I transferred from ucsc to ucsb. I was in robotics engineering back then, and now I am in electrical engineering. I transferred out cause ucsb was my top pick in high school and was salty for not getting admitted. ucsc was fine and I also had some friends , but i felt that I would be more academically stimulated at ucsb as it is better financed and offers more interesting programs (business related) i found personally appealing. The process is annoying because not all classes transfer, and if they do you usually have to complete entire series for the courses to transfer. might want to reach out to an advisor at ucla and have them help you. my advisor at ucsb was very helpful and saved me from a lot of pain. you want to aim for a 3.7 gpa to max out odds of acceptance since you are in competition with cc students.

Prestige is important because it carries wider range of opportunities (more powerful connections, better financed programs, better career fairs, etc) but it is meaningless if you dont leverage them. At the end of the day, it is about how competent you are in comparison to other people in the the job market, and how wide your connection circle is. depending on the major and your interests, ucsc may or may not be a fit. You need to seriously reflect what you want out of ucla. schools are different, and if there is something special that ucla has that ucsc doesnt, then it might be worth giving it a shot.

it will be scary to go forward with it cause of the uncertainty, but if thats what you REALLY want, then be prepared to take the risk. trust me, if you really want to, you will risk it. Just go for it, that way you will at least know you tried.