<p>I hear a different tone when you talk about the two schools. What I hear is that Berkeley appeals to you more, but it feels risky in terms of friendships and job networking, and USC appeals to you somewhat less, but it feels safer and more practical.</p>
<p>My suggestion would be to listen to what excites you and do that. You can come up some ways to lessen the risks. But this approach only works if you won’t blame yourself later if things didn’t turn out the way you expected - it will work best if later, you say to yourself that you tried the thing that seemed best at the time and you learned a lot from the process.</p>