And CA does have a nice community college to four year college transfer thing. If that’s OK with you, that’s a good thing.
I would very strongly urge you to read the thread I’m linking below. Read the whole thing. It’s older, but the general drift of it still applies. This was a very very strong student and he got shut out completely when he applied to colleges. He did do a very well thought out gap year and landed on his feet when he applied the next year. But the angst could have been avoided if he had had a better match and safety on his list.