Planning tobtransfer to UC Berkeley. Wanted to know which of the above two community colleges is better overall?
What major(s) are you considering?
Use http://www.assist.org to check which community college has the best coverage of the lower division prerequisites for your intended major(s).
If your intended major is EECS or L&S CS, Laney College and Diablo Valley College have the best coverage of the CS 61 series courses (Laney has CS 61A and 61B, while Diablo Valley has CS 61B and 61C).
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school
Both are good - kind of an odd comparison though as one is is in the Bay area and the other near Sacramento. The cost of living is much lower around Sierra. According to this, DeAnza sends a lot more students to UCB than does Sierra. Your mileage, however, may vary…
What do you mean by better?
DeAnza is good for Berkeley.
De Anza may be popular for intended transfer students to Berkeley, but prospective L&S CS or EECS majors will be at a significant disadvantage due to the fact that it has none of the lower division CS courses for Berkeley except partial CS 61B (students must take CS 47B after transfer). This will make post-transfer course scheduling more difficult, in that more “catch up” courses will be needed, with less space available for upper division courses.
Sierra does not have any of the lower division CS courses for Berkeley either.
But if you live near San Jose, De Anza is good. My cousin went there and graduated from Berkeley in CS.
None of the San Jose area CCs have CS 61A or 61C. However, West Valley, Ohlone, and Evergreen Valley have CS 61B. The others in the area, including De Anza, have partial CS 61B, where transfer students need to take CS 47B after transfer to complete CS 61B.