Built by Premier College Guidance for the only co-ed Augustinian boarding school in the United States, the only boarding school in California offering the IB Diploma, the only high school in America named in Clare Boothe Luce's personal will as a designated endowment recipient, and a 129-acre campus in the Ojai Valley where chain stores are banned by law, the Topatopa Mountains turn pink at sunset, and the school has graduated a National Security Advisor to the President, a US Ambassador, and a James Bond film producer since 1924. Free for every Wildcat family. No paywalls. No email required.
Villanova Preparatory School is unlike any other school in this guide series in ways that require a distinct and specific approach to college planning. It is the only co-ed Augustinian boarding school in the United States. It is the only boarding school in California offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. It is the only high school in America named in Clare Boothe Luce's personal will as a designated endowment institution. It sits on 129 acres in the Ojai Valley, a city where chain stores are prohibited by ordinance, where the name means "Moon" in Chumash, where the mountains turn pink at sunset, and where artists, writers, and spiritual seekers have gathered for more than a century. And it has done all of this with a student body of approximately 200 students and a 7:1 teacher ratio since 1924. Understanding what it means to be a Wildcat, specifically and precisely, is the foundation of every strong Villanova application.
Villanova Preparatory School applications arrive at UC campuses and private universities with a school profile unlike any other California school in this guide series. A school of approximately 200 students with a 7:1 ratio, on 129 acres in the Ojai Valley, founded in the Augustinian Catholic tradition in 1924, with an international boarding community from 17 countries, the only residential IB Diploma Programme in California, and the only high school Clare Boothe Luce Program in America. A Wildcat who has pursued the IB Diploma, participated meaningfully in the Clare Boothe Luce Program (for women in STEM), lived in Augustinian boarding community, and can describe all of this with the specificity that four years in Ojai actually provides, is presenting one of the most distinctive public and private university application profiles available anywhere in California. The challenge is not the school profile. The challenge, for most Wildcat families, is ensuring that the genuine richness of the Villanova experience translates into applications with the specificity those holistic review readers are looking for. Describing the Ojai pink moment. Describing the specific country whose student changed how a Wildcat thinks about something. Describing what the IB Extended Essay investigation revealed. Describing what Clare Boothe Luce field work at the Catalina Island Marine Institute taught about environmental science as a career. These specifics are the application. PCG helps Wildcat families find and present them precisely.
Each tool applies the same analytical frameworks used in PCG's full-service engagements. For Wildcat families, several are specifically calibrated to how the IB Diploma Programme translates into UC credit and private university application advantage, how the Clare Boothe Luce credential is presented for STEM program applications, how the Augustinian boarding community experience and Ojai Valley setting produce authentic Common App and UC PIQ essay material, and the financial landscape for private school families planning college costs.
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These workshops are built for California families at every stage and every income level. For Wildcat families, the most critical workshops address how the IB Diploma Programme translates into UC credit and specific university application advantage, how the Clare Boothe Luce credential deploys in STEM program applications, how the Augustinian boarding community narrative produces the most distinctive Common App essays in this guide series, and the specific financial aid landscape for private school families navigating college costs after four years at Villanova.
Ten comprehensive guides covering every dimension of college planning for California families. Each is written with attention to the Villanova Prep IB Diploma Programme context, the Clare Boothe Luce STEM credential, the Augustinian Catholic identity and Catholic university application advantage, the financial landscape for private school families, and the university targets most relevant to Wildcat families ranging from UC campuses to selective Catholic universities to STEM programs nationally.
Each guide is free. No email required. Written for Wildcat families from PCG's Ventura County office, 35 miles from Ojai.
Attending Villanova Prep rather than a public school does not affect eligibility for California state college financial aid programs or federal programs. Wildcat families at every income level are fully eligible for the same programs as public school families. The college financial aid calculation looks at family income and assets, not the high school attended.
Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania is an Augustinian Catholic university and the most natural name-connection for Villanova Prep graduates. The two schools share the Augustinian tradition, the emphasis on truth, community, and love, and the order's intellectual charism. Villanova University is a selective university with strong programs in business, engineering, nursing, and liberal arts and is consistently ranked in the top national universities category by US News. The name connection is real in that Villanova University admissions offices are familiar with Villanova Prep graduates and the Augustinian boarding school context. Whether to apply to Villanova University depends on fit: does this particular Wildcat's academic interests, career direction, social preferences, and financial positioning align with Villanova University specifically? PCG helps Wildcat families make this decision with full information about Villanova University's academic programs, financial aid structure, merit scholarship opportunities for Augustinian school graduates, and how it compares with UC campuses, Georgetown, Notre Dame, and other schools on the list. The name connection is an advantage worth using. It is not a substitute for strategic fit evaluation.
The Ojai Valley is not a generic California suburb. It is a city of 8,000 people where chain stores are prohibited by law, the name means "Moon" in Chumash, the mountains turn pink at sunset in a phenomenon locals have watched for generations, and artists, writers, spiritual seekers, and environmental communities have gathered for more than a century. The Los Padres National Forest borders Ojai to the north. Lake Casitas is nearby. The town has an annual music festival, an annual tennis tournament, and a Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts honoring one of the pioneers of the American avant-garde. For Wildcat applicants writing Common App personal essays or UC PIQ responses, the Ojai context provides specific, sensory, historically rich material that generic suburban California essays cannot access. No college essay reader will confuse an Ojai Valley narrative with a Chatsworth or Granada Hills or Beverly Hills narrative. The specificity of the place, the chain-store prohibition that makes downtown Ojai unlike any other California city, the pink moment that is visible from the Villanova campus, the 129-acre campus against the Los Padres National Forest, and the 100-year Augustinian presence in this specific valley, all of this is application material. PCG's Story-Mapping Framework specifically helps Wildcat families identify and deploy the Ojai context in the essays and PIQs where it is most compelling.
The IB Extended Essay is a 4,000-word independent research paper completed by every IB Diploma candidate. At Villanova Prep, the only boarding school in California offering the IB Diploma, the Extended Essay is produced in a residential context where the student has access to faculty mentors, fellow international students whose perspectives can inform research across disciplines, and the Ojai Valley itself as a natural laboratory for environmental and biological research. For college applications, the Extended Essay is directly relevant to the Common App personal essay, any supplement asking about intellectual or academic interests, and the UC PIQ prompts asking about educational opportunities or learning outside school. The most effective application presentations answer four specific questions about the Extended Essay: what was the research question and why did this Wildcat choose it specifically, what investigative process did the research follow and what was most challenging or surprising, what argument or finding emerged that the Wildcat did not expect at the beginning, and what did the process of sustained independent scholarly inquiry teach this student about how they think and what they want to know more about. These four answers are the intellectual narrative of the IB Diploma candidate. They are what distinguishes the Wildcat who engaged genuinely with the Extended Essay from the one who completed it as a graduation requirement. PCG helps Wildcat families identify and build this narrative from the actual Extended Essay before applications are due.
The Clare Boothe Luce Program credential at Villanova Prep is the only one of its kind available to any high school student anywhere in the United States. No other high school student can claim it. For young women applying to engineering, environmental science, biomedical science, computer science, and STEM-adjacent programs, this credential provides application narrative that is specific, verifiable, nationally recognized, and directly legible to program admissions readers who know what the Clare Boothe Luce Fund is and what being selected as a program recipient means. The credential's effectiveness in applications depends entirely on specificity. The generic statement that the student participated in the Clare Boothe Luce Program earns recognition. The specific description of what was done within the program, the specific field trip to the Catalina Island Marine Institute and what specific marine biology or environmental science observation changed how the student thinks about her future in the field, the specific lab tour at Santa Clara University's School of Engineering Maker Lab and what specific engineering process the student saw that she had only understood theoretically before, and the specific STEM workshop the student led for middle schoolers and what the experience of teaching engineering concepts to younger students taught her about her own understanding: these specifics earn admission. PCG's Story-Mapping Framework helps CBL Wildcats systematically identify and develop these specific narrative moments before they are needed in applications.
Yes, in specific and important ways. Villanova Prep's approximately 30 percent boarding population represents students from approximately 17 countries who live in dormitories on the 129-acre Ojai campus full-time. For these students, the Augustinian community formation is a twenty-four hour experience rather than a seven-hour school day. The relationships formed between boarding students from different countries, the cultural exchange that happens in residential halls, the shared experience of watching the pink moment over the Topatopa Mountains together on an evening, the specific challenges and richness of living away from home in a small mountain valley in Southern California in a Catholic Augustinian community of 200 students: all of this produces application narrative that is qualitatively different from the day student experience, which is itself already distinctive. For boarding Wildcats, the Common App personal essay question about a challenge faced, or a supplement question about community, or a UC PIQ about an experience that influenced the student's development: these are answerable with the specific richness of boarding life at Villanova in Ojai. Day students bring their own specific narrative about choosing to commute to a boarding school environment, about the cross-cultural daily contact with international residents that most California day school students never experience, and about the Augustinian formation they receive in a community whose residential core gives it a different depth than a typical day school. Both experiences are genuine and compelling in applications when described specifically. PCG helps both boarding and day Wildcat families identify and deploy their specific experience most effectively.
For boarding Wildcat families where the college planning conversation typically happens by phone or video rather than in a local office, and where the residential school schedule creates specific logistical constraints on application season, starting in junior year is the most productive common timing. For Wildcat IB Diploma candidates, the Extended Essay topic selection in junior year is a college planning decision as much as an academic one: the subject area and specific research question will become the intellectual core of the application narrative. Starting the college planning conversation before or concurrent with the Extended Essay topic choice allows the most strategic alignment between the academic work and the application story. For Clare Boothe Luce members, early engagement allows the field trip and workshop experience to be identified and developed into specific application narrative before senior fall. PCG's free consultation is available by phone or video for Wildcat families, and works well for boarding students and their parents who may be in different locations. The consultation quickly establishes where a specific Wildcat's IB pathway, CBL involvement, boarding community experience, athletic record, and family financial positioning point strategically, and what the most productive next steps are regardless of when the family engages. Veritas, Unitas, Caritas.