Here’s something I found to be reassuring. A direct quote from a UC Berkeley podcast episode on how to transfer into the College of Engineering:
"LV: Let’s talk about the admission rates. What are the admission rates for the College of Engineering for transfer students.
JW: Well for transfer students previous 2018 year the transfer admission rate for the campus was about 23 percent. For the College in general I think it was about 12 percent. So significantly lower than that. However, we want to point out that out of the eligible students, so students who completed all their prerequisite requirements, submitted supplemental forms, close to 40 percent of the students of those, were admitted. So you know the admit rate of 12 percent is very deceiving and maybe discouraging but you know you should be happy to hear that if you’ve satisfied all your prerequisite require, filled out the supplemental forms and you have a three point five GPA or higher, that you know your chances are pretty good at getting admitted.
LV: So overall those numbers really shouldn’t discourage the students.
SM: No, the 12 percent shouldn’t discourage students because if you’ve taken all the courses that you should have taken, the required courses, and you filled out the supplemental forms you had to fill out, and your overall GPA is at three point five or higher. You actually have a 40 percent chance. So that’s a pretty good chance."
TLDR; 12% admission rate to College of Engineering is somewhat misleading, 40% of those who’ve completed prerequisites, submitted supplemental forms, and have a qualifying (3.5+) GPA are admitted.