<p>I can’t speak for UCLA political science, although personally I feel that Berkeley is better (since I’m a poli sci student here). I know rankings have their problems, but if I’m not wrong our department is consistently ranked the top 5 in the world. Go google it a bit. UCLA is typically ranked somewhere between 11 and 20 (below UCSD!). I know these don’t factor in the quality of undergraduates (if they would it’ll probably er, drop), but if the professors and graduate department are ranked so high, then at least you have the best resources and people to network and gain knowledge from. I can say for sure my professors are very knowledgeable; even if they aren’t the best teachers sometimes, office hours are pretty insanely good times during which I’ve learnt a lot from them.</p>
<p>It also matters, I guess, if your son wants to stay here after graduation - for Berkeley, you have San Francisco, and for LA you have er, LA. Haha. Both have different job pools, resources, connections etc. It might be helpful. If your son is pre-law, perhaps get him to consider which law school he wants to go and recce out the likelihood of him getting accepted to those based on the Berkeley or UCLA name/recommendations, etc.</p>