@jesse’sgirl, please see this post for data on UC admissions, along with a suggested improvement in the process:
Long story short, @thurl is correct. OOS tuition is 3 times in state. Money is the reason the UCs have done this, though they couch it in other terms. In 2009, 95% of UC freshmen were in-state. Currently, that is only true at Merced. Overall, 2015 incoming UC all-campus freshman class was 79% in-state. That’s about 5,000 slots (of 33,000 total) given to OOS and international students. Diversity, yes, but let’s take care of our own first.
BTW, usually rejection from the major means rejection form the university. And unfortunately, it does not help much to get into the school but not the major. CS is now nearly impenetrable from inside or outside of the universities for the vast majority of kids. It’s not as impacted in other states, but California (tech capital of the world) did not prepare. We parents of aspiring CS majors are pretty upset, as you can tell.