One other big difference is overall size. Cal is 42,000. GaTech is 20,000. with about six thousand additional
on line students in their on line CS program masters degree which does not disrupt campus at all. For some students this may make it feel different. This includes business schools, PhD schools, etc. This is the entire campus, not just undergrads.
@jym626 You and I may define liberal differently 
I am from Boulder, but well, I feel Atlanta has a liberal feel and
has a lot of outreach, when I ride the subways. I stay right in the city, but I do understand that the ring of suburbs around Atlanta is conservative. The Jewish community in Atlanta is very strong and liberal for instance. The Mosque in Atlanta is a stand out. I like Atlanta better as a place to live. I have lived in Berkeley in the 1980s, and loved it though but its gotten ragged around the edges, is what I would say.
The size of the school is not in current discussion. Your comments about the metro Atlanta area (which yes, is now over 5 million) are simply incorrect.
Oakland is the new hip town in CA, as well. But Berkeley will be Berkeley. Oakland is more like Atlanta I would say.
Are you alluding to the large AA population of Oakland compared to the city of Atlanta proper?
To really help an international who is trying to understand the feel of these two areas, I am sorry but I find your comparisons misleading and off the mark.
Yes, the East Bay is more āHipā and as Berkeley/Rockridge and those areas are getting pricier, parts of Oakland are now more āinā. It is gentrifying, and there are parts of suburban Oakland (like Piedmont, Trestle Glenn, around the Claremont country club, etc ) that are gorgeous. The Lake Merritt area is charming too.
The degree of liberalism in the Bay Area vs. Atlanta aside, I think Coloradomama has offered OP a lot of good insight into both programs.
Thatās all well and good, but the information provided about the ciities is just off. To be helpful to an international, its helpful to provide accurate information. Had to LOL at the metro Atlanta area being considered liberal like Berkeley.
There are cute, young hip areas in Atlanta that resemble Berkeley (Va-Hi, Old Fourth Ward, Poncey-Highland, West End, Decatur), but Atlantaās metro environs is NOT liberal, sad to say. Believe me, I wish it were!
To come back to the OPās question, the Tech campus is smaller and easier to navigate. Tech used to have a reputation of being cut-throat and non-collegial, but that has changed. There have, in all fairness, been some safety issues around Tech lately and several students have been robbed, but that can happen at many urban schools.
For extracurricular options, GaTech offers this:
http://www.gatech.edu/life/clubs-organizations
Extensive GaTech outdoor education in biking, kayaking and rock climbing-
http://www.crc.gatech.edu/programs/outdoor
GaTech co opā
http://career.gatech.edu/undergraduate-student/co-op
Specific CS research programs at GaTechā
https://www.cse.gatech.edu/research/cruise
interdisciplinary teams for undergrads in research at GaTech-
http://www.vip.gatech.edu
student support is fantasticā
http://www.gatech.edu/academics/support
GaTech Campus in Franceā
http://lorraine.gatech.edu
Top GaTech internships in Germany-- ties to German car designā
https://oie.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/how_to_find_a_german_internship.pdf
I find GaTech more racially balanced than Berkeley.
I WANT to love Berkeley but once we looked, GaTech is the clear winner on many measures.
Not for snow skiing, Berkeley wins that one!
I can go on and on about why I feel GaTech is better. Its just easier going,
but still rigorous and better connected to top US government jobs compared to Berkeley.
The pipeline between the NSA in Maryland and GaTech is well greased. GaTech grads pop
up in Washington DC all the time. GaTech grads are on the west coast though too.
So it may depend on what you want, but GaTech offers a lot.
Donāt get me wrong, I love Tech. My students love Tech. But if you are looking for a hotbed of liberalism, this is NOT it!
To cap it off, I think Atlanta is a much better place to live and Georgia Tech is a much better undergraduate experience. Atlanta is just more OPEN. Berkeley it full of itself, ragged around the edges, has a dangerous feel in places, and a "you can fall through the cracks and we donā;t give a damn " feel to the undergrad education. GaTech will bend over backwards to help undergrads.
So,ā¦back to the topic: āIs Georgia Techās CS program on par with that of UC Berkeley EECS?ā
Also, are there that many CS students at GT who have the goal of landing a government job? Thatās new to me.
Not sure what is being alluded to, but the demographics are like:
Atlanta (city, 2010): 54% black, 33% white, 10% Latino, 5% Asian
Atlanta (metro, 2010): 51% white, 32% black, 10% Latino, 5% Asian
Oakland (2010): 28% black, 26% white, 25% Latino, 17% Asian.
Atlanta tends to be listed high in racial segregation of neighborhoods, while Oakland tends to listed somewhat lower. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-most-diverse-cities-are-often-the-most-segregated/
Your comments about the # of out of staters is also misleading, @Coloradomama . This is fun to play with, but hasnāt been updated in several years so more accurate info can be gotten from the schoolsā common data sets as to the geographic composition of their students. But for kicks and giggles, have fun playing with this https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/where-does-your-freshman-class-come-from#id=inst_110635
This may be helpful, the two labs near each universityā
Lawrence Berkeley does CS research and physics research and environmental research -
http://www.lbl.gov
Students can work at Lawrence Berkeley during the semester or summers, and get masters or PhDs
but undergrads are welcome too in some labs.
Berkeley has the strong science programs, but GaTech collaboration with Emory U Medical is compelling
for biomedical engineering and other medical related study.
Of course humanities and social sciences are world class at Berkeley.
Georgia Tech Research Institute right north of campus and also walking distance
is more focused on engineering, cybersecurity and EEā
GT has a formal co op arrangement with GT Research Institute and many masters and PhDs
get completed there too.
@Coloradomama - if you want more information about what it is like to actually live in Atlanta, feel free to backchannel. Its beyond the scope of this conversation. I suspect we define liberalism quite similarly. But riding with a few people on MARTA when visiting the city hardly provides a realisitc view of life here.
For the OOS percentage, I have hard numbers to confirm what @Coloradomama said about GTech. See http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/georgia-institute-technology/2055043-gt-college-of-computing-stats.html#latest for details. GTech has more OOS and International students in the College of Computing than in-state students. I donāt have numbers on Berkeleyās EECS, but I donāt believe it has more OOS than Californians.
We were talking about the population of the universities (Emory and Ga Tech) overall. Not individual schools/majors.
OP-- is it correct that you are currently in Texas?/ Why not simply visit both campuses???
And for liberalism, Iām glad Atlanta has not fallen as far as SF/Berkeley into the abyss. @jym626, thanks for pointing that out.
LOL, @bogeyorpar The standard phrase is " the only problem with Atlanta isā¦ it is surrounded by Georgia."