<p>Ken, I have lived in other parts of the World, including the OP’s native Germany. California is a fine place to live, but nothing special. I agree that California has excellent universities, but they are very tough to get into. Caltech, Harvey Mudd and Stanford are tough for anybody and Cal and UCLA are just as hard on international students. USC is a solid but not great university. Given the OP’s credentials (good but not exceptional), he really should be flexible and apply to other universities. Of course, I am assuming he hasn’t visited other parts of the US. If he has visited the entire country and come to the conclusion that he can only live in California, then so be it.</p>