@ucbalumnus Wow! Thank you for your thorough post. I had not considered the 3rd bullet point re: overreach because of the UC-specific GPA. Fascinating.
Regarding 2nd bullet point, we actually have UC Merced on our list to visit! Good point re: the considering CSUs other than the highly impacted ones (campuses and/or majors).
Thanks for the Wiki link. I crossed the Wiki list against Jeffrey Selingo’s Buyers vs. Sellers list and it appears that Occidental, University of the Pacific and Whittier College are ones to learn more about. thanks again to @oneofthosemoms and @myos1634 who also mentioned these.