<p>First, the last time I looked, Berkeley was tied with Cornell and Duke for number 11 at US News. Northwestern was number 10. Penn was number 7.</p>
<p>Second, Berkeley has different admissions standards than the other schools you mentioned, since they value GPA more than LSAT scores. Berkeley has a median LSAT of 166, which is pretty low for a top law school, while its GPA median is 3.81, which is pretty high. The other schools you mentioned all place more emphasis on the LSAT and less on the GPA. Because of this fact, MANY STUDENTS DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE BETWEEN BERKELEY AND THE OTHER SCHOOLS YOU MENTIONED.</p>
<p>Third, Berkeley’s class size is only 264 students and many of those students are not from California. As far as I know, Berkeley does not have a set percentage of students that it must take from California.</p>
<p>Personally, if I lived in California and had a choice between Berkeley and Cornell/Duke/Northwestern, I could see choosing Berkeley. I would choose Penn over Berkeley even if I lived in California, unless I knew I wanted to go into IP law.</p>
<p>If I was going to go to law school, I would not choose UCLA, USC or any lower ranked California school over a top 14 law school.</p>
<p>Instate v. OOS at Berkeley Law School was $ 21,531.00 v. $ 33,776.00 for 2004.</p>