GENERAL question about some graduate schools in California

Quite frankly, this is the wrong question. It sounds like what you are looking for is acceptance rates, but those don’t necessarily tell you your likelihood of admission. One of the most competitive schools/programs might be an excellent fit for you, and you may have an easier time getting in there than a school with a higher acceptance rate but that is less of a good fit. Your own chances of admission depend upon your research interests, your credentials, and your fit with the department.

Also, for a PhD program, you shouldn’t be limiting yourself geographically to California. Your best fit advisor/program might be in Illinois or Georgia or New York or wherever.

Also, I’m not seeing where you see an I/O or applied psychology program for UCSD, UC-Davis, or UC-Berkeley. The only UC with a program like I/O is at UC-Irvine (organizational leadership). The Society for I/O Psychology has a list of programs: http://www.siop.org/ioprograms.aspx. SFSU maybe that’s what you meant by CSU-SF?), CSU-San Bernardino, CSU-Sacramento, and CSU-Long Beach all have programs, too.