In EE, Berkeley and GaTech rank 3rd and 4th respectively on US News, for what that is worth.
in CS, Berkeley, for now, is a bit ahead, but I see
GaTech pulling ahead in the future, because it has a razor sharp focus on undergraduates, and a College of Computing, which Berkeley does not offer.
GaTech has a much bigger masters degree program, so its thought a lot about how to educate the masses in CS.
I think their on line CS school is now about 6000 students as its so much less expensive than other on line CS programs. That does NOT impact the undergrads so much, but in fact helps them, as GaTech strives to make the best masters CS program, that trickles down to curriculum development for undergrads, say in machine learning, see collaboration between Brown U and GaTech above.
I didn’t know Brown had a big CS reputation. Does it?
Brown is top school for applied mathematics and CS. Arguably to top applied math program right below
New York University/Courant Institute.
Here is another distinction, at Berkeley a pure CS major must follow the Letters and Science core curriculum
not the engineering core curriculum. The only way to get an engineering degree in CS is to take the EECS major
at Berkeley , see this website here-- This means taking EE classes, which could be good for the right student.
https://eecs.berkeley.edu/academics/undergraduate/eecs-cs-comparison-chart
GaTech is quite different than Berkeley in that it offers a College of Computing and the threads, see above.
So GaTech students CAN also study EE and CS or they can choose to do a more applied math degree in CS,
their choice.
GaTech is more flexible for undergrads. See website.
NYU, UCLA, Brown, Caltech , MIT and Berklely are the top schools for applied mathematics. Its quite relevant for today’s CS. See US News Ranks, applied mathematics. NYU has been number 1 for a long long time, but Brown is right up there. GaTech lower rank in that subject.
If you search on Discrete Math and combinatorics, GaTech ranks ahead of Berkeley on US News for that branch of CS only. Search on applied math then look at specialties under applied math. Discrete math is a special strength at GaTech. Still Berkeley is right up there, they are very equivalent ranks, but some curriculum differences, especially that CS is under the liberal arts bucket at Berkeley, you cannot earn a bachelors of science, without taking an EECS degree at Berkeley right now.
Have you heard of the Hayward Fault line: http://seismo.berkeley.edu/hayward/? Seems kinda scary tbh.
So is this thread about undergraduate CS or masters mathematics or something else…
Given that I’ll be living in Berkeley for 4 years minimum, I need to consider all factors including safety. The Hayward Fault line is just one of the safety-related factors I am looking at rn.
You definitely sound like you’ll be happier at GT.
Well Home Park next to GT does have one of the highest crime rates in all of Georgia. So I need to look at that too… It’s not easy as one might think @Rivet2000 
Home Park Atlanta feels a little “rough”, but I walked from Cresine Apartments on GaTech campus, to a pizza place
in Home Park, and would say in early evening its fine. I have also eaten in a fast food Chinese place in a strip mall
in Home Park, and its about the same as eating in Central Square Cambridge MA, near MIT. There is a bit more deserted feel in Home Park streets, but GaTech student live off campus there, and its not a huge problem, although muggings do take place at 2 am on occasion.
If Home Park bothers you, and you still prefer GaTech, I suggest you live in Tech Square
on the east side of the GaTech campus. However, the west side offers nice apartments, and the swimming pool Rec center is in the SW part of campus. GaTech campus is beautiful and you can stay on campus all four years!
You cannot live on campus all four years at Berkeley as I understand it. You must move off campus and
find your own apartment at Berkeley.
GaTech Freshman can choose to live east or west, so I would choose east the first year, its near the football stadium and Tech Square which feels very safe. Tech Square is actually across a huge highway from GaTech but the bridge is so well built and the highway is somewhat below the campus, so you do not feel like you are living on a super highway.
Check out a campus map to understand what I am talking about here, east versus west campus. It takes about 15 minutes to walk from the west side dorms and apartments to Tech Square and there are busses.
In general, MARTA is cleaner than the Bay area transit or the T in Boston. There are urine detector in MARTA so it smells better than the average US city subway system.
what did you end up choosing?
GaTech offers a club for theoretical computer science for undergraduates that helps students
learn presentation skills, teaches math problem solving relevant to CS, helps students
network and find research options at GaTech, and has guest speakers
that are prominent in the field. Undergraduates present their research
work to each other, and help each other apply to top graduate programs, and learn the ropes
of how to apply for REUs in CS. It meets once a week on Mondays and you can visit the meeting
this on a GaTech visit, as a high school student.
Meeting time and place:
https://theoryclub.github.io
link to viewgraphs:
https://theoryclub.github.io/blog
Currently leaning towards UC Berkeley.