Largest populations without a public university in commuting range that is not highly selective

[ucbalumnus]

@Corbett

If you do reasonably well at your local CC, you will get a place in the CSU or UC systems. However, California is a large state, and that place could be at a campus hundreds of miles away, rather than at your local four-year university. This radically alters the financial equation.

The UCs do upgrade FA for students living at the school. The CSUs do not, with the local area admission preference instead. But that does not work that well for CPSLO, SDSU, or heavily impacted majors.

For low income CA residents, net price after FA is usually CSU commuter < UC < CSU resident.