Cristo Rey Orange County High School

Overview

Cristo Rey Orange County High School is a Catholic high private school in Santa Ana, California, serving grades 9-12, founded in 2023, with about 210 students. The school does not publish tuition; ask for current figures when you book a visit. Religion classes are required, so confirm your family is comfortable with that before applying. The school offers 10 AP courses. Bus service is available.

Admissions

No standardized entrance exam; admission uses an on-campus assessment or visit day.

The school publishes the following application details. The school website states that applications for the 2026-27 school year have closed. The process has four steps: create an admissions account and submit the application form; complete the checklist in the portal (two teacher recommendation letters, a transcript, school records, and the financial application with supporting documents); attend an admissions interview scheduled by the school; and wait for the decision. Timeline for the 2027-28 school year: Early Admission interviews on Saturday, December 5, 2026, with admission decisions and preliminary aid results announced December 16; Priority Admission interviews on Saturday, March 6, 2027, with results announced March 17. There are four firm requirements. Age: because a work permit is required, applicants to grade 9 must turn 14 before September 1 of the year they enroll. Family income: the family must meet the Cristo Rey Network standard, and families above the line are not admitted. Academics: grade 7 and grade 8 marks must be C or better with good attendance. Employability: maturity and work attitude are assessed through the interview, recommendation letters and behavior records, and the student must be legally eligible to work in the United States before September 1 of the year of enrollment. Students hoping to transfer into grade 10 can contact the school to ask whether space is available.

For schools whose main entry point is grade 9, the target list should be settled before the fall of grade 8: attend open houses and shadow days in the fall, submit applications and sit the entrance test between November and January, and expect decisions in March. The summer after grade 7 is a realistic time to start ISEE or HSPT preparation.

Tuition and fees

This school’s tuition structure is nothing like that of a typical Catholic high school. The school website puts it plainly: “A Cristo Rey education costs the same as any other private school; only the way it is paid for is different.” The cost of educating one student is covered from three sources: a donor-funded Access to Excellence scholarship covers 50 percent; the student earns back about 45 percent through the Corporate Work Study Program; and the remaining 5 percent is the family’s share. The family’s out-of-pocket portion is listed as “starting from $25 to $320 per month,” set according to verified family income, household size and actual financial need, with the verification performed by the third party FACTS. The school website gives only this monthly range, with no annual total and no tier table, so this site does not publish an annual tuition figure. Request it directly from the admissions office (school website, Tuition and Aid page and Admissions Requirements page).

Pay close attention to the admissions threshold. This school serves families of limited financial means, and the school website’s Admissions Requirements page states that a family must meet the income standard set by the Cristo Rey Network. Income that does not meet the standard affects eligibility for admission, not a tuition tier. The same page also says, “If you have unique circumstances and believe your income may exceed our eligibility guidelines, please contact the admissions office,” so the rule is not applied rigidly. In addition, applicants to grade 9 must turn 14 before September 1 of the year they enroll and must be legally eligible to work in the United States by that same date, since the work study program is required of everyone. If a student receives an outside merit-based or need-based scholarship, that money is applied first against the school’s Access to Excellence scholarship and is not used to reduce the family’s share of tuition. The school website’s Cristo Rey at a Glance page states that the average annual income of Cristo Rey families is $51,226. Bus service picks up and drops off at designated stops for a monthly fee, and a seat is reserved during registration after admission (school website, Tuition and Aid page and FAQ page).

Financial aid: Financial aid is built into the school’s model rather than being a separate subsidy families apply for: a donor-funded Access to Excellence scholarship covers 50 percent of each student’s cost of education, and the work study program covers about another 45 percent. Every applicant submits a financial application, and FACTS performs third-party income verification, which determines exactly what the family pays toward the remaining 5 percent (school website, Tuition and Aid page and How to Apply page).

Academics and programs

• Corporate Work Study Program: this is the school’s central mechanism. The work study program is a separately incorporated entity within the school that places every student in a company for five days of work a month, without interruption, for four years. Students are employees of the work study program rather than of the companies; the companies pay the program an annual service fee, and that money goes directly toward the cost of the student’s college preparatory education. Students are placed across more than forty Orange County companies in roles spanning accounting, customer service, human resources, legal, marketing communications, sales and technology (school website, The School That Works page and Cristo Rey at a Glance page)
• Summer Success Institute before enrollment: all incoming students complete work study training and a skills assessment before the school year officially begins, and the school uses the results to match them with suitable corporate partners (school website, FAQ page). The school handles transportation to and from work; the school website’s FAQ states that the school takes students from campus to their work sites and brings them back to campus afterward (school website, FAQ page)
• A four-year college preparatory curriculum; the school website states that the course sequence goes beyond the University of California A-G minimum entrance requirements and is aligned with the Common Core, the USCCB curriculum framework and the Cristo Rey National Benchmarks (school website, Academics page)
• AP and honors courses: 10 AP courses appear across the four-year course plan, namely AP Spanish Language and AP World History (grade 10); AP Spanish Literature, AP Language & Composition and AP US History (grade 11); and AP Physics, AP English Literature, AP Government & Ethnic Studies, AP Calculus and AP Computer Science Principles A (grade 12) (school website, four-year course sequence on the Academics page)
• Computing and AI throughout: Computer Science Essentials in grade 9 and Computer Science Principles in grades 11 and 12; the grade 9 and grade 10 English courses are listed as including AI Integration (school website, Academics page)
• Academic support: the WIN (What I Need) block is used for extra help, clubs and extracurricular activities; SAS academic tutoring is offered after school; and there are dedicated college counselors, with the school website stating that support extends into the college years and includes an alumni advisor (school website, Academic Support and Resources page)

How this school compares

These are the nearest schools at the same level and a comparable price. Select a name to open that school’s admissions guide:

School	City	Grades	Tuition	Entrance test	Class size	Distance
Cristo Rey Orange County High School	Santa Ana	9-12	Not published	On-campus assessment	—	—
Mater Dei High School	Santa Ana	9-12	$21,150	HSPT	—	1.1 mi
Pacific Academy (Irvine Campus)	Irvine	7-12	Not published	On-campus assessment	10	7.2 mi
Orange Lutheran High School (Lutheran High School of Orange County)	Orange	9-12	$20,800	None	—	7.5 mi
Servite High School	Anaheim	9-12	$20,710	HSPT	—	8.5 mi

Getting there from Irvine

These are straight-line distances from neighborhoods where many Irvine families live. Actual drive times will be longer, and a morning rush-hour trip typically takes 1.5 to 2 times as long as an off-peak one:

Neighborhood	Straight-line distance
Woodbury	9.3 miles
Northwood	6.4 miles
Turtle Rock	8.4 miles
Portola Springs	11.6 miles

The school runs bus service.

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• Annual tuition — the school website’s Tuition and Aid page and Admissions Requirements page give only the single range for the family’s share, “starting from $25 to $320 per month,” with no annual total, no tier tabl…
• College matriculation — the school opened only in August 2023 and its first class is the Class of 2027, so it had no graduates as of this data collection; the CDE filing also lists grads as 0. The school website’s Academic …
• Accreditation — a full reading of the school website’s About Us, Academics, Academic Support and Resources and Annual Report pages and its site map found no mention of WASC, WCEA or any other accrediting body
• AP course count — the count of 10 was arrived at by listing the AP course names that appear in the four-year course sequence on the school website’s Academics page (AP Spanish Language, AP World History, AP Spanish Li…
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition

How EDUBUS helps

Our Irvine-based counselors work in both Chinese and English. We track Cristo Rey Orange County High School’s admissions calendar, prepare students for the campus visit and interview, and review application materials before they are submitted. Book a school-selection consultation or read the Chinese version of this page.