Of course not – because there is another way to qualify.
It’s true that “eligibility in the local context” (top 9% by high school class rank) is one path to UC admissions. However, UC admission is also offered to all CA applicants that are in the top 9% statewide, as measured by a combination of GPA and test scores. This is called “eligibility in the statewide context”. You can plug your GPA and test scores into the calculator here to see if you qualify:
Technically, UC admission under the statewide path is only guaranteed “if space is available”, but to date it always has been.
Obviously there is a lot of overlap between those who are top 9% “locally” and top 9% “statewide”. But overall, about 12.5% of CA high school seniors are UC-eligible by one or both routes. And that 12.5% figure hasn’t changed since the CA Master Plan for Higher Education was developed in the 1960s.
Maybe the thread should be kept open. There seems to be lots of misinformation here that needs to be corrected.