Berkeley vs USC (vs Brown & UChicago)

Given that you’re doing L&S CS at Berkeley (which means you’re technically undeclared until you meet the GPA requirement), I’m going to take it as if you were comparing all 4 to an equal major (econ, and HAAS isn’t bad either).

If we’re assuming you don’t get into UChicago or Brown, definitely go to Berkeley. Berkeley is (in my opinion) a much better school than USC (in both CS AND econ). The prestige is better (vs. University of Spoiled Children/Second Choice), job opportunities are notably better (Silicon Valley). Education quality is definitely much better. (Heck, USC even has a reputation for no one going to classes). Social life and campus vibe, I would say at the base, USC wins, but (and I’m Berkeley biased, I admit) if you know how the Berkeley system works (cough, Greek life), your social life will be just fine. In fact, the people you know at Berkeley will probably go on to become influential people, so :^). Location? Well, both are in the ghetto and in California. USC is probably better, but you can’t go wrong with either. And cost? Berkeley. We all know how USC works.

Including the other two schools, it really just goes down to what you want. Berkeley for CS, and Chicago for econ, is what I would do. If I didn’t get into UChicago but Brown, that’s okay too. But you’ll have to make the decision between if you want to do CS or Econ.

Tl;dr; Berkeley for CS, USC for econ if you don’t get in waitlist. If you get in waitlist, UChicago > Brown imo, but no real big difference. I can’t recommend between cs and econ, but I would argue that cs has better opportunities right now at Silicon Valley. But you can’t go wrong w’ either.