on the other hand only requires students to choose one direction to study and just 10 credits in total are needed.

I also found out that Gunn High School students are still under great pressure. The California Student Mental Health Survey (CHKS) found that 15% of Gunn High’s children in grade 11 chose not to go to school because they have not prepared for exams and homework. In addition, 12% of students do not go to school because they feel anxious and disappointed. It appears that Gunn High has a long way to go in regards to improving their student’s mental health!

Cupertino High School

Huge ranking decrease, lower academic performance

U.S. News #39

Niche #46

A total of 85 students from Cupertino High entered a UC school in 2020. Among them, UC Berkeley had 19 students and UCLA had nine students. As a second-tier high school, it did not take advantage of UC Berkeley admissions this year. Instead, the admission rate dropped from 14.8% to 11.9%.

Furthermore, the admission results are as follows: Stanford (3), New York University (7), Brown (2), Johns Hopkins University (1), Boston University (5), Carnegie Mellon University (1), Northeastern University (4).

In terms of standardized academics, Cupertino High’s GPA and SAT both declined. Among them, the proportion of students with a 3.76-4.0GPA dropped from 37% last year to 34% this year. In 2020, reading (632) and math (684) also dropped 20 points from last year. This result is not competitive compared to Lynbrook.

Palo Alto High School

Not pushed in academic performance

U.S. News #43

Niche #4

Palo Alto High, as another high school in the Palo Alto school district, also has a good reputation. Due to the diversity of the school, humanistic environment of the community, and  quality of personnel, it is a favorite choice for many parents. Since the U.S. News rankings focus on the standardization results, Palo Alto High’s ranking gets penalized to some extent. This year the school’s ranking has fallen severely by dropping 15 spots.

However, Palo Alto High, like Gunn High, has high requirements to ensure a well-rounded development. Whether it is in arts, choir, theatre, or STEM competitions, they all have achieved good results! If your sole priority is not academics and you want your children to find what they are interested in, Palo Alto High is a good choice.

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