How Junípero Serra, Mercy, and Notre Dame Share Extracurricular Life While Remaining Single-Gender Schools.
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In This Guide
Quick Answer for Busy Parents
Junípero Serra High School, an all-boys Catholic school, partners with two nearby all-girls Catholic schools, Mercy High School (Burlingame) and Notre Dame High School (Belmont), through the Tri-School Consortium. The arrangement gives students at all three schools access to shared, coed extracurricular activities, clubs, and events, without changing any of the three schools’ single-gender enrollment.
What the Tri-School Consortium Is
Serra, Mercy, and Notre Dame are formally recognized sister schools within the Archdiocese of San Francisco, all situated within the wider Bay Area private school admissions market, each maintaining its own single-gender enrollment, campus, and academic program. The Tri-School Consortium is the structure that connects them for extracurricular purposes, allowing students to participate in activities that draw from all three student bodies rather than being limited to their own campus.
How the Consortium Works Day to Day
In practice, the consortium shows up most visibly in extracurricular life: shared clubs, joint events, and social activities that bring students from Serra, Mercy, and Notre Dame together outside the classroom. It gives Serra students regular, structured contact with peers at the two sister schools, rather than leaving coed interaction to occur only informally or outside school-sponsored settings.
| School | Location | Enrollment |
| Junípero Serra High School | San Mateo, CA | All-boys |
| Mercy High School | Burlingame, CA | All-girls |
| Notre Dame High School | Belmont, CA | All-girls |
Weighing Single-Gender vs. Coed Environments?
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Why This Matters for Families Considering Serra
Families evaluating an all-boys school often ask a version of the same question: will my son have a normal, socially rounded high school experience? Serra’s answer isn’t informal or incidental; it’s a structured, decades-old partnership specifically designed to answer that question. Cardinal Education’s private school admissions consulting helps families who value the academic and formational case for single-gender education weigh it against their son’s social needs, without treating the Tri-School Consortium as a marketing claim rather than a concrete, verifiable answer.
Applying to Serra? Partner with Top Consultants at Cardinal Education!
The Tri-School Consortium is one of the more distinctive features of Serra’s model: single-gender academics with structured coed extracurricular life, a different approach than an all-boys school like Bellarmine College Preparatory takes on its own. Cardinal Education helps families understand how that balance fits their son’s specific needs alongside Serra’s admissions requirements.
For a deeper look at Serra’s admissions process, academics, and student life, see our main Junípero Serra High School guide.
Considering Junípero Serra High School?
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