Yale costs more than $40k per year and does not have merit scholarships (only need-based financial aid).
SFSU would be a safety if you meet baseline CSU admission standards and your major is not impacted (English and political science are not impacted there). Sonoma State University markets itself as more LAC-like (part of COPLAC), and would also be a safety (it is also one of the more residential CSUs). Some of the other COPLAC schools like University of Minnesota - Morris or Truman State University may also be within your price limit even at out-of-state prices.
For UCs, here is some information on admission rates by recalculated GPA bands:
Recalculate your HS GPA with GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . Use the weighted capped version for the table below.
Fall 2022 admission rates by campus and HS GPA range from Freshman fall admissions summary | University of California :
| Campus | 4.00+ | 3.70-3.99 | 3.30-3.69 | 3.00-3.29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berkeley | 17% | 3% | 1% | 0% |
| Davis | 58% | 20% | 5% | 2% |
| Irvine | 35% | 10% | 3% | 0% |
| Los Angeles | 13% | 2% | 1% | 0% |
| Merced | 97% | 97% | 95% | 85% |
| Riverside | 95% | 83% | 42% | 17% |
| San Diego | 37% | 8% | 1% | 0% |
| Santa Barbara | 41% | 8% | 3% | 0% |
| Santa Cruz | 69% | 45% | 16% | 4% |
These are for the whole campus. Different divisions or majors may have different levels selectivity (usually, engineering and computer science majors are more selective).
Note that the weighted-capped GPA is also used for CSU, but a semester college course counts as two courses and grades for CSU, versus one course and grade for UC.