San Dimas High School: Full Guide

Location: San Dimas, CA

Are you a student or parent at San Dimas High School? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?

We've written the best guide to San Dimas High available. Here we'll cover:

Breakdowns of student ethnicity, gender, and family income
How safe San Dimas High is to attend
SAT/ACT/AP scores earned by San Dimas High students
Which AP/IB classes you can take at San Dimas High
Every sports team you can join at San Dimas High

Let's get started!

Basic Information

San Dimas High School is a public school, supporting grades 9 to 12 . It's located in San Dimas, CA in Los Angeles County.

Based on its location, San Dimas High is classified as a school in a large suburb. Here's the location on a map:

Contact Information

Mailing address:

San Dimas High School
115 W. Allen Ave.
San Dimas, CA 91773-1437

Phone number: 9099718230

San Dimas High School homepage: http://www.sandimashigh.com/

Principal: Michael Kelly
Email the principal: 0

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at San Dimas High School is 1268 students, making it a somewhat large high school, in the top half of all California high schools by size.

As a mid-sized high school, San Dimas High strikes the balance between size and comfort. There will be enough students to provide a diversity of experiences, like clubs and sports, for you to join. But it'll be small enough that you'll likely get to know most people in your class.

Growth in Student Body Size

Is San Dimas High School growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at San Dimas High has increased over the past few years. We calculate this by comparing enrollment in grades 9 to 12.

	Male Students	Female Students	All Students
9^th grade	198	157	355
10^th grade	171	171	342
11^th grade	149	126	275
12^th grade	152	144	296

As you can see in the table above, the freshman class is 59 students larger than the senior class. This suggests that the school is growing in size and taking on more students.

There are a few reasons this could be happening. The city of San Dimas could be growing in population, thus sending more students into San Dimas High. Alternatively, San Dimas High could be relaxing its student policies and taking in more students.

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at San Dimas High School?

From our statistics, San Dimas High has a 53:47 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

San Dimas High has a balanced male-female ratio that's largely representative of the general population in Los Angeles County. Since the student body is roughly half and half, it should feel like there are equal numbers of boys and girls in your classes.

This usually means that San Dimas High doesn't strongly select for either males or females, unlike other schools that have a large majority of males or females.

Ethnicity Breakdown

What's the racial diversity at San Dimas High School? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, San Dimas High has a somewhat homogenous student body, with the majority of students identifying as one ethnicity, but not representing over 70% of the student body. Most schools in California fit this profile, so San Dimas High isn't out of the ordinary. Most students attending class with you will be of the predominant ethnicity, but there will be meaningful diversity from other races.

The majority of students at San Dimas High are Hispanic. In California, Hispanic students make up the majority of all students at 51.5%, and are thus the most common ethnicity. Predominantly Hispanic schools are the most common type of homogenous school, and San Dimas High fits within this category.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.0%	1
Asian	7.9%	101
Hispanic	52.3%	664
Black	2.6%	34
White	30.5%	388
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	0.0%	0
Two or more races	6.3%	80

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of San Dimas. If you'd like to see how other nearby schools look in diversity, just google "[name of school] prepscholar" to find our guide to that specific school.

Income Level of San Dimas High Families

What are the family incomes of students at San Dimas High School? To determine this, we look at the number of students who qualify for free or reduced lunches, a classification by the US federal government.

To qualify for a reduced price meal, family income needs to be below 185% of the federal poverty guidelines. For a family of 4, this means an income of around $45,000 or below.

To qualify for a free meal, family income needs to be below 130% of the federal poverty guidelines. For a family of 4, this means an income of around $32,000 or below.

The lower the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced price meals, the higher the income levels are likely to be.

At San Dimas High, 5.3% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 21.3% qualify for free lunches.

This means San Dimas High has a low poverty level. The overwhelming majority of students at San Dimas High don't qualify for free or reduced price lunches. San Dimas is thus likely to be an affluent community, with quite high family incomes.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	68	5.3%
Free lunches	271	21.3%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	929	73.2%

As with ethnicity, this likely reflects the surrounding community in San Dimas and doesn't speak much about the school itself.

Because San Dimas High is in the top quartile of schools by family income, it's likely to be well-funded relative to other high schools in California. This means you'll likely have access to advanced coursework like AP/IB classes and better-funded extracurriculars and sports.

It's still up to you, though, to take advantage of the resources San Dimas High has to offer. If you work hard and spend your time effectively, you'll likely be well positioned to succeed in college and beyond.

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School Safety

How safe is San Dimas High School to attend? Can you expect a lot of conflict as a student here?

To study this, we look at disciplinary data for two types of incidents at San Dimas High: referrals to law enforcement (when incidents are reported to police), and arrests.

These are the most serious disciplinary actions available to school administration and are more severe than suspensions or expulsions. Suspensions are often discretionary and can be given just for being disruptive in class. In contrast, law enforcement referrals and arrests often indicate incidents that put the safety of other San Dimas High students at risk.

In the school year of 2011-2012, there were 102 referrals to law enforcement (75 male, 27 female), and 0 school-related arrests. This is out of a total enrollment of 1293 students.

To put this into perspective, most California schools (59% of them) reported 0 law enforcement referrals and arrests.

This means that 7.8 San Dimas High has major safety issues. For every 100 students, there were 7.8 law-enforcement related actions. This is a very high number that puts San Dimas High in the top 10% of schools with disciplinary actions.

With this record, is San Dimas High School significantly different from other schools in the area? It could be that San Dimas High has an especially bad record, or it could be that the local area shows a pattern.

Compare this school with other high schools in the same school district, using the following table:

Bonita Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Enrollment
Bonita High	114	1985
Chaparral High (continuation)	31	122
Vista (alternative)	39	104

Academic Performance

Now we get to a major aspect of assessing a high school: academic performance. How good of an education will you get at San Dimas High School? Will you be competitive for college? Will you have access to advanced classes?

We've compiled everything we could find about San Dimas High's academics here.

Graduation Rate

To start off, an important benchmark of academic achievement is graduation rate. For all students who start high school at San Dimas High, the state of California wants as many students to graduate as possible, since a high school diploma can mean a big difference in getting a job.

At San Dimas High, 98% (of 296) San Dimas High students graduated within four years of starting high school.

Here's how this stacks up to other schools. The California state government has defined 90% as a target rate. The state average is around 80-85%.

San Dimas High is in the 99th percentile of all public high schools in California for graduation rate. This is extremely good. Generally, a graduation rate of above 90% is considered good and well above average, and below 75% is well below average.

Note: This data comes from a few years back, but the trends are likely to stay the same, since schools don't get significantly better or worse within a short period of time.

Standardized Testing

Next, we'll look at another major piece of high school academics: standardized testing performance for San Dimas High School students. These are tests that are administered to large populations of students for comparison purposes.

Let’s start by taking a look at the data for nationally administered standardized tests.

SAT Scores

As you probably know, the SAT is a critical test used for college admissions. The higher the score you get, the better your academic performance compared to students nationwide, and the easier it is to get into top colleges.

We did in-depth research and found the average San Dimas High School SAT scores.

The average composite SAT score is a 1470 out of 2400, compared to a national average of 1500. Each year, roughly 238 at San Dimas High take the SAT.

This is an average SAT score, putting San Dimas High School right around the national average. Because the SAT measures academic achievement, this suggests that San Dimas High will offer a fairly standard high school education, neither strongly lacking or outperforming.

Note, however, that this is just an average - the top students can still exceed the average significantly. If you can rise far above your school average, you'll have a great shot at entering a strong college.

Here's a breakdown of SAT scores by section:

Average SAT Scores (2013-2014)

Source	Critical Reading	Math	Writing	Composite
San Dimas High	493	503	481	1470
California	498	510	496	1504
United States	495	511	484	1490

Note that the SAT has since changed to a 1600 scale, but the trends above for your high school are likely to continue. Just use this guide to convert between the old 2400 scale and the new 1600 scale.

To learn more about SAT percentile rankings, read our guide on what SAT percentiles really mean.

How good is 1470 as an SAT score? Find out with our complete 1470 SAT score guide, including which colleges you can get into with a 1470 or any other SAT score!

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ACT Scores

In California, the ACT is less popular than the SAT. Fewer students take the ACT, and typically these students are more motivated and academically prepared for college. Therefore, it's harder to compare San Dimas High School ACT scores with the rest of the country.

At San Dimas High, the average ACT composite score was 22, compared to the nationwide average of 20. Each year, roughly 52 out of 1268 total students take the ACT.

This is above average performance, putting San Dimas High in the top 50% of California high schools. Since the ACT tests what you learn in school, these ACT scores are a good indication that you'll get an above-average education at San Dimas High.

Here are the average English, Math, Reading, and Science scores for San Dimas High compared to California and the US:

Average ACT Scores

Source	English	Math	Reading	Science
San Dimas High	22	23	23	22
California	21.8	22.8	22.3	21.7
United States	20.3	20.9	21.3	20.8

Scores provided are for the 2013-14 school year.

Find out more about percentile rankings and the ACT in this article.

Every individual is different. What counts as a good ACT score for you? Learn more with this article!

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Advanced Placement (AP)

Advanced Placement (AP) classes are college-level courses that are an additional academic challenge may give San Dimas High School students credit for college.

Here's what we're looking for: high average AP test scores as well as high AP passing rates.

AP Scores

Every year, roughly 245 students in grades 9-12 at San Dimas High take 473 AP exams. It's important to understand how students score on the AP - earning a 3, 4, or 5 on the AP test means passing the test and often earning college credit.

The average score of all AP exams taken at San Dimas High is 2.5 out of 5.

This score puts San Dimas High at average performance. For AP tests, the passing score is considered a 3, and the number of students who pass and don't pass are roughly even. This performance places San Dimas High School in the top 50% of schools for AP tests.

It's great that San Dimas High offers an AP program so you have the opportunity to take courses at a college level. Even though roughly half of all AP students here don't get a passing grade, half do - so with motivated studying throughout the year, you'll be able to beat the average.

We have specific data on how many students got a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 (out of 5) on AP exams in the chart below:

AP Test-Taking Statistics

Another way to gauge the quality of a school's AP program is to see how many AP students actually took AP exams at San Dimas High School. If a lot of students enroll in AP courses but don't actually take the AP tests, it can be a sign that students don't feel adequately prepared to take the test, or the school isn't encouraging students to take the exams enough.

At San Dimas High, there is a total enrollment of 403 in AP courses (a student taking more than one AP course counts more than once).

Of AP-taking students, 215 took AP tests for ALL AP courses. 37 students took AP tests for SOME AP Courses, and 121 took AP courses but took NO tests.

This is good test participation. Most AP students at San Dimas High School take the AP test for every one of their AP courses, outnumbering the students who take some or no AP exams. This is a good sign that students feel confident enough to take tests for all AP courses available to them, which reflects well on the teachers and course material. San Dimas High can continue to improve by reducing the number of students who take AP exams for some or none of their courses, but it's in a good state.

Note: The most recent data we have available is from 2012, so the statistics may have changed since then. Most likely, however, the trends are likely to continue - above average schools are likely to stay above average, and below average schools are likely to stay below average.

AP Passing Rates

For AP students at San Dimas High School who take the exam, it's important to know how they do. Here we have specific data on how many students got a passing grade (a 3 or above) on all, some, or none of the AP exams that they took.

Of all AP test takers, 45 students passed every AP test they took, which is a fantastic job. 74 students passed some but not all AP exams, and 208 students didn't pass ANY AP exam they took.

Unfortunately, this is poor performance compared to other high schools. At San Dimas High School, the majority of AP students fail ALL of the AP exams they take. This usually means that they're not adequately prepared for the national AP exam at the end of the year.

This isn't necessarily the school's fault. AP courses may be too advanced for the typical student at San Dimas High, and it's still a good thing that AP courses are offered at all. Furthermore, it's possible that a majority of the AP exams taken by students at San Dimas High are on the more difficult side.

However, if you're a student at San Dimas High, this is a warning that you'll have to go above and beyond the typical student to pass your AP exams. This may entail self-studying, figuring out who the better AP teachers are and trying to get into their classes, and working hard.

To find out the passing rates for specific AP courses at San Dimas High School, you'll have to talk to your guidance counselor (who can then help you find that information). For instance, one AP Calculus teacher may have an above-90% passing rate, while another might only have a 50% passing rate. If you can, you'll want to take the class with the teacher who has more students get a 3 or above on the AP exam.

Find out more about the average score for each AP subject here.

State Tests

As of 2014, eleventh graders attending San Dimas High School must take standardized tests in English/Language Arts and Math as part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP). These align with the new Common Core standards and are called the "Smarter Balanced" tests.

If San Dimas High students meet or exceed state standards, they're academically prepared to graduate high school and go to college. Specifically, we care about the percentage of students who meet or exceed state standards. The larger this number, the higher the preparation of students at San Dimas High.

English/Language Arts

At San Dimas High School, 71% of students meet or exceed state standards in English/Language Arts.

This is considered good and puts San Dimas High in the top 25% of all high schools in California for English/Language Arts. Most San Dimas High students pass or exceed state standards, though there is also a sizable portion of students who fail to meet state standards.

English/Language Arts Test Results (2015)

Read more about what’s measured in each ELA area score here.

Math

The other major test taken for state assessments is Math. Across the state, Math performance is generally lower than English/Language Arts performance, so it's natural for this number to be lower.

At San Dimas High School, 35% of students meet or exceed state standards in Math. This is considered well below average and puts San Dimas High in the bottom 25% of all high schools in California. The vast majority of San Dimas High students don't meet state standards, and only a small percentage pass.

Math Test Results (2015)

Read more about what’s measured in each Math area score, go here.

Academic Offerings

In addition to the standard high school curriculum, many high schools like San Dimas High School offer advanced coursework as part of the Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs.

Brief Intro to AP/IB

AP and IB courses are designed at the difficulty level of college introductory classes. There are several important benefits to taking advanced coursework at San Dimas High. First, taking more advanced classes shows colleges that you're committed to challenging yourself academically, and that you're one of the more advanced students at San Dimas High. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

Furthermore, many colleges will accept your San Dimas High AP/IB coursework as college coursework. In some cases, you'll be able to skip introductory-level classes and move to more advanced classes. In other cases, you'll be able to avoid having to take required courses and might even be able to graduate earlier than the standard 4 years. Often this will require you to pass the AP test, getting a score of 3 or above.

So what advanced courses does San Dimas High School offer?

AP Courses

San Dimas High School offers AP courses in 15 subjects.

This is a reasonable number of AP subjects, putting San Dimas High School in the top 50% of California schools that offer AP courses. You'll likely have access to some of the most popular math and humanities AP subjects, as well as a few others.

The total number of AP subjects is 38, so San Dimas High is missing a large number of subjects, including some popular ones. If there are any AP courses you want to take that aren't being offered at San Dimas High, ask your counselor for ideas on how to cover the gap.

Of course, keep in mind that quality matters even more than quantity - even if San Dimas High doesn't offer every AP course under the sun, the classes might still be taught very well. You can see student performance in the AP score analysis section above.

The following AP courses were offered at San Dimas High during 2015-2016:

Course Title
Biology
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
English Language and Composition
English Literature and Composition
Environmental Science
French Language and Culture
Physics 1: Algebra-Based
Psychology
Spanish Language and Culture
Statistics
Studio Art: Drawing
United States Government and Politics
United States History
World History

Sports Teams

Finally, we'll cover which sports teams are available at San Dimas High School. Sports are an integral part of many students' high school experiences. The more sports that are available, and the more levels supported (Frosh, JV, Varsity), the more likely you'll be able to participate in a sport at San Dimas High.

By the way, the San Dimas High mascot is the Saints. Go Saints!

San Dimas High School fields 16 teams for girls' sports. This is a sizable number that puts San Dimas High in the top 50% of California schools that offer girls' sports. You won't get the full range of sports and levels, but you'll be able to try out for a few options. If you participate in a sport that San Dimas High doesn't offer, consider looking for a local non-school team that you can join.

And now for the boys: San Dimas High School fields 19 teams for boys' sports. This puts San Dimas High in the top 50% of California schools that offer boys' sports. You won't get every sport and level possible here, but you'll have a decent number of options. If you participate in a sport that San Dimas High doesn't offer, consider looking for a local non-school team that you can join.

Boys Teams	Girls Teams
Basketball Var JV Fr	Basketball Var JV Fr
Golf Var JV Fr
Tennis Var JV Fr	Tennis Var JV Fr
Football Var JV Fr
Wrestling Var JV Fr
Volleyball Var JV Fr	Volleyball Var JV Fr
Baseball Var JV Fr
	Softball Var JV Fr
Waterpolo Var JV Fr	Waterpolo Var JV Fr
Trackfield Var JV Fr	Trackfield Var JV Fr
Soccer Var JV Fr	Soccer Var JV Fr
	Fieldhockey Var JV Fr

What’s Next?

Want to get more useful information about high school classes and preparing for colleges? Our blog has a ton of articles and advice on topics ranging from coursework and GPA to letters of recommendation, extracurriculars, and much more!

Ready to bulk up your schedule and maximize your college preparedness? Read all about the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs.

Not quite in high school yet, but eager to get started? We've also got information for younger students interested in advanced learning opportunities, both in and out of school.

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