All UCs and many CSU schools only accept junior transfers.
You may not be aware of ABET which is the accreditation org for engineering degrees. The upshot is that if you go to an approved program no matter what college you’ll be taking roughly the same classes undergrad, and prospective employers know that. Many of these schools may not impress your friends but they aren’t the ones offering jobs. To be sure there are some premier engineering schools such as Caltech, Stanford, MIT but engineering is a tough major anywhere and a student that does well in class and gets a few internships has very good prospects no matter where they go.