<p>I'm quite biased being an alumnus, as my handle indicates, but Cal's environment is vastly more stimulating, diverse and exciting than Stanford's. For such a large school, the Cal campus is remarkably compact and intimate. For one, it is a pedestrian experience, with great cafes and restaurants ringing the campus, and a 22 minute subway ride to SF.</p>
<p>Stanford's campus is nice, but quite sparse and very sedate by comparison. It is located in a very boring part of the bay area (silicon valley burbs) that offers very little for a college student other than outdoor activities nearby (which are similar to those around Cal actually).</p>
<p>Don't worry too much about grades at Cal, because grad schools everywhere do adjust applicants for their campus grade inflation or lack of it. And they have a great deal of respect for Berkeley. I graduated from Cal with a 2.9 and got into most of the top 10 MBA programs I applied to. Two of my best friends at Cal were history majors, one ended up at Yale Law and the other at Michigan Law. I believe that Cal sends the most students to graduate schools nationwide.</p>
<p>There are reasons for picking Stanford over Cal, mainly the desire for a very quiet campus experience and the ivy-west social cachet (this prestige differential BTW only applies within the US, Berkeley's name is at least as big internationally.) You seem a bit too cool to be swayed by those factors tough. </p>
<p>Go with your gut feeling, and GO BEARS!</p>