Got National Merit scholarship and financial aid from USC, making net price around $50K while UC Berkeley out of state cost around $84K.
Major in physics.
Could someone let me know the pros and cons on the two schools?
USC. Physics most likely needs grad school and option to go to berkeley will still be there in the future.
Can you afford $84k ?
If you want UCB, you can still apply to Arizona for much less. Highly reputed.
Unless you can afford $84k plus grad school, SC is a no brainer.
Personally I would never pay full OOS for a UC. Big classes etc Lots of flagships do the same for less.
So USC if you can afford it - but not if you can’t. Hard no to UCB either way.
Good luck.
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Based on the information provided, USC 
Two good choices. Is budget an issue for you? Weather? Environs? I happen to be sitting in Berkeley at the moment, and the weather is glorious. But a little less predictable/ more variable than Southern California. So hard to know what the job market will be in four years. Any sense of what you want to do with your physics degree?
If you qualify for need-based aid at USC, bringing the cost down below what it would have been with the NMF half-tuition merit, then USC has assessed that your family can’t afford anywhere near 84K/year. Are they wrong?
In this economic climate, I would be reluctant to take on debt for any undergraduate degree if I could avoid it. And in a field like physics, where you may well want or need to spend years in grad school, it’s all the more important not to be carrying debt from undergrad.
I don’t know whether USC’s offer is affordable for you, but it’s hard to imagine Berkeley being a reasonable option in this situation. Even for a family that could comfortably full-pay the OOS cost of Berkeley, I would question whether UCB could really be worth six figures more than USC; but some might choose to pay it and that would be fine. But if it means significant debt, then UCB would be a foolish choice.
USC is an excellent school. If you can afford it, then it’s the right choice here.
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I am thinking of academic. But I also want to keep the option open. Wondering how helpful is Berkeley’s brand name in my future career. Is it worth the money?
For academic careers, it is your PhD school that matters, in terms of how well reputed and prestigious your physics department and PhD supervisor (not so much the entire school) are. But be aware that getting a tenure track academic job is highly competitive, which is why many physics PhD graduates move into other job areas like computing, some kinds of engineering basic research, finance, teaching physics, etc..
Your undergraduate school may matter mostly in terms of whether the physics department produces BA/BS graduates who are seen by the physics PhD programs as capable. I don’t know enough about how much this matters for physics specifically (it matters more for some subjects and less for others).
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You could attend USC (assuming the one in CA 
) for undergrad and, it you’re a top student there, could be admitted to UCB or UCLA for your PHD. A degree from USC certainly wouldn’t hinder you in any way.
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USC has reduced the National Merit to 20K.
The financial aid is $30K. It doesn’t include the National Merit $20K (yet). I think I made a wrong assumption that the total will be $50K. Actually it is written in their merit scholarship rules, they will most likely reduce the aid package by 20K once the National Merit is included. This will make the cost to be $70K. 
How much is actually affordable to you and your parents?
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