You asked if going to a UC instead of UGA would be “a waste of money.” YES!!! It would be a total waste of money. It looks like you qualify for free tuition at UGA with Hope/Zell. Not many states offer such an awesome deal to their top in-state students, so don’t take this for granted.
Don’t let your cousins in California make you believe all California universities are superior to UGA (or any other Georgia university you can get into). Apply to Ga Tech and take your chances. Apply to Georgia State University also – it has a computer science program as well, and is located in the city where you will have more opportunities for internships during the school year than at UGA. If you attend UGA, put your all into it and excel – then you can look at attending college in California for grad school, as someone else mentioned (if you even want to by then, or go to Ga Tech grad school).
Unless you’re at Stanford, MIT, or some other comparable place, it won’t really matter where you get your Computer Science degree. What will matter is how many software programs you learn to use (typically on your own time, even if you are majoring in CS), certifications you have, experience you gain through internships and otherwise, etc.
A flagship university like UGA, or even a lesser known university like Georgia State, will always look better than a community college in California! And you won’t have the risk of not getting to major in CS after all, or the “waste of money.” Atlanta has its own IT industry that is already large and growing, so you don’t really need to go all the way to California to find opportunities. Google, Oracle, and many other technology companies have offices in metro Atlanta, and they will be looking to hire some local talent.