It depends on how much that cost means to your family. If you can’t afford $70/year, Berkeley is a great university. Don’t borrow $280K for any school.
DS had similar choices last year: CMU SCS, Caltech, Berkeley L&S (but with Regents). He chose Caltech over CMU, but a big issue was that he is leaning toward a physics major, and CS would be his 2nd choice. He didn’t feel like the physics program at CMU was particularly good if he decided on that major.
If he had been sure about wanting a CS major, he probably would have gone with CMU.
Though a comment: In most cases, you can really only hold one job at a time. CS majors are unlikely to be unemployed, so having the absolute largest number of job options is not really all that important in real life.
Things to weigh for the CMU vs Caltech decision include the culture and fit issues. Some comments below:
– Caltech is very rigorous and proof-based, especially in physics and math. The CS program at CMU includes very little as far as outside requirements other than math. Outside CS, Caltech requires 3 quarters of physics, 3 quarters of math, 2 quarters of chemistry, 1 quarter of biology, 12 quarters of humanities/social science, 3 quarters of PE, and a few other requirements.
– Caltech gives absolutely no AP credit and rarely gives credit for courses at other colleges. (Though you can take a class without having the prerequisites if you think you can handle it.) CMU is quite generous with AP credit if you have a number of 5s. My son would have had almost no requirements outside CS.
– Caltech is really small as far as the number of undergraduates. Like the size of just the SCS at CMU.
– Caltech has fun, quirky events and the House system. My son loves his house. We asked about fun, quirky stuff at CMU and the things they mentioned seemed pale by comparison. People seemed more focused on working toward getting a job. Many/most people at Caltech are thinking that they’ll get a PhD.
– Caltech is collaborative. CMU seems competitive and cutthroat in some ways. (That does not mean CMU is harder, because it isn’t.)
– Caltech has a strong Honor Code. Exams are all take home and many are open book. (This does not make them any easier.) The Honor Code is really important to Caltech students in both academics and social life in ways other schools would not even consider being relevant to the Honor Code.
– Caltech is an excellent fit for really nerdy people. Like the kind who make jokes about functional programming and being NP complete. I don’t know about CMU.
– Weather.