This will be true regardless of where your child attends undergrad since merely attending undergrad in another state won’t change her state of residence for med school applications.
She will still be considered a CA resident (with the disadvantages inherent in that…) unless she graduates from college, then establishes an independent domicile in another state by living there and working at a job to support herself for 12 months.
RE: Thomas Haider
The Thomas Haider program is a wonderful opportunity, but admission to the program requires that the student be a resident of either Riverside or San Bernardino counties. The acceptance rate to program is about 10% (127 applicants last year for 12 slots) and last year’s acceptances were overwhelmingly from disadvantaged/lowSES backgrounds. (75% disadvantaged)
The UCs and CSUs are probably the most cost effective option for undergrad. Attending a CA public undergrad–or even doing the CCC to UC route–will not disadvantage a student w/r/t instate med school admission. The UCs, however, are notably more successful in getting their students into med school than the CSUs. I’m not sure why. Could be the CSU students tend to prefer other careers. It could be that the UCs are so much bigger and their sheer number of applicants overwhelm the admission data.
For med schools outside of CA (and more CA residents matriculate into OOS public and private med schools than they do into any of CA’s public or private med schools), I’m not sure people outside of CA are aware of – or care about-- of the nuances of UC vs CSU prestige debate.