<p>strictly on surrounding, I like berkeley a lot more. I was in chicago in november and the neighborhood wasn’t alltogether nice, actually it’s much more on the dangerous/ugly side. and it get SOOO cold there, not kidding. berkeley is jsut a cool college town, something chicago isn’t. the weather is pretty consistent in berkeley, usually around the upper 60s to mid 70s (though lately it has been raining all over the bay area) berkeley has a lot of greenery and you can probably find any food you can think of (and cheap! which is great for college students), again something that is lacking in chicago. I think that college is what you make of it. I know people at berkeley who probably feel like a number and then i have a few very close friends who are sophomores at Cal and who are assertive and aren’t intimidated by their professors and actually see them during their office hours, and they tell me how satisfied they are (about MOST classes/professors/TAs) As for UChicago, it’s definitely not nearly as social, very very academic, whereas at Cal, you can have both. hmm… i hope that helped</p>