<p>I tend to agree that Berkeley’s CS curriculum is pretty theoretical in nature. However, I don’t see that as a significant weakness, primarily because learning the latest fad is easy. If you just went through standard courses at Cal, you probably wouldn’t know anything about web programming, which is a pretty big deal nowadays. However, learning PHP, RoR, or whatever fad language is out there is easy to do. Having the foundation to do the hard stuff, however, is valuable in case you ever want to do something not so easy.</p>