Did you research this particular UC?
There is a reason its admission statistics are higher. You still pay the same price as the other UC’s, but you need to weigh that with the area.
Merced is in an extremely rural environment. It’s in the middle of farmland. Lots of small farms and agriculture. The university is continuing to build and expand.
It’s not like Davis. Davis has a college town attached to it, with every franchisee available: grocery stores, hardware stores, bike shops, Trader Joe’s, phenomenal restaurants and banks are all walkable in the immediate area, and, it’s been established for a number of years. Davis is huge. Also Davis is in between Sacramento and the Bay Area so you can pretty much drive anywhere, within a reasonable amount of time. Also the train is in the center of the town and there are lots of things to do there.
Not so at Merced. Before you commit to paying that kind of money, you need to visit the actual area. Your airport access is not smooth. You may be disappointed.
Our daughter got into a lot of great schools and she got into all of her UC’s, however, she chose University of Buffalo because of their medicine and engineering opportunities. She did extremely well there and is killing it in her industry.
Edited to add: you really need to consider the programs and not whether it’s on some magazine’s top 20 list. I’ve been through this with my three kids and they did well in their admissions at top schools. In the end they chose the schools that worked for them and for what they wanted to do and accomplish.