@websensation - you nailed it. They are trying to entice a certain type of student, and the review is VERY holistic for granting Regents. They only admit a couple hundred applicants as Regents every year, in a school with 1,000’s of students with excellent statistics. D has two Regents friends - both smart, talented, and not a whole lot of financial resources. Another friend’s older sister got in as Regents and her family has two parents with college degrees and plenty of financial resources. So, no way to really know what they are looking for.
OP, you are feeling less than worthy because you clearly are attending a very academically competitive HS. Just because you aren’t offered Regents at Cal doesn’t mean you aren’t HYPSM.
As for “crowding”:
Internships: you competing with not only people from you school, but with people from around THE COUNTRY. That’s necessarily a function of going to a large school.
Housing: yep, a lot of students and not enough to guarantee beyond the first year. A lot of kids don’t want to be in on-campus housing after their first year anyway. There a lot of housing options around the school for that reason.
Courses: yes, this is an issue, ain’t gonna lie. You just have to be super flexible and schedule classes whenever you can get them and physically go, even if it’s at 8:00 a.m.
BTW, D has another friend Cal friend who was also admitted to Harvard but wound up going with the cheaper option (she is in-state). It’s a great value, no question.