Our CA public HS has a graduating class of 850-900 students each year, and we have two college counselors. Most of our college bound students apply to CA state schools; some may also apply to privates and OOS schools. My feeling is that if our overworked college counselors can chance students for any schools at all, CA state schools are probably the schools where they understand admission best, since they are helping hundreds of students apply to these schools each year.