@Calgirlorbluedevil? Are you in MCB? If so, that could explain why everyone is career focused since that is a pre-med track. The same pre-med track at Cornell will have some of the same percentage of career-focused people. Haas and EECS/CS at Berkeley are the same way. I’m not sure about architecture at Cornell. I know it is a grueling, five year program that is hard to get into, but the people that are in it seem collaborative.
I can probably provide some perspective on both universities since I have a son at UCB (physics major) and I graduated from Cornell. My son’s decision came down to Cornell and Berkeley, and he chose Berkeley because of the California culture and the weather (he grew up in NY State and had enough of the weather). We visited both campuses for accepted students day and he chose to go to Cal.
Are you by any chance living on the south side of campus? Do you participate in any outdoors organizations at Cal (e.g. CHAOS)? Because Cal is such a small and dense campus, it is important to get off campus to escape. Have you checked out Berkeley Marina, the fire trails in the hills? Yes, Cornell has a much larger campus, and the population density is much lower, but the weather is such that it is difficult to enjoy it for most of the school year. If, however, you like winter sports, Cornell could have what you are looking for.