<p>Uh, I disagree with most opinions here. I am EECS as well and I chose Berkeley over Caltech. Why?</p>
<ol>
<li>I wanted a more well-rounded education, have a social life and not be around 99% of Science-only nerds (this is not a bad thing, just in general not the people I like to socialize with).</li>
<li>Name recognition. Yes, Caltech has a strong brand-name in CA, but seriously, no one outside of the US (I am international) has ever heard of Caltech. That even applies for many other US-Sates. Berkeley is much more recognized internationally than most Americans know.</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s true that academically Caltech MAY be better than Berkeley (though for EECS I don’t even think that’s true), but Caltech is tailored to a very specific kind of student. And just if you are interested, I would make the same decision again. Even though I am not really happy with my life at Berkeley, I think I would hate it at Caltech ;)</p>
<p>I agree that Berkeley is not up to par with Colbumbia for MOST majors, but EECS is a different story. If you think there is a good probability you will drop out of EECS, go to Columbia. A more personal education, nice location, easy to switch majors, and so on. However, if you are sure that you will stick with EECS I would choose Berkelet over Columbia. It will give you more opportunities (for EECS) and more likely a better education as well. Since you seem to be interested in Japanese, did you know that Columbia has a very strong name in Japan?</p>