Current U nursing student in my 3rd semester of the program.
Universities in California suffer from massive grade inflation, so it's not an easy comparison.
Yes, the U is competitive. But I've seen them accept people with a lower GPA than you might expect.
Most people misunderstand nursing school admissions. It's unlike engineering, business, etc because there's a moral component. They want to know if you're going to be the kind of person who will stay on shift for an extra 4-6 hours when your relief is late so as not to abandon your patients. They want to know that you will treat all patients with respect despite your personal biases or how much you disagree with their lifestyle.
I already know what you're thinking when you read that line. "I'm from California, and we're the most open minded people in the world!" But when you have a patient who has a BMI of 65 and a confederate flag tattoo, your nursing school wants to know that you'll treat them with the same excellence in care that you would offer any other patient.
So, how do they do that? Grades are definitely important in applying to nursing school, but they balance that against your volunteering, work experience and application content (essay, interview, etc). They want to see someone who is balanced across those four areas, rather than a cohort of 65 amoral 4.0s.
Prereq GPA counts more than cumulative, I would say. For more information, I would talk to one of the College of Nursing admissions counselors.
Their info can be found here.