Did you know? More Novato High seniors got into UC last year than seniors at Tam, Redwood, or Archie Williams — at least when you compare the percentages.

Novato High's UC admit rate in the most recent published cycle: 36 percent. Tam: 33 percent. Redwood: 30 percent. Archie Williams (formerly Drake): 28 percent.

That's the kind of number that makes a Mill Valley or Larkspur parent stop and wonder. So before we go any further: this is not bad news for Tam Union families. We promise. By the end of this post you'll see exactly why these numbers don't mean what they might look like. But you're a parent and you deserve the actual data, so here it is.

This is the third post in our six-week regional series. Every week we're walking through one Bay Area region, naming the public and charter high schools, and showing you what the UC numbers actually say. Today it is about Marin County.

Marin County public high schools, ranked

This is every public high school in Marin County that we have UC data on, ranked by UC admit rate in the most recent published cycle (Fall 2025 — students who started college this past fall).

A few things probably jumped out:

• The two Novato Unified schools — Novato High and San Marin — bracket the list, with Novato High on top.
• The three big Tamalpais Union schools — Tam, Redwood, and Archie Williams — are in the middle to bottom, despite their reputations as Marin's "premier" public high schools.
• Tam and Redwood together account for nearly half of all UC applicants in Marin County (2,645 of the county's roughly 5,400 applicants). When two schools dominate the application volume that much, their admit rates also dominate the conversation — but they're not necessarily the highest.
• Tamiscal and Tomales are smaller schools where the data is much noisier — treat those rates as approximations.

This is real. It's also not what most Marin families assume. So let's talk about why.

Why the "good schools" admit rates are lower

Here's the thing that a UC reviewer does that most don't: they read every application in context.

When a student applies to a UC from Tam or Redwood, the UC reviewer sees the school profile. They see that these schools offer 18 to 22 AP courses. They see that the average senior took 4 to 6 APs. They see that nearly every senior is college-bound, that most have parents with graduate degrees, and that the schools spend well above the state average per pupil. A UC reviewer evaluates the student’s transcript against that environment.

When a kid applies from Novato High or Terra Linda, the UC reviewer sees a school with a more mixed student profile. Strong AP offerings, but a more diverse range of post-high-school plans. A wider mix of family backgrounds. The UC reviewer reads that transcript against that environment too.

It's not that the UC is grading Tam kids harder. It's that they are asking: did this student maximize what was in front of them? At a school with 22 AP courses and where almost every classmate is taking 3, "maximizing" means something different than at a school with 14 APs and a more varied senior class. At a school where two-thirds of parents have graduate degrees, "first generation" means something different than at a school where most families went to college but not graduate school.

The math of it: when you take a high-performing applicant pool from Tam or Redwood — where most students meet the basic UC bar and many far exceed it — and run them through holistic review where the school's strong profile is "expected" rather than "exceptional," the admit rate compresses. When you take a slightly more variable applicant pool from Novato or Terra Linda, where strong applications stand out more relative to the school's profile, the admit rate stretches.

This is not bad news for Tamalpais Union families. It's actually how UC has worked since 1996, when California banned race-based admissions and UC leaned harder into family income, school profile, and first-generation status as the things they could legally consider. 

What about kids actually getting in? Here's a number that does not show up on the rankings list. Tam sent 451 students to UC last year. Novato High sent 172. In raw counts, Tam is sending more than two-and-a-half times as many to UC as Novato High, every single year. Redwood sent 378. Archie Williams sent 176. Terra Linda sent 217.

The Tamalpais Union schools are still sending the most Marin kids to a UC by far. Their admit rates just look lower because their applicant pools are so much larger and so consistently strong that fewer of them stand out as exceptional in UC's reading. But the actual number of admits per school — the students who walk across the stage with a UC offer — is still concentrated at the schools you'd expect.

Translated: if you're a Tam or Redwood parent and your student is in the top half of the class, takes hard courses, and writes a thoughtful application, the math is still very much on their side. The rate is just compressed.

What this means for your student

If your student goes to Tam, Redwood, or Archie Williams: the admit rate at the school is not your kid's individual admit rate. The UC evaluator reads each applicant against the school's profile. Top of the class with strong courses and a real application — they have great chances at multiple UCs. Don't let the school's average rate make you panic, and don't let it make you over-apply to safeties. The 28-to-33 percent rate at your school is mostly a story about the strength and size of the applicant pool, not about your kid's individual chance.

If your student goes to Novato High, San Marin, Terra Linda, or San Rafael High: the data shows your school's applicants are getting in at strong rates — and in the case of Novato and Terra Linda, higher rates than the bigger Tam Union schools. The UC reviewer reads your kid's profile in the context of your school. Don't undersell what's possible. Focus on the individual application, not the district's reputation.

If your student goes to Tamiscal or Tomales: these are small enough that the rates jump around year to year. Tamiscal had 110 applicants in the most recent cycle; Tomales had only 30 (and we're using Fall 2024 data because Fall 2025 was suppressed). Treat the school rate as a rough guide, and focus on your kid's individual profile, the courses they've taken, and the strength of their application.

For everyone: spend ten minutes with your actual high school in our dashboard. Look at the year-over-year trend. Look at which UCs your school sends the most students to. That's a much better list-building starting point than national rankings or which district everyone says is "the best."

A few honest cautions

These are average rates, not your child’s odds. UC reads each application individually. The same school's top-quarter and bottom-quarter students have very different admit chances.

Private schools are mostly not in this data. UC suppresses school-level data when fewer than 5 students apply, which excludes most private schools from this dataset. Marin Catholic, San Domenico, Branson, and Marin Academy are not in this dataset at most UCs. We're working on a separate post for Marin private schools.

Year ranges matter. The numbers here are for the most recent published cycle, students who started at UC in fall 2025. UC publishes this data with about a 12-month lag, so this is the freshest school-level data available. Tomales is the one exception — fewer than 5 Tomales seniors applied to UC in the Fall 2025 cycle, so we used the prior year's data.

Smaller schools have noisier data. Tamiscal (110 applicants) and Tomales (30 applicants) have much more year-to-year volatility than Tam (1,370 applicants). Treat the smaller-school rates as approximations.

Explore the full dataset

Every school, every UC campus, every year from 2019 to 2025 — filterable by county, city, and school — is in the dashboard page.

Coming next Thursday

Fremont and Milpitas. Mission San Jose, Irvington, American, Washington, Kennedy, and the Milpitas schools. Same approach: every public high school, every UC, with the warm explainer for what the numbers actually mean.

Want help making sense of this for your kid?

Ready to build your student's plan? StrivePath offers personalized academic and college advising for Bay Area students from 7th grade through senior year. Book a free consultation with our team today.

👉 mystrivepath.com — StrivePath: Happier students. Less stressed families. Better admission outcomes.

Sources

• UC Information Center — admissions by source school
• UCOP Fall 2025 Admissions Summary (PDF)
• UC Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC)
• California Department of Education DataQuest