Honestly, if I were a Questbridge applicant who did not get selected as a finalist, I would find this thread quite infuriating. You were fortunate enough to be accepted as a finalist (where many others were disappointed), and had the opportunity to rank twelve schools for the match process… and yet you only ranked five (and there are five Ivy League schools on the list - coincidence?)
And now, when tippy-top-tier gov/econ/politics schools on the QB list, like Claremont McKenna, are mentioned, it’s evident that you didn’t even take the time to research the schools you hadn’t heard of, when you could have ranked seven more schools for a chance at a more-than-full ride. How could you possibly have known that you should pass up ranking those other 35 schools, without doing your due diligence and learning about them? I know it’s water under the bridge at this point, but you failed to take full advantage of an amazing opportunity. Far too many students rank only the most “famous” schools on the QB list… and therefore, the odds of getting matched at those schools are very, very low. Maybe you’ll get lucky. But honestly, for any Questbridge school to be mentioned and for you to respond that you know nothing about it… why not? There aren’t that many of them; and you’re online, so you have all the information in the world at your fingertips. Passing up the chance to use those additional seven slots should have been a conscious and well-researched decision, because no financial aid package you receive outside of Questbridge will be as generous as a Questbridge Match scholarship.
Luckily you can still apply to the other QB schools with the Questbridge application, which will give you somewhat of an admissions advantage; but if accepted, you won’t get the superlative financial package that you would have gotten by matching.
Likewise, you seem to have only the vaguest possible impressions of the UC campuses beyond Berkeley and UCLA. There aren’t so many of them that you should be making important decisions based on what you’ve heard from peers who barely know more than you do. You should have read about the poli sci departments at every UC by now, and researched their relative selectivity and reputations for yourself. All of this information is readily available.
I know I’m being a little hard on you, as you’re likely in a situation where you’re not getting much help with this process. But if you’re going to have a career in political science, rigorous research skills will need to be a big part of it. It’s time to start building the ability to seek out information, filter it for relevance and credibility, and use it to make sound decisions. Knowing when to ask for input is important too, and you’ve put that skill to good use here; I just wish you’d asked us for input before you submitted your Questbridge application.
Don’t make the mistake with the UC app that you made with the Questbridge app, and apply only to Berkeley and UCLA. You get four free applications with the fee waiver; don’t even consider applying to fewer than four campuses. (As I said before, I strongly suggest Davis as the third. Choose any campus but Merced as the fourth- with your stats, you’ll get in there automatically if you’re shut out of the others.) You also get four free applications with the CSU fee waiver - use those too. What’s the harm? If you search “Prepscholar The Ultimate Guide to Cal State Schools: How to Pick” you’ll find a decent summary of stats and rankings. (I’d post the link but CC blocks links from competing sites.)
Once you’re done with your CA public apps, then you can start researching full-need-met private universities where you may want to apply EDII or RD. Many good suggestions have been made here. It may be difficult to determine whether there are any EDII schools that are worth pre-empting your other pending applications with a binding app for… but if there’s a full-need-met school that would be more affordable than a UC (run the NPC’s!), that’s a good fit for you, and that would give you a big advantage for applying ED, it’s worth considering. (CMC, U of Richmond, and Washington & Lee stand out to me as possibilities, given what you appear to be looking for. All strongly favor ED applicants.)
Good luck finishing up the UC/CSU apps, and I hope you beat the odds at one of your five ranked Questbridge schools. You’ve obviously worked really hard to have the record that you have; now’s the time to work smart so that you’re rewarded for your hard work with a college experience that’s both excellent and affordable.