Why so many students apply there even if they have to pay double and don’t receive any merit aid from them? Is it because the public higher education is better compared to the rest of the US? (With some exceptions of course) or is it because their name-brands?
Because they are some of the best and well known public schools. Cal is #1 and UCLA isn’t very far behind, #2 or #3 probably.
^^^^
And people from out of the state seem to think that the whole state of California is a tropical beach and that everyone surfs and is cool- some weird ideas taken from the mythical land of television/internet.
^ True. Trust me, it isn’t all beaches and surfing. I live in CA, and I’ve only gone to the beach once in my whole life, and never surfing (but that’s probably unusual).
Also, CA does have some really good public universities (ex. UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, etc), but it isn’t like they’re the only great schools out there. I guess name brands play a factor too, but it’s a combination of many factors that make many students want to go to certain CA schools (such as school environment, culture, majors offered, and so on). That’s just my 2 cents 
(Edited to clarify the factors mentioned above)
Because most int’l students come from Asia, and CA is right on the other side of the Pacific.
I agree with the perception that “life is a beach” in California. A lot of people think that San Diego State and Cal State Long Beach are on the beach. You can drive to the beach but the campuses aren’t like UCSB.
I’ll add that I think a big draw to California campuses is the weather. It isn’t necessarily about living on the beach but more about warm weather and sunshine the majority of the year. I can’t think of any California campus that experiences snow and I think that is a big draw for people from other states.
The schools, in general, aren’t better.
But students fantasize about California due to its weather, natural beauty, stature in technology and fame propagated by the film/TV industry.
It’s a very narrow and under-informed view of the educational options available in the rest of the US. And I say that as someone who went to the University of California.
@lkg4answers I went to Davis and we had internationals AND OOS students who thought there would be a beach nearby. Since everywhere in CA is a beach, dontyaknow.
Yes, the UC schools seem to be mentioned in rote, Berkeley and UCLA, by parents of international students who have NO IDEA about the schools, where they are, what they are, and that they are easy to gain admission. They can’t conceive that thousands of internationals and OOS students are rejected. The there is rain, wind, fire, a complicated highway system, very high costs of living and small accommodations doesn’t seem to play into the California image.
Students then appear shocked that they won’t get in automatically! That they have to pay because there is no financial aid appears to be more of a shocker!!
California has mountains, deserts, and rocky coasts and extreme temperatures. That appears to be a shock to many students. Yes, we have sun, but the beaches get fog and take a while to burn off unless summer temps have been warm. The water temperatures at the coast are not Caribbean nor Hawaiian water temperatures. The water is cold.
My dd1 who went to school in upstate NY was often asked why she didn’t like living at the beach. Yes, we live in San Diego, but we don’t live anywhere near the beach. Them’s the richies. My dd2 also went to UC Davis and also met OOS students who thought they could just walk to a nearby beach!
The people who think that you can go to UC Santa Barbara and be in Silicon Valley in minutes continues to puzzle me. Don’t people see maps of the state? I’ve seen people advise others, here on CC, that a student should attend XYZ University in California because then they can be in Silicon Valley within a few minutes! Apparently California is a big beach with access to everything in a few minutes.
Too funny Aunt Bea!!
I am always baffled by the same misconceptions.
When my SF Bay Area kids went to colleges on the East Coast, they used to joke about it.
They would tease fellow students who assumed that since they were from ‘Cali’ (ugh…no one from here says that),
that they would “surf to school” every day.
It was the gift that kept on giving, as the responses of their fellow students ranged from laughing at how silly it sounded, to seriously questioning where all the surfboards and wetsuits were kept while the students were in class.
I would love my kids to go to CA schools, and I’ve lived in CA. I’m well aware that beaches are not in everyone’s back yards, there are congested highways, the four seasons of CA (flood, fire, earthquake and drought) and that California is what you get when you shake the country: all the nuts roll west. And there’s no water in the north because they save their water just so that SoCal can water their lawns and have pools in the middle of a desert. It’s Chinatown, Jake.
And it’s really hard to get into CA schools.
But what I hope my kids would discover in California is a different attitude about life. The first question people on the East Coast ask you is “what do you do?” meaning what’s your job–not what do you do in your job, where do you work. In CA that was not what people asked you. Maybe people not on CC don’t recognize this bit but also Californians’ second question wasn’t: where did/do you go to college? like it is on the East Coast. EC people seem to define people by where they went to school: So and so works for X company, went to Harvard, kids at Swarthmore, Haverford, and Princeton. Like, that’s how people introduce each other. It’s really annoying. People in CA seemed to care about what you’re doing now, maybe your art or you’re into hiking or whatever else you do beyond your job. That’s really nice to experience when I was there.
The EC is more driven in general, which means a lot gets done. A lot. (not that things don’t get done in CA, I know I know) And that’s nice too, but I wish that my kids could experience how nice CA is. Oh and the food is better too. So there’s that.
@Dustyfeathers : " And there’s no water in the north because they save their water just so that SoCal can water their lawns and have pools in the middle of a desert."
Much of that water does NOT come from the north, but is contracted and directed through the state from elsewhere. (Maybe you were joking.)
I believe some water authorities in the most southern of California have contracted for more from the Colorado River than other areas in California have, and thus something of a surplus can appear on the books. Only part of it comes from the north.
@auntbea: “… the four seasons of CA (flood, fire, earthquake and drought)…” 
@Dustyfeathers: You’re right.
When I was a kid growing up in Los Angeles, no one ever asked, “What does your daddy/mommy do?”
Instead they asked, “What does your daddy/mommy drive?”
I moved to the SF Bay Area as soon as high school was over and never left…
@Waiting2exhale : Perhaps you have not paid attention to the recurring efforts to ship water south from the Delta? Hasn’t happened yet, and yes, I think most of the extra water down south currently comes at the expense of other states, but it’s not for lack of trying. LA Water (or whatever its official name is) just bought a couple of islands in the delta, and I’m sure that water rights and the opportunity to have a say in the latest proposals about a tunnel to ship water south had absolutely nothing to do with that decision. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Anyway, back to the actual point of this thread. California is a beautiful place to live. Floods? Fewer than elsewhere. Fires? Oh yes. Earthquakes? Random. Drought? Yep. No snow (except where you want it up in the mountains). No hurricanes. No tornadoes. I’ll take the earth shaking over a town being wiped off the face of the earth. That’s my choice at least.
UC is one of the best public universities around. If someone is interested in a diverse student body (nationality/heritage/socioeconomic/take your pick), I think it would be hard to find a better choice. Some may have misconceptions about the beach lifestyle (no, you do not come to Berkeley for that), but I think California overall is one of the most open and accepting places you could hope to be. (Well, maybe not Riverside.)
Internationally, UC Berkeley and UCLA have great reputations, and in Asia, at least, the name on your undergrad diploma matters a lot to employers. Also: they’re great schools.
It also turns out that lots of OOS and internationals apply to UMich and UVA–why? Same reason: They’ve long been considered top public universities and they have name value to many.
@Dustyfeathers I have lived on the east coast most of my life. I am currently living in MA. I have never been asked where I went to college outside of a job interview. Never. While I’m sure that it may happen in some circles, it is by no means common. And no one has ever asked me what my parents did.