Bay Area schools

San Francisco, the East Bay, the Mid-Peninsula and the South Bay behave like separate school markets, because a bridge or a Caltrain transfer can decide a list. A San Francisco family is usually looking at University High, Lowell, Ruth Asawa SOTA and Lick-Wilmerding. East Bay families look at Head-Royce and College Prep, and the Peninsula has Nueva, Castilleja, Menlo, Woodside Priory and Crystal Springs. Harker sits in San Jose across four campuses.

Entry grades sort the list before anything else. Several high schools, including UHS (about 135 places) and Lick-Wilmerding (about 140), start at Grade 9 and have no younger door. Castilleja's big intake is Grade 6, about 60, and Grade 9 is not a second equal door there. Harker and Nueva publish planned openings at all three grades. Lowell and SOTA admit San Francisco residents only, and SOTA requires an audition.

The schools also disagree about advanced work. Crystal Springs and Lick-Wilmerding have moved away from AP courses, Castilleja replaced them with Advanced Topics, and Harker keeps a large AP and post-AP catalog. Ask for one proposed schedule and one ordinary assignment rather than counting courses; the schools compared page sets the twelve side by side.

For process, the admissions guide covers testing, school-designed assessments and interviews, and the admissions calendar lines up the dates. Run the commute at dismissal and after a late activity before a school stays on the list; the list and commute guide has the method.