Breaking: College Prep is First in Niche.com’s 2025 Rankings of California High Schools.

College Prep also ranks 7th in the nation.

By Gardner Rees ‘25

Niche.com is a rankings and list website.

After being ranked 7th in 2024, College Prep topped niche.com’s 2025 rankings of California private high schools. Nationally, it ranked 7th—up from 26 last year. 

Niche’s rankings, published yearly, evaluate 5,000 private high schools across the nation based on a set of somewhat nebulous criteria which include student and parent reviews, publicly available U.S. Census and Department of Education datasets, and student outcomes (rankings of colleges attended by alumni). The rankings do not consider the average ACT, SAT, or PSAT of a school’s students.

This year’s rankings place College Prep at its highest since 2022 when it ranked 1st in the state and 4th in the nation.

Within the state, College Prep is followed by Stanford Online High School at 2nd and the Harvard Westlake School at 3rd. Some familiar names on the list include Head-Royce at 14th, Bentley at 26th, and the Athenian School at 34th. 

Nationally, the list is topped out by the Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts; Phillips Academy Andover in Andover, Massachusetts; and Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter New Hampshire. College Prep is the only school west of the Mississippi and one of only three day schools listed within the top ten.

In California, College Prep is also ranked 3rd in “Best College Prep High Schools,” 6th in “Best High Schools for STEM,” and 17th in “Most Diverse Private High Schools.”

Nationally, College Prep placed 6th in “Best College prep High Schools,” 16th in “Best High Schools for STEM,” and 43rd in “Most Diverse Private High Schools.”