This is a good question. Given that their mission is literally all about serving the inland empire, I would say that makes you not a good mission fit. I applied with no real connections and got put “on hold” for an interview, so I’m not sure what to think about that. But I would not have applied if I had known that they receive local funding to accept students from the “inland empire.” Most people say “hold” for an interview is just a soft rejection anyways—which is probably accurate since I got like 6 or 7 “holds” for interviews (Tulane, UCSD, UCR, NYMC, Penn State, etc) and none of them actually turned into interviews.