I grew up 15 min away and UCI did used to be a commuter school. But its international reputation has steadily increased in the last 2 decades. It has transformed quite a bit with campus expansion and partnerships with industry. It trades ranking with UCSD depending on the year. Even in-state, both schools has less than 10% acceptance into engineering majors (Gumbymom can provide more specifics) and they are definitely not safety schools, even for CA residents.
Both campuses can be cut throat competitive, but both do foster great learning environments, lots of research opportunities, social scene is not bad.
That’s just my own observation.