Originally Posted by Beats05
Judging by quality of education and how far the name of the school will take you job-wise and grad-school-wise, it's Berkeley easily, especially for engineering. Berkeley is #3, USC is #8. And as for the law and business remarks about USC being better, that's very incorrect. If you're talking law schools, Berkeley is #6 while USC is the next tier down at #18. And for Business, Berkeley is #7 while USC is #21. Even if you're just talking undergrad, there's no such thing as a pre-law route--I got into Columbia, NYU, and Berkeley Law with a Statistics degree and am pending at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford so I'm familiar with the pre-law experience--so there's no comparison to be made, and for business, Haas (Berkeley) is way above USC as well. Berkeley is the #1 public school in the country. For future money and grad school hopes, it's a no-brainer.
For extra-curricular activities...Both have great football teams. USC is obviously better, but the Cal vs Stanford games are always fun no matter how the teams are doing. Plus at Berkeley you're about 20-30 minutes away from SF on the BART. Since you're on NT I'm assuming you're a shoe head so that'll be a major plus. As for the social scene, I'm willing to bet that ANYWHERE is better than Berkeley. I mean there are 30,000+ students---you'll make friends and have a good time every now and then unless there's something wrong with you. But the stereotypes are true...especially about the girls. Also LA is LA. SF or Berkeley are just not LA.
So if education, grad school, and work are important to you, you shouldn't even have to think about it--Berkeley is for you. But if having fun, meeting girls, watching your sports teams win, and everything else LA has that Berkeley and SF just can't compete with are important to you, go to USC. If you plan to go to grad school, the name of that school will ultimately be more important with regards to jobs, etc. so in that perspective, your undergrad school name doesn't matter that much. But if you plan to just work right after undergrad, I really recommend maximizing your future income and the ease of getting your first job by going to the school whose name has the most clout, which is easily Berkeley. And besides, it has the reputation for a reason. You learn a lot.