<p>I agree with UCBChemEGrad. When I visited Cal to decide between there and UCLA I didn’t really get the feeling that it’s in an awful area. Just that it has its own feel. What I didn’t like very much though was Oakland, but then again, some parts of LA are similar to Oakland. I’m not quite sure you can use the reasoning that Cal isn’t on the list because of academic toughness because Harvard, Stanford, etc are on the list as well as MIT. I wonder what the real reason Cal didn’t make it was? It would be interesting to hear input.</p>