I have 2 girls who went to Cornell (most long time CC’ers would know that) and I also have 2 nephews from CA who also went to Cornell, so I have long history with Cornell.
The reason my kids chose Cornell over other schools was for its size. They did not want small LACs. They wanted the feel of “large public school,” but with funding/resource/flexibility of a private school. Cornell and NU fit the bill, but they didn’t want to go to a school in the midwest.
Cornell gets some funding from NY state, at the same time they are not beholden to NY government on how to run the school. I think until you have worked in a government agency you really do not have any idea how much you have to adhere to government’s policies and “perceptions” to general public. As an example, most companies encourage their employees to work from home, but most of NY government employees (SUNY included) do not due to perceptions. If there are critical conferences at vacation resorts (Vegas, Miami, Scottsdale, et) you are most likely not able to go because of perception. How much one could get paid (not matter how specialized your skills are) is also capped. Their procurement process (buying new technology/equipment) is long and tedious. Cornell does not need to follow those rules because it is a private institution. They have large endowment through private donations that they could provide great resource to their students. They do not need to go through 20 layers of approval every time they want to try something new (very important for advanced technology).
Berkeley is a great school with very good reputation. If I lived in CA I would have a difficult time in sending my kids to other peer private schools. At the same time, I would consider its ongoing budget issues, diversity of its students (large percentage of Asians), resources available to its students, red tape at the school because it is public.
Even though Cornell is a large research uni, both of kids’ majors (Math, Philosophy) were so small that each student was able to give a speech at their departmental graduation. To be expected, majors like Economics had much larger number of students. Few times when my kids had issues, from dorm room, grading, to study abroad, were quickly resolved. My emails to the school were always answered promptly. Now they are few years out of Cornell, they are still very connected to the school because many Cornellians have common experiences (slope day, Halloween parties, even prelims). Cornellians are roommates after graduation, they look out for each other at work, and refer jobs to their friends (D2 has landed 2 jobs through her friends at Cornell). Both of my nephews were able to get summer internships by contacting some alumini. My kids were in large introductory courses first year, but most of their advance classes in their majors were small. They knew their professors well. D2’s professors wrote very personal recommendations for her law school applications. One of them still get together with D2 whenever he is in town.
I do not know Berkeley’s alumini network. I can only offer what I know of Cornell based on my kids and nephews’ experiences.