Same situation as both posts above and totally agree with @Britchick1 post #155 as well.
Maybe some CA kids and parents realize that CA is not the be all and end all and realize that $1 million for a ranch house in a sketchy area is not their idea of a starter home.
^^Ditto. I was actually shocked to find that within the group of kids that my older son knows (GATE, honors, AP kids) who had all been in school together since kindergarten) not one of them went directly to a UC. A couple went the community college route to save money, others took merit offers or sports scholarships, and some took advantage of WUE tuition exchange in lower cost states. Full pay at a UC is between $32,000 and $35,000 per year (per child) and since the more popular campuses are located in very expensive areas there is not much hope of reducing costs by living off campus.
We are also full pay at the UC’s and CSU’s. Our daughter’s stats are more modest than many on here, 4.0 w/3.6 uw, not great test scores. She was accepted to many east coast privates with merit, but even still, Cal Poly slo is our most economical. Duquesne, Manhattan college, and Ithaca college are 5-10k more a year, close to UC range, Sarah Lawrence gave her a very small merit scholarship not making them feasible at all. Most of the WUE schools would have been more for us as well.
We were seriously considering and accepted to a very high-ranked Honors College in South Carolina on merit scholarship but ultimately decided to go to Stanford instead. Therefore, we were definitely considering attending a college outside CA. However, if there was no significant merit scholarship given out by Honors Colleges, it doesn’t make sense financially to attend one of Honors Colleges when your kid can attend UCLA, UCB, UCSD etc. which would be cheaper as in-state residents.