I’d do Berkeley in a heartbeat. The only way I’d choose USC over Berkeley would be if it came with huge merit. Otherwise, Berkeley over UCLA or USC for any major, especially cog sci.
USC is not the same school it was when many of us attended college, and its upward trend is indisputable. It has a stellar neuroscience department.
http://study.com/articles/Best_Neuroscience_Undergraduate_Programs_List_of_Top_Schools.html
I shudder when I hear parents are saying “go to your dream school we’ll figure a way to make it work.”
Especially in a low income family (I don’t know if that is the case here). Taking out loans may put your parents future and/or your sibs in financial jeopardy. If you need more info on that many here can answer your questions.
But, it sounds like Berkeley is affordable. IS $7k your EFC?
@ItsJustSchool Hi I got accepted to UCSD however I have ruled it out because although it has a phenomenal Cognitive Science program, my parents forbid me to go there because they see it as a big drop in prestige compared to these three and I do to.
@simba9 Yes I have to visit it ASAP and make my own judgment. I have heard the town is more college oriented than UCLA which sounds great to me.
@SeattleTW I am not someone who watches college football on the regular however I love being school spirited and attending my schools sporting events. I feel like its USC > UCLA > CAL when it comes to school spirit.
@JustOneDad Haha this is very true!
@BeeDAre Sounds awesome I will try to visit it ASAP.
@TempeMom Not sure what EFC is but my Net cost is roughly $8000.
@LoveTheBard Yeah I agree, I mainly want to go to USC for the social life and whole “Trojan Family” package.
Berkeley is the obvious choice here. You are sick of the LA area, so what benefit does USC offer over UCLA except a higher price tag? Berkeley would give you a whole new experience, at a great school, and with an affordable price. Sounds like a winner to me! 
Although Na’vi was invented by a USC professor.
Post #23, you must take these prestige thing seriously. Tell your parents the richest hedge fund guy went to Pitts. He made more money then the other hedge fund guys who went to Ivies. Money is not everything but it is a quantitative method for comparison purpose.
School spirit is the main reason I chose USC myself, but then again I was senior class president in high school and that kind of stuff mattered to me. But make sure you can afford USC. Cal is a good school and today the student bodies of USC and Cal are virtually identical in terms of SAT and GPA scores, except that Cal has a larger percentage of Asians. It’s funny but my USC roommate and across the hall neighbor both transferred from UCLA and Cal, respectively, after one year each and did so because they wanted more school spirit too. You will be treated as a family member at USC and as a Trojan alumnus.
Fight On!
I did make a small allowance for the more recent Hollywood influence, however distasteful it was to do so.
BTW, UCSD is every bit the equal of the other three and probably trumps USC in the quality of the education in your chosen major, so you might want to rethink that part.
@JustOneDad UCSD is a fantastic school, but their four year graduation rate (56 percent) is bad compared to UCLA and Cal ( about 75 percent at both ) and USC (78 percent). An extra year or two is expensive. The risk likely isn’t worth it to a family concerned about money.
For CS, UCSD is the only UC with a Sloan Research Fellowship among all the UCs. It’s a power house for research. While I understand your preferences base on location and stuff but let’s not get carried away and assume the acceptance rate is the same as the quality of it’s education or the strength of faculty. It’s not a popular contest.
http://cse.ucsd.edu/node/2707
In my experience, it’s only the marginal students who are concerned about the 4 year graduation rate. Chart your course and follow it.
Post #38, lots of vets in the area so they must have other responsibilities like family and job.