San Domenico School

What makes this school special

California's oldest independent school, founded in 1850, on a 515-acre Marin campus; the Upper School is co-ed day and boarding
The Virtuoso Program, a music conservatory for aspiring professional string musicians, with its own rehearsal studios and professional faculty in a 300-seat hall of the arts
A boarding community drawing students from more than 20 countries, with Global Education and curriculum-based travel woven through the program
A Dominican-heritage identity expressed through service-learning capstones, ecoliteracy and a working garden, and the Wayfinder purpose-and-life-design program

Academics

World languages

Mandarin, Spanish

Schedule

Block schedule

Signature programs

Virtuoso Program — a music conservatory for high-school string musicians
Wayfinder purpose-and-life-design program
Interdisciplinary Design and Creation (IDC)
Global Education and an international boarding community
Garden of Hope and campus-wide sustainability

College matriculation

Barnard, Boston University, Bowdoin, Cornell, Dartmouth, Emory, Georgetown, Middlebury, Pomona, Santa Clara University, Stanford, Tufts, UC Berkeley, USC

See the full list

UC admissions

In fall 2025, 60 students applied to the UC system from this school; 44 were admitted to at least one campus, and 11 enrolled.

See UC’s data

What these numbers can and can’t tell you

Athletics, arts & activities

Athletics · Bay Area Conference — BCL West

BadmintonBaseball (boys)BasketballBeach VolleyballCross CountryFlag FootballGolfMountain BikingSailingSoccerSoftball (girls)SwimmingTennisTrack & FieldVolleyball (girls)Water Polo

Arts

MusicDanceTheatreVisual ArtsDigital Media

Clubs & activities · 40+

Model United NationsSpeech & DebateMathletesNational Honor SocietyPanther Press (newspaper)Black Student UnionJazz BandChess Club

See all clubs

Applying

Key dates

Applications open on Ravenna: August 17, 2026
Application due: January 5, 2027
Indexed tuition application due: January 5, 2027
Decisions released: March 12, 2027
Enrollment contracts due: March 19, 2027

The application

San Domenico is test-free: its application checklist includes no SSAT, ISEE, or other admissions test. (Through the last cycle the apply page said outright it would not require or accept SSAT or ISEE scores; the current page simply lists an application without any testing step.) The application runs through Ravenna, the shared application platform. Day and boarding run on separate calendars: boarding applications are due about ten days after day applications in January, get decisions a week earlier in March, and have a later contract deadline, so a family weighing both tracks is watching two sets of dates. 34% of families pay below the top of the tuition index.

Application requirements

Ravenna application and student profile
Teacher and principal/counselor recommendations
Transcripts
Student interview (1:1)

Testing

Test-free

Sources

About — founding, "California's oldest independent school," Dominican heritage
Admissions and Boarding — co-ed day and boarding, international community
Tuition & Affordability — indexed tuition, 34% participation
Apply — requirements (no testing step in the application checklist), 2027–28 deadlines
Upper School — world languages, block schedule
Athletics — sports roster, league membership
Arts and Virtuoso Program — arts, music conservatory
Signature Programs — Wayfinder, IDC, Global Education, sustainability
Student Clubs — clubs
Student Support & Wellness — learning support
NCES School Detail (ID A0300549) — grades 9–12 enrollment (89+99+102+88), not broken out on the school's own site
San Domenico — Why SD — 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio (the school's published figure, for the whole K–12 school)
About San Domenico — motto / four core values ("Study, Reflection, Community, and Service," named the school's foundational values)
Bay Area Conference — conference structure and division membership

Details checked August 2026

San Domenico