From your previous post, your daughter is not a resident of any state so she will be paying out-of-state tuition if she is admitted to a public university. State taxpayers fund the public universities within their state. So the advantage of being a tax paying resident is that resident students are prioritized for admission and in-state tuition rates.
She can fill out the FAFSA, which is her advantage as a US citizen, and can access government subsidized loans, but that’s about it. She needs to rely on wherever she applies for any scholarships available.
Most scholarships, that will cover the majority of her costs, come directly from the universities.
Having family, in California, won’t give her in-state tuition. She has to be a resident or graduate from high school in California and have attended a California school for three years to qualify for in-state tuition. Otherwise she will be paying about $70K a year for a UC. The CSU’s are about $42,000 a year. She won’t qualify for California State funding because she doesn’t live nor go to school in California.
Her best bet would be to apply to private universities that have access to in-house funding.