FYI: I agree that I can be harsh in my opinions^^. A lot of that stems from the Spring acceptance months.
In March and April, we had kids in tears, streaming into offices, with their parents, with minimal acceptances. In the fall, when we would tell students to make sure to apply to back-ups, they would scoff and say, “but I’m for sure getting in!” We would tell them to plan for the best AND plan for the worst.
What was really sad was when they got into their schools, and were really excited, but couldn’t pay for them. You’ll notice I HARP on money, all of the time!! A college education is not CHEAP. So, I try to be realistic here because you NEVER know. The LA and Berkeley admits continue to be excessively quirky every year.
Another thing that students, in your position don’t want to consider, are the private schools of California. The UCs and CSU’s are very competitive because instate students can afford them-so they apply. UCLA and Berkeley are prestigious, but they are also crapshoots. For some reason, OOS students don’t want to consider the privates, which have lots more money to offer to OOS, but the “prestige factor” may not be there. Yes, they are more expensive, but they also can mitigate that by offering more money to make the attendance affordable.
If you really want to go to school in California, consider the privates like:
USC, USD, Santa Clara, Pepperdine, Chapman, Loyola Marymount, the Clairmont McKenna Colleges (i.e. Scripps, Pomona, Harvey Mudd). Your stats will get you into these. Yes, many of them have the religious affiliation, but the education is not biased. Everything is not at UCLA.