All of the published stats I’ve seen bundle international admissions with domestic non-residents, so it’s hard to tell whether being categorized as international puts you at a meaningful disadvantage. I don’t really think so for UCSD - they accept a lot of internationals, and even more so now: UC San Diego accepts more international students, expects fewer to say yes | KPBS Public Media For Berkeley and UCLA, I could see it potentially being a tougher admit as an international, but I don’t know for sure that this is true, and even if it is, it may be shifting.
I don’t think you’re in a bad spot admissions-wise; it’s the tuition issue that is pivotal. It’s a tough job market for new grads, and I wouldn’t want to be graduating with a pile of debt. But it seems like things are looking up vis-a-vis tuition; I hope you can get confirmation from the schools that you are good in terms of paying in-state costs. If that’s the case, you can focus most of your effort on applying to UC’s, since you prefer to stay in-state, but keep a few OOS opportunities on radar just to cover the bases. And the CCC pathway will always be there as a fallback. (Applying to a few CSU’s is a good idea too, although there isn’t really a CogSci program in that system, if you’re fully set on that major. Best bet in that case could be to apply to a more computational major like CS or data science, and add in the brain-sciences piece as a double-major, or one or more minors, in psych, linguistics, etc. These schools would also have a less appalling OOS price tag if it comes to that.)