Applied to UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCD, UCSD, and UCSB for transfer from a community college in California. I submitted the application in full like 4 minutes before the deadline, finishing the essays like 10 minutes before deadline because I'm irresponsible, oof :P ... ;O;.
They didn't turn out as good as I would have wanted and didn't get to get them proofread that much and didn't get to or forgot to write down some tidbits about situations affecting my school performance in additional comments essay section, but it should turn out okay hopefully since I don't really think the improved essays/additional comments would have really changed a decision of getting into the school or not, although I'll never know ;O;.
I got TAG for UCSB for Physics with IGETC completed, so we'll see how it goes. Apparently UCSB is better for Physics than all the other UC's except Berkeley, for the graduate program though obviously, but I figure it carries over SOMEWHAT to undergrad program (I could maybe take some grad courses during undergrad) and UCSB has a higher undergrad-grad student ratio than other UC's (which may be a good and/or bad thing). That said, I'd probably still rank my choices as:
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCSB / UCD
UCSD
I'm majoring in Physics, but I'm also premed, fulfilling all the requirements except Org Chem and other smaller (elementary statistics) or upper division classes depending on the medical school and I might want to double major or take extra classes in biology. That's mostly why UCLA is above UCSB, despite UCSB being "better for Physics" than UCLA (from many rankings, but yeah I know rankings are mularchy or whatever).
I might apply to more schools like NYU, but I don't particularly think my chances are good or would choose NYU over UCSB :(. Sorry Plus.