Every fall, families in Belmont look at Carlmont’s strong Niche and U.S. News rankings and assume their student’s admissions odds should rise with the school’s reputation.
But selective colleges don’t admit high schools. They admit students within the context of what their school makes possible. And when admissions officers open a Carlmont file, they read it against a school profile packed with AP access, specialized academies like BTI, strong test scores, and a high-achieving peer group. That’s the real ranking that matters.
The takeaway: in selective admissions, your admissions strategy should work to help you stand out relative to Carlmont itself.
Carlmont boasts impressive public rankings:
These are strong rankings, especially in STEM and college prep.
But when an admissions officer reads your application, they aren’t looking at Niche or US News rankings.
Instead, they pull up your school profile, compare you to past Carlmont applicants, and assess your transcript within the specific academic ecosystem you come from.
Carlmont’s school profile tells admissions officers exactly what students have access to, which helps them sort through all the Carlmont applicants to see who stands out.
Some highlights from the school profile include:
Reading Carlmont apps, AOs ask:
Carlmont’s profile signals to AOs that Carlmont is a high-opportunity school. That’s the context in which they’ll evaluate your transcript.
AOs begin by pulling up the “school group,” meaning all Carlmont applicants from that cycle.
They sort by:
This school group evaluation means that Carlmont’s “ranking” doesn’t matter as much as your standing within your crop of Carlmont students. Admissions officers aren’t reading your application next to students from other schools in the Bay Area; they’re reading it alongside your Carlmont peers, past and present.
That’s why strategy matters so much here.
The UC system releases admissions data for every high school in California. This data can be super helpful when thinking about your admissions strategy, especially at the UCs.
First, take a look at Carlmont’s admissions data to Berkeley, one of the most competitive UCs:
From Carlmont, Berkeley received 283 applicants and admitted 50 of them.
That’s over a 17% admit rate, which is a pretty big jump compared to Berkeley’s overall rate of about 12%. The higher Carlmont admit rate may indicate that Cal admissions officers are willing to go “deeper” into the class at Carlmont than they are at other schools, which means they might take a more serious look at your application even if you aren’t in the top 5-10% of your class.
But at UCLA, the Carlmont numbers are lower: 294 applied, and 22 were admitted (about a 7.5% admit rate), which is slightly lower than UCLA’s overall admit rate of about 9%.
A Carlmont applicant might, then, expect to have better odds at Cal than UCLA. Either way, nothing about UC admissions is a guarantee, and Berkeley and Cal are still reaches for everyone because of their low acceptance rates.
UC GPA Data
The UCs also give us a GPA breakdown for applicants, admits, and students who enrolled to each campus:
Some highlights:
The weighted GPAs of admits for all but Merced and Riverside were above the 4.0 mark. UCs reward extreme academic performance, and perfect or near-perfect transcripts from competitive schools are now common, not exceptional. To be competitive at most UC campuses, you’ll want to aim for a UC weighted GPA above 4.0.
The most selective UCs are now reach schools for most applicants—even very strong ones—because the admit rates are so low.
Carlmont is a great fit for students who:
If your student needs a highly supportive or less self-directed environment, Carlmont may feel overwhelming.
To stand out to selective colleges:
Your high school’s ranking is not your admissions strategy. The narrative you create out of what’s available to you is where your strategy starts.
You don’t have to guess how your student will look to an admissions officer. Book a free intro call to talk with our team about your admissions strategy.