Independent · Los Altos Hills (Peninsula)
Pinewood
“Empowering Students to Shine”
Independent · Los Altos Hills (Peninsula)
Pinewood School
“Empowering Students to Shine”
- Students
- ~190
- Ratio
- 7:1
- Tuition
- $62k
- Enrollment
- ~190
- Student:teacher
- 7:1
- Base tuition
- $62,090
- Real cost
- $67k–$71k
What makes this school special
- The high school shares its hilltop campus with Pinewood's junior high, 300 students across grades 7-12 in all, while K-6 sits on two other campuses down in Los Altos
- The Social Entrepreneurship Program runs three semesters for honors credit and asks students to take a real problem all the way to something built
- Classes meet every other day, four a day on a rotating four-day cycle, so a student sees each subject in longer blocks and fewer of them at once
Academics
Curriculum
College preparatory, on three levels — 17 AP courses, 10 Honors, and 3 college-level Advanced Topics
World languages
French, Mandarin, Spanish
Schedule
Two semesters; four classes a day on a rotating four-day block
Signature programs
- Pinewood Social Entrepreneurship Program (PSP), a selective three-semester honors program
- PAW Programs — mentored project work in robotics, journalism, theatre and more
- Take Note, the high school a cappella group
- Student Achievement Center and subject workshops
College matriculation
UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Stanford University, University of Southern California, Santa Clara University, Northeastern University, Northwestern University, Boston University, Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Tufts University, Tulane University, Emory University, University of Washington-Seattle
See the full listUC admissions
In fall 2025, 34 students applied to the UC system from this school; 26 were admitted to at least one campus, and 3 enrolled.
What these numbers can and can’t tell youAthletics, arts & activities
Athletics · West Bay Athletic League
Arts
Clubs & activities
Life there
Tuition includes
- Textbooks and workbooks
- Art supplies
- Day field trips
- Yearbooks
- iPad
Learning support
A Director of Upper Campus Learning Support and an Academic Support Specialist, for students with mild learning differences using accommodations rather than modified work; plus subject workshops, a Student Achievement Center, and office hours
Often on the same list
Sources
- School Profile and the 2025-26 School Profile PDF — the 1959 founding, Upper Campus enrollment (300 across 7-12, "approximately 200 in 9-12"), the approximate 7:1 ratio, the maximum class size of 18, the schedule, the AP/Honors/Advanced Topics course lists, the May 2025 AP results, and the college list. The AP count is the profile's own stated figure, "Advanced Placement Courses (17)," and the seventeen are listed by name.
- Tuition — "2026-27 Tuition," the grades 9-12 figure ($62,090), the $5,000 deposit, what tuition covers, the iPad, the Epicurean lunch program, and the Clarity aid deadlines. The page carries no percentage of students receiving aid and no average award, so neither is published here.
- Applying at Pinewood — the 7-12 process, the Ravenna application, the Test Innovators writing sample, the Student Experience Visit, the student interview, and the key dates. The application fee is named as a step but never given an amount.
- Apply to Grades 7-12 — the September 1, 2026 opening and January 5, 2027 deadline. This page's date card gives March 18, 2027 for responses while source 3 says "Friday, March 19," so that one date ships as a window rather than a day.
- Our Mission — "Empowering Students to Shine," and the mission it heads
- Grades 7-12 — world languages, and the learning-support staffing and workshops
- Arts — drama, musical theater, technical theater, and Take Note
- Clubs & Extracurriculars — the high school club list, the PAW Programs, leadership groups and honor societies
- Athletics — the high school teams by season and gender. Middle school teams are excluded here. Golf is listed in the page's own team schedules and on the school profile but not in its seasonal list, so it appears here without a season; softball is a middle school team on this page, so it isn't listed.
- West Bay Athletic League — league membership, and Pinewood among its recent Foothill Division champions. The school's own athletics page mentions WBAL only for its Middle Campus, so the league affiliation here rests on the league's own site.
- California Private School Affidavit 2025-26 | CDE — enrollment in grades 9-12 (187, filed by the school for its Upper Campus)
- 511 SF Bay open transit data — the VTA stops near the campus, read from the operator's published schedule data. The closest are on Arastradero Road, served only by commuter expresses to Stanford Research Park and by Gunn High School trippers. No Caltrain station is within two miles, and the school runs no shuttle.
- ACS WASC Directory of Schools — accredited, grades K-12 (directory read 2026-08-24)
Details checked August 2026