UCSF isn't really a good medical school unless one wants to become a nurse. I can't comment on UC itself, but I assume Mennen is a high school student heading toward an undergraduate education.
Now, Mennen; since you live in California and are planning to attend a UC, I should ask of your ethnicity and your extra-curriculars. If you do not want to tell me your exact ethnicity, just say "white" or "non-white"; the UC system operates on limited affirmative action and expects more of white students than of minorities, as minorities are traditionally poor and underprivelaged. Going to a private school only further accentuates a confortable lifestyle.
Your parents' gross income plays a key role in financial aid; If you are white and your parents earn more than $60,000, financial aid will be difficult to obtain from the government. It's not impossible, but you will be competing against people across the nation for the same scholarships with GPAs in the 4-4.6 range.
Pretty much, if you're just a pretty smart, upper middle class white guy, the personal statement is going to be your key into the UC system; it's a required three essay standard that puts your entire academic career into context. For example, if you had like an "F" in a course that you had to repeat, you could argue that "my teacher was fired and a substitute with no credentials was forced into the position" to make up for this. If your second grade was an "A", it turns the "F" into a strength and not a weakness.
In regard to CC's, I wouldn't recommend taking that route; UC system at the freshman/sophomore level is designed to orient students towards how college runs. It's a shock factor if you're relaxed and enter a UC in Junior year; though CC students get priority registration, and most of them are better students than UC guys at the time, nearly all of them do worse at a UC.
I would recommend getting your lower division stuff done at CC while in High School. I started college at UCD this year, but starting Fall 2006 I will declare a major in Political Science because I have already completed my lower division requirements with CC courses and AP tests before I even started Fall 2005. I won't be able to declare Cell Biology as a major until I am a Junior, but that's not so bad because science courses at CC's are looked down upon as being "too easy".