Of course, if you aspire to be a billionaire, USC is at the top of your list. 
http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/16/luxury/top-colleges-with-billionaire-undergraduates/index.html
I personally think Berkeleyâs undergraduate EECS program is hugely overrated, and would describe it as comparable to many big state flagships.
The graduate program, on the other hand, is one of the absolute best in the world. The reputation of the undergraduate CS program undeservedly gets boosted by the reputation of its graduate CS program.
I do agree though, that if you want to work in Silicon Valley, going to school at either Stanford or Cal is a good idea. Itâs easier to find a job here if you already live here.
Berkeleyâs EECS program is much more selective than other programs at big state flagships.
The same professors and graduate students in this âabsolute best in the worldâ graduate program teach undergrads.
âThe same professors and graduate students in this âabsolute best in the worldâ graduate program teach undergrads.â
Agreed.
Professors like John Denero, Paul Hilfinger, and Dan Garcia that teach the 61 series are excellent. And the material in the classes not only gives a strong foundation in computer science theory but also is excellent in preparing students for industry. After taking CS61B (second semester CS class), most students are ready to take on coding interviews.
The classes are very large, you have to admit. But that doesnât mean that professors donât provide a lot of resources to help. Take 61a, for example. There are drop-in office hours literally all day every weekday. The GSIs and professors hold special sections and tutoring sessions multiple times per week if you have questions or want to learn more.
Also, in comparison to USC for example, Iâm sure there is a big difference in culture within the major. I donât know what exactly youâre looking for, but you need to think about it. CS at Berkeley is big, itâs popular, and thereâs an active community.
Consider that, from what I can find, a little more than a quarter of USC undergraduate students are business majors. Thatâs roughly 5,000 business majors. At Berkeley, there are 700 business majors. Once again, a difference in culture.
There are also poor students that go to Berkeley. 36% of Berkeley students receive Pell Grants. Most Pell Grant recipients have families that make less than $30,000 per year. The all Ivy League Pell Grant recipient rate is 17%, for comparison.
CS and Haas, on the other hand, is a combination reserved for masochists. You can do it, itâs just not worth it. If you are a CS major at Berkeley, you donât need a business degree. If youâre going to be a software engineer then thereâs no reason to get a business degree. If you want an MBA later, you always have that option.
The CS/BA program at USC sounds pretty cool. But what exactly is the point? You donât need a business degree if you want to do a tech start-up.
I work with lots of Cal EECS grads, and there is no difference between them and grads from other schools.
If any professor is well known, itâs probably because of research or efforts to publicize themselves. How many professors are famous because theyâre great teachers? Not many, and itâs no different with CS. Being good at research or publicizing yourself doesnât make one a great teacher.
I watched Dan Garcia teach CS on Calâs streaming video site a few years ago, and he wasnât any different than most other CS professors. What really struck me was how large the class was.
^ CS lower level classes at Stanford and MIT are large too. Theyâre not any different from Berkeleyâs.
Youâre right professors become famous due largely to having great research works rather than being good teachers per se. But youâd rather have professors who are famous, and at the same time, effective lecturers/teachers and are giving time to accommodate students when they needed them. Such cool professors are predominantly found at power-house, research-based universities like Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, and, yes, Berkeley.
If youâre saying you now work with lots of Cal EECS grads then you were, in effect, saying that youâre as good as (maybe even slightly better than) the best EECS grads out there, and that perhaps explains why youâre hard to please, because youâre already in a very high status yourself. Nevertheless, when you graduate from an EECS program, you automatically become a regarded person, and that even becomes more apparent when you graduate from one of the top engineering schools.
Like which schools are these?
Maybe it will help us understand more if you can enumerate some of the schools you think are comparable to Berkeley EECS.
Thank
You guys for the help. For the record I would not be in EECS at Berkeley, I would be in the L, A, S college, for a BA in CS⊠Which brings up another question: would I be regarded as "lower
" than EECS people in terms of, say, employers not wanting me as much (for instance google or Apple) or other students not respecting me as much?
And do you think that if my ultimate life plan was to work at a large company like google for a few years after graduation and then begin a stArtup of my ownâŠ
That USC would be able to get me there just as well as Berkeley? Because from what I have heard it will be far easier to get a high GPA at pretty much any school other than Berkeley hahaâŠ
US News ranks Berkeleyâs CS program #1 in the country (along with Carnegie-Melon, MIT and Stanford). Cornell is ranked #6, alongside Univ. of Washington in Seattle and just behind Univ. of IL in Urbana-Champagne. Cornell is Ivy League and has one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. Berkeley is a bit of a dump. However, if you want to work in Silicon Valley, a degree from Berkeley will give you a leg up, plus you can intern and start making contacts while at Berkeley, much easier than doing all that from Ithaca, NY.
USC is a good party/football school, and has very loyal alumni thanks to the football program.
If I were you Iâd go to Cornell just because I like the beautiful campus, but thatâs just me.
Tough choices. I think wherever you end up youâll do very well. Maybe you should visit all the campuses then pick the one you like best. Congrats to you though! These are all enviable choices. Good problem to have. Let us know which you choose.
One thing to consider is what kind of campus do you prefer? Do you prefer one thatâs more urban, where you can have access to restaurants, stores and all the night life, or do you prefer a campus that is more self-contained in a more isolated college town? Berkeley, USC and UCLA are all urban campuses, where many of the students are likely to be commuters and the campus could empty out on weekends. At Cornell, most students probably remain on campus on weekends which makes for a more vibrant campus life, even if the college town of Ithaca is not as exciting as SF or LA.
I think nobody outside of CC (this site, haha) and Berkeley knows the difference between L&S CS and EECS. Both grads almost take the same route and end up at the same destination.
No, I donât think so.
USC is a great school, obviously, but it is not viewed by the top employers as equal to Berkeley. Only Stanford and MIT are viewed equal to, or slightly better/ than, Berkeley for CS, and to some extent, CMU. Getting into big IT firms/companies isnât about having superb grades alone. Itâs about connections, and no school in your list is more connected in the Valley, and in the IT world, in general, than Berkeley.
One faculty asked where else have CS and EECS students have been admitted, almost everyone there said he dumped at least an Ivy or a top 15 private school.
Berkeley CS and EECS are full of extremely talented students who are competitive and highly collaborative in nature. The international student make-up is superb too â almost everyone was either a valedictorian or salutatorian, math or physics olympiad, scholars, etc⊠Some students dumped IIT of India, NUS of Singapore, Beijing in China, Imperial College in UK, to name a few, over Berkeley CS. When you dump Cornell (or another Ivy) for Berkeley, that wonât be considered weird. Itâs considered normal at the L&S CS and EECS departments.
Thank you guys so much for the feedback.
I have definitely focused my choices to: USC Trustee, UCB, UCLA, and Cornell
Narrowed my choices to USC / UCLA
Welp, Iâm USC bound in the event that anyone reads this in the future 
Congratulations.