Earlier quoted context omitted.
University of California, Washington, and Texas are hardly uncompetitive. Their admission rates are very low for the good programs.
UC's are a huge exception, yes. The better equivalent is the CSU system and even then it's relatively competitive comared to other public unis.
UNC Chapel Hill, UVA, Virginia Tech, College of William & Mary, Georgia Tech, UT Austin, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Wisconsin Madison, Purdue...
America has a solid stable of top-tier public universities.