might Sacramento be a good fit for me and my son

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

The CA college system is very affordable and high quality. The best deal is to have your son go to CA community college for 2 years, then transfer to the univ system. There is a special deal with the universities to do this. This way, you can get into a great univ without all the competition with the undergrads. It's a guaranteed "in" to the universities if you transfer from the community colleges. Great deal. And way cheaper.

Transfer | UC Admissions

I saw Berkeley wasn't included in the above link, so I found this link:

http://admission.universityofcalifor...ile/index.html

[SacramentoBound]

The system of California community colleges (CCCs) is excellent. But keep in mind that if you have a high-achieving student who wants to consider private colleges and universities in addition to the two state systems, there is a significant trade-off to consider in terms of acceptance rates. Two years at a CCC can result in very easy admission to great public schools like UCLA, UC Berkeley, and CalPoly. On the other hand, it can be far, far more difficult to gain admission as a transfer student to private universities, particularly prestigious ones. Take Stanford as an example; regarding transfer admissions, their web site reads, "Transfer admission is considerably more competitive than freshman admission. In recent years, the admit rate for transfer students has ranged from 1% to 4%. Between twenty and fifty transfer student spaces are typically available each year, depending on our freshman to sophomore retention rate (usually 98%) and the number of admitted freshmen who accept our offer of admission." (source)