I’d tell your dad that I’d personally take the difference in money between UT-Austin and Cal and do a lot more with it, but if they insist on paying a lot more for Cal, not sure what you can do.
You’d probably be happier at UT then, and that’s a bit plus. Pocket the money for an advanced degree maybe.
Strictly speaking, L&S CS is not competitive, since the 3.3 GPA minimum in the prerequisites is known beforehand (rather than determine during a competitive admission process), and at least two of the three prerequisites’ syllabi explicitly state that they are not graded on a curve.
But since only 47-59% of the students in the three prerequisite courses earn B+ or better grades, not every L&S student trying for L&S CS will meet the 3.3 GPA minimum.
Of course, as mentioned before, the UT Austin 2.75 GPA to remain in the CS major after direct admission is a more lenient threshold to continue, since it looks like a greater percentage of students in the relevant courses earn B or higher grades.
@Rivet2000 True. My heart sais UT but my brain sais I need to conduct more research in order to choose the best choice that simultaneously satisfies my entrepreneurial desires while not crushing me with an overwhelming amount of work.
@ucbalumnus Definitely would be a hell of a lot less stressful if I chose UT. I want a good mix of both entrepreneurship and studying and i think although UT would be subpar for entrepreneurship, it would still challenge me without forcing me to dedicate my time entirely to studying.
As others have already noted, the city of Austin and UT seem to have good opportunities for students interested in entrepreneurship (classes and mentorship , through either the business or engineering schools look possible). What research do you still think you need to do to help you with your decision? You say your heart tells you UT, and it certainly would be less expensive, and probably more fun! Good luck with the decision.
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@sorashiro , since you have entrepreneurship aspiration, ask your parents to save the difference in college tuition (~$35,000 per year per your calculation) for you, and in 4 years, you’ll have ~$140,000 (assuming 0% growth) as seed money to start your business. Your Berkeley friends will kill for that seed money. Perhaps you can hire a couple. 
@sevmom thanks and i just want to be extra sure. I thought I did enough “research” when I chose not to apply to any ivy league school but now I am regretting that decision.
^ Huh? If you didn’t like CMU, what makes you think you would like an Ivy better?
@PurpleTitan What is that supposed to mean? CMU (SCS) is known for being extremely competitive, stressful, and a bit socially dead - many of the same problems people attribute to Berkeley. In contrast, some of the Ivies are likely much less stressful and more well-rounded; most stereotypically, Brown, for example. Prestige doesn’t correlate to workload difficulty and stress (especially for the Ivies, which aren’t really renowned for engineering save Cornell, Princeton, maybe Columbia and Penn). I would say Rice is arguably more prestigious than CMU and Berkeley, but students there are a LOT happier - while CMU and Berkeley (EECS specifically) are known for grade deflation, difficulty, stress, etc. one example.
@rosaliefontaine:
“Prestige doesn’t correlate to workload difficulty and stress”
Actually, it does. You’re dealing in a lot of stereotypes. Look at any Ivy and find me one who’s CS courses don’t have a heavier workload than, say, an average flagship (besides Dartmouth; I haven’t looked at them).
@PurpleTitan I’m not talking about an average flagship. Specifically CMU and Berkeley - and factoring in grade deflation/inflation as well. And if we’re talking about prestige for the specific program/major (CS), Berkeley and CMU trump all the Ivies anyway.
@rosaliefontaine, which is why I’m asking why the OP is pining for Ivies.
@PurpleTitan Oh well since i’m L&S I’ll have to stress even harder than EECS students as they don’t have a gpa cutoff looming over their heads.
@sorashiro I go to Cal and while I am not a CS major the majority of my friends are L&S CS or EECS. None of them seem to be overly concerned about the GPA. The students who struggle with it tend to not have had prior CS experience before coming to college and thus have a big learning curve in a fast paced class (not ideal). The grade distribution stats also count non-cs majors who wanted to learn some CS by taking an intro course like 61A. Berkeley has a ton of hackathons, recruiting events, and incubator opportunities. My CS friends have the option of going to multiple CS events a week. The intro CS classes are huge. The big thing for you to evaluate is fit after seeing Cal (4/20 is a suboptimal visit day) and whether the structure of each program (electives, access to professors, size, GPA, other campus opportunities to do CS) is different. If they’re similar or u prefer UT, pick UT bc cost.
Anecdotally one of my friends picked OOS Cal over in-state UT for CS bc he thought the name recognition was better and he didn’t want to stay in Texas. He also liked the grad level stuff happening at Cal and is intending to take some grad level courses as an undergrad.
@hbrunner interesting. So for an average joe coming in with only APCS and calc BC 5 how difficult would declaring be based on your friends’ performance in CS?
@rosaliefontaine : I’ve always thought Rice was just a backup school for Berkeley engineering students, specially if we’re talking about those students who are interested in CS, or STEM, in general. At least, it’s how most of us from Berkeley think.
Parchment.com seems to agree with me: http://www.parchment.com/c/college/tools/college-cross-admit-comparison.php?compare=Rice+University&with=University+of+California%2C+Berkeley
I have no dog in this hunt. But 54 46 % voting seems pretty much like it would be within the margin of error for such a non scientific poll
They can’t control for costs or location of voter
(not to mention Parchment is NOT a scientific poll, it’s more on the level of “which HP character are you?” ;). Students or parents who actually believed them had nasty surprises.)