@Walter924, thanks for the info. Actually Vanderbilt COA is about 75k.
IMO Berkeley is hard to beat academically and for some majors it is much stronger that Vandy or Duke. It would, however, be easier to quantify that statement if we knew the intended major. The homelessness (like I posted earlier) is a thing to consider based on where you are coming from, but (just as my friend found out) it’s relatively easy to get used to and (in his case at least) a small price to pay.
@Rivet2000 , thanks for the input. I have 2 kids that were accepted. One wants to study history, economics, or business. I think she put history on her app. The other wants to study biology.
@LMK5 if you have 2, if they don’t mind, you might want to look into off-campus apartments for the 2 of them. It’s a way of controlling your housing situation. As I mentioned before, a typical 1 bedroom close by campus will cost $2500 a month or so on Northside, 2 bedroom maybe $3200-3700 a month. Of course, there are other costs associated with off campus housing that are built into dorms - food, PG&E, internet service, etc. Almost all leases expire at the end of May, so now is a good time to look. Most freshmen, probably 95%+, do stay in dorms and it is definitely recommended, but it’s not a requirement.
Cal Rentals as part of university housing, has listings for off-campus housing. Premium Properties https://www.premiumpd.com/ usually has a lot of listings. You’ll want the ones for Northside.
Thanks @ProfessorPlum168 , for some reason I thought on-campus dorms was mandatory for freshmen but I guess I was wrong. In the mean time, they were invited to the Overnight Stay Program (OSP) later this month which they signed up for. That should give them a good taste and solidify their decision, whether yea or nay. One of them had done this for Vanderbilt and seemed to enjoy it.
@LMK5 OSP is pretty interesting, you stay overnight and then go to classes for a day. For girls (probably for boys too), I think an initial shock might be getting used to co-ed bathrooms on the overnight. On another recent thread, there’s an incoming student who apparently lives in San Jose and is going to commute to school via BART…so if he can handle that, more power to him.
Shared bathrooms huh? Hopefully my wife doesn’t find out until after the overnight stay.
Economics or Business at Cal might be a great way to go. Biology might require a closer look at Cal and Duke depending on exactly what type of bio path desired.
@ProfessorPlum168 Good luck to that San Jose native commuting up to school. That’s a 30-minute drive to the Warm Springs/Fremont BART station (no traffic), then an hour+ BART ride to Berkeley. THEN a 15 minute hike (slightly uphill) from the Downtown BART station to Sather Gate (less if hitting the westside of campus) or a 15 minute or longer (they are notoriously late) bus ride. I know this because my D is a San Jose native and lives up there, and we have done that trip many a time. I think it will get old after awhile. On the other hand, it’s the best option if faced with trying to get parking on homecoming weekend/Cal Day/game day.
There are tons of apartments surrounding the school. Berkeley is under rent control, so you shouldn’t see ridiculous jumps in rent each year.
BTW, shared bathrooms aren’t a big deal - lots of campuses do them now. The showers will usually have a two doors, one into a small dressing area, then one into the shower. The bathroom stalls have doors that go all the way down. At least, that was the configuration in D’s first-year dorm.
Do note that (IIRC) the Foothill dorms have single-gender bathrooms in their suites (all gender floors). Of course, Stern being all girls, is single gender.
So it sounds like the better neighborhoods, although further from campus, would be Foothill and Stern on the northeast side, and Clark Kerr on the southeast side, correct?
Clark Kerr is definitely further. Depending on where you are going, Foothill/Stern could be much closer. Foothill/Stern is definitely closer for the engineering and math buildings, for example.
@LMK5 Yes. Those are in low homeless level neighborhoods. Basically, they’re far from Telegraph and People’s Park
My two kids went to UCB. My son got assaulted , mugged closed to campus and police were absolutely not helpful. My older son was chased by homeless many times. But I am still thankful how UCB has turned them in amazing human. being. . I always tell anyone , if your kids are open to diverse culture and views and ready to work hard there is no better place then UCB…
Hey, I lived with coed bathrooms at UCSC back in 1984 
It’s so not a big deal!
Berkeley has been, for many years, the highest-ranked public university in the country (though there was one list last year that put UCLA above Cal). My apologies, @LMK5 , did you mention where you live? I know that my suburban SoCal kid would have a MUCH harder time adjusting to being in the south, where Vandy is, than being in an urban setting like Berkeley! She only applied to UCs and schools in NY.
I have to laugh at the references to Stern as a nice dorm, but I’m an old one [it was a male party dorm for years] and I realize Stern has gone through the … reeducation … process.
But, maybe it’s not perfect. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/No-one-wants-to-be-in-that-place-Residents-of-13748532.php
@AboutTheSame There are MICE and BEDBUGS in Stern! My friend’s daughter was just interviewed about how bad conditions are there. She did not choose Stern on her housing application, either. She was assigned it 
@GonnaBEmptyNest That’s unacceptable. Hope things change for the better - fast!
Wow that really sucks. Maintenance is usually pretty fast with things from what I hear - when my kid’s ceiling fan went out in Blackwell, it was fixed within 24 hours.
If you’re a contrarian though, if you wanted Stern on your housing signup, you probably will get a spot pretty easily.
@arenal07 I’m so sorry to hear that! My D is a junior and hasn’t had any issues like that (knock on wood) and she used to live across the street from People’s Park. She makes sure to not be alone when out and about at night and keeps her electronics close to her. The diversity of Cal was one of things that attracted her - also the reputation of the school for her major. She has grown up A LOT there.