Best Private Schools in Los Angeles – 2023

The Los Angeles area is home to a number of well-regarded private schools. Choosing from the hundreds of available options can be a challenging enterprise as you seek to find which private schools in Los Angeles will be best for your child. Ultimately, your decision will need to balance your teen’s academic, emotional, and social needs with financial and logistical considerations. However, College Transitions’ list of the Best Private Schools in Los Angeles will focus primarily on our area of expertise—college admissions. As such, we will highlight the job that each high school does at sending their graduates on to the nation’s premier 4-year schools.

Please note that inclusion on our Best Private Schools in Los Angeles list is a selective and criteria-based process. However, the order in which the schools appear is not representative of any further ranking; the numbering is solely intended to enhance the ease of navigating this resource.  All of the schools profiled below have a history of sending graduates to the top colleges in the country. For each of the best private high schools in Los Angeles, College Transitions will provide you with:

• Location
• Tuition (9-12)
• Enrollment (9-12)
• Average SAT Score
• Average ACT Score
• Senior Class Size
• College Admissions Highlights
• Academic Highlights

Without further ado, let’s look at the best private schools in Los Angeles.

1) Harvard-Westlake School

Location: 700 N Faring Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90077

Tuition (9-12): $44,500

Enrollment (seniors): 291

Average SAT Score: 1449

Average ACT Score: 33

College Admissions Highlights:

Among the Class of 2022, an incredible number of grads matriculated into highly-selective colleges. This includes UChicago (18), Penn (12), NYU (12), USC (11), University of Michigan (11), Harvard (10), Cornell (8), Yale (8), UC Berkeley (8), Georgetown (7), Northwestern (6), UT Austin (6), and Stanford (6).

Academic Highlights:

• 25 AP courses are offered.
• 11th graders are capped at 3 APs; 12th graders are capped at 4.
• Of 210 teachers, 134 hold master’s degrees and 33 hold doctorates.
• Last year’s class included 41 National Merit Semifinalists
• 101 members of the senior class earned a cumulative unweighted GPA of 3.8 or above.

2) Brentwood School

Location: 100 S Barrington Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90049

Tuition (9-12): $48,180

Enrollment (seniors): 118

Average SAT Score: 1379

Average ACT Score: 30

College Admissions Highlights:

Graduates in 2021 went on to enroll at Barnard, Boston College, Colgate, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Harvard, NYU, Stanford, Tufts, UCLA, UChicago, the University of Michigan, Penn, UVA, Wesleyan, and Yale.

Academic Highlights:

• The mean GPA for the Class of 2022 was 3.60.
• The average class size in high school is 17 students.
• 109 of the 150 teachers possess advanced degrees.
• 8:1 student-to-faculty ratio
• 45% are students of color and 18% of those enrolled receive financial aid.

3) Flintridge Preparatory School

Location: 4543 Crown Ave, La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011

Tuition (9-12): $41,500

Enrollment (seniors): 108

Mid-50% SAT Score: 1340-1510

Mid-50% ACT Score: 30-35

College Admissions Highlights:

Members of the Class of 2022 landed at Berklee College of Music, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Grinnell, Harvard, NYU, Northeastern, Rice, Stanford, Tufts, Trinity (Dublin), UC Berkeley, UCLA, Penn, UChicago, USC, WashU, and Williams.

Academic Highlights:

• 15 AP classes are offered along with 22 honors courses.
• 11 of the 70 faculty members possess doctoral degrees; 40 have master’s degrees.
• The average class size is 14 students.
• 8:1 student-to-teacher ratio.
• Students are 30% Asian, 11 Latino, 3% African American, and 17% Two or More Races.

Best Private Schools in Los Angeles (Continued)

4) Marlborough School

Location: 250 S Rossmore Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90004

Tuition (9-12): $47,400

Enrollment (seniors): 112

Median SAT Score: 1455

Median ACT Score: 31

College Admissions Highlights:

Students from the Class of 2022 matriculated into an incredible array of schools including: NYU (7), Barnard (5), Wesleyan (4), Brown (3), USC (3), Northwestern (3), Yale (3), Cornell (2), Harvard (2), Bowdoin (2), UMich (2), Penn (2), WashU (2), MIT (2).

Academic Highlights:

• Marlborough is an all-girls institution.
• There are 20 AP courses offered.
• Average class size is 13 students.
• 85% acceptance rate to highly-selective colleges.
• 8:1 student-to-teacher ratio.

5) Polytechnic School

Location: 1030 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91106

Tuition (9-12): $41,900

Enrollment (seniors): 93

Mid-50% SAT Score: 1310-1520

Mid-50% ACT Score: 31-34

College Admissions Highlights:

In one recent four-year stretch, students went on to attend Amherst, Berklee College of Music, Bowdoin, Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Claremont McKenna, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, King’s College London, NYU, Northwestern, Pomona, Princeton, Rice, Stanford, London School of Economics, Tufts, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, and Yale.

Academic Highlights:

• Three years of a foreign language are required.
• 16 AP courses are offered.
• The average class size is 14.
• 66% of those enrolled are students of color.
• 100% attend 4-year universities.

6) Sage Hill School

Location: 20402 Newport Coast Dr, Newport Beach, CA 92657

Tuition (9-12): $47,950

Enrollment (seniors): 133

Average SAT Score: 1424

Average ACT Score: 32

College Admissions Highlights:

Colleges attended by multiple 2019-2021 graduates include: UC Berkeley (25), USC (20), NYU (13), WashU (12), BU (11), UCLA (11), Stanford (8), Georgetown (7), UMich (7), UW Madison (7), Penn (7), Amherst (6), Northeastern (6), Duke (5), Cornell (4), and Barnard (3).

Academic Highlights:

• Sage Hill has one counselor for every 34 students,
• 67% of teachers hold advanced degrees.
• Sage Hill offers 20 AP courses and 2 post-AP courses.
• In the past 10 years, the school produced 53 National Merit Finalists, 59 Semifinalists, and 190 Commended scholars.

7) The Webb Schools

Location: 1175 W Baseline Rd, Claremont, CA 91711

Tuition (9-12): $52,145 (Day), $73,320 (Boarding)

Enrollment (seniors): 108

Average SAT Score: 1430 (Vivian Webb); 1480 (Webb School)

Average ACT Score: 29 (Vivian Webb); 30 (Webb School);

College Admissions Highlights:

In the last five years, three or more Webb grads have attended Brown, Carleton, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Emory, NYU, Northwestern, Pomona, Rice, Stanford, Tufts, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Vassar, WashU, and Wellesley.

Academic Highlights:

• The Webb School of California is all-boys; the Vivian Webb School is all-girls.
• 85% of faculty members have an advanced degree.
• 7:1 student-to-teacher ratio.
• Students are allowed to take 3 AP courses as juniors and 4 as seniors.
• Over the past five years, the school has produced 30 National Merit Finalists, 33 Semifinalists, and 80 Commended Scholars.

Best Private Schools in Los Angeles (Continued)

8) Westridge School

Location: 324 Madeline Dr, Pasadena, CA 91105

Tuition (9-12): $41,665

Enrollment (seniors): 74

Mid-50% SAT Score: 1400-1540

Mid-50% ACT Score: 31-35

College Admissions Highlights:

From 2020-2022, multiple grads have matriculated into USC (14), UChicago (11), UC Berkeley (9), Tulane (8), Northeastern (7), Trinity, Dublin (5), BU (5), Penn (4), Stanford (4), Cornell (4), UMich (4), Claremont McKenna (3), Princeton (3), and Vassar (3).

Academic Highlights:

• Westridge is an all-girls school.
• The average unweighted GPA for a member of the Class of 2022 was 3.717.
• Offers electives such as AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, and Full Stack Web Development.
• 67 members of the Class of 2022 earned acceptances to 151 different colleges.
• In the past three years, Westridge has produced 15 National Merit Finalists, 15 Semifinalists, and 13 Commended Scholars.

9) Loyola High School of Los Angeles

Location: 1901 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90006

Tuition (9-12): ~24,000 (varies by grade)

Enrollment (seniors): 311

Average SAT Score: Not Reported

Average ACT Score: Not Reported

College Admissions Highlights:

Loyola grads in 2022 headed to the following schools in large numbers: USC (13), UC Berkeley (13), UCLA (8) Georgetown (7), Boston College (6), Princeton (4), Yale (3), Penn (2), Brown (2), Columbia (2), and Dartmouth (2). Twenty-four students enrolled at Loyola Marymount and another 11 at Santa Clara University.

Academic Highlights:

• Loyola is an all-male institution.
• All 117 faculty members hold professional degrees, including 81 at the master’s level and 17 at the doctoral level.
• 99% of graduates go directly to higher education.
• 30 AP courses are on the menu.
• The school has a 48% acceptance rate.

10) Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences

Location: 1714 21st St, Santa Monica, CA 90404

Tuition (9-12): $47,935

Enrollment (9-12): 565

Average SAT Score: Not Reported

Average ACT Score: 29

College Admissions Highlights:

In the last three years, multiple students have enrolled at each of the following colleges: NYU (28), Northwestern (17), the University of Michigan (14), USC (13), Brown (11), Penn (10), Stanford (8), WashU (7), Cornell (7), Wesleyan (6), BU (5), and UVA (5).

Academic Highlights:

• The school replaced AP courses with Crossroads Advanced Studies (CAS) classes.
• Typically CAS classes are only for seniors and are capped at three per year.
• Crossroads has a 25,000-square foot Science Education & Research Facility.
• Students do not receive a cumulative GPA or class rank.
• Senior projects involve three weeks of study and a culminating presentation.

Best Private Schools in Los Angeles – Final Thoughts

We hope you found our blog on private schools in Los Angeles to be helpful. All high school students and families may wish to explore further information regarding the college search and admissions process at our Dataverse, Blog, and List-Building Tool.