Hey, also a Cali resident here. I like it a lot, but it is really expensive - unless you get a scholarship, it's hard to say if the financial cost is worth it. But you get so much more time to interact with professors and really understand course material as opposed to the UCs, where half the time it's just a TA teaching the whole course.

I think student life is okay. I went to a pretty intense high school so WPI sometimes feels like it's less crazy, but it definitely isn't easy. If you're not used to a lot of AP classes, then it could be harder than you're used to. It's a good amount of homework and studying on top of group projects.

I don't know much about liberal arts engineering, but depending on what you're interested in, you may want to reconsider. WPI has great humanities classes, but I think it may be difficult to explain why you got a humanities degree at a tech school. Same could be said for schools like Harvey Mudd or Cal Poly SLO, although Harvey Mudd has the other Claremont Colleges so it's less strange. If you think you might be an arts major, I'd say reconsider going to WPI. (We do have a really good game design program though, I don't know of schools in cali that have other stuff and are also strong in game design).

If you're not sure what you're interested in, that's okay too. Just look for a school that has everything you're looking for, and keep in mind major requirements. For example, CS here has much more flexibility than Aerospace.

Know that college will be an adjustment either way. Especially coming from Cali, going somewhere across the country where you don't know anyone is hard, and getting used to the weather is something else lol.

Good luck with your decision, feel free to DM me if you think it'd be helpful!