Hi,
My son has a lot of good options on his plate. He wants CompSci and got accepted to Gtech (more than half tuition ride) UMich with a nice scholarship Cornell Northwester and UC Berkley (plus others, but I believe this are hir top choices)
He wants a college felling, sports, fraternities, etc… My husband insists on Berkley as it is top for Computes science, I’m more afraid of him choosing a place where he can be happy and flourish during this next chapter in his life and have heard a lot of mixed reviews about “happiness” of students at Berkley…
I know they are very different schools and its hard to recommend but Im all open to gear opinions
Congrats!!!
Is UCB in-state?
Otherwise GT would be just as good and cheaper, and check all the boxes.
(if money doesn’t matter, go private!!! )
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If you are looking for happy students and a bit more laid back collaborative vibe, my vote is for Michigan.
Of the three schools in your title, Northwestern, but the school spirit around sports is lacking.
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Everything out of state.
Money always matters but we paid private for our other 2- so if it wouldn’t matter… which private? Northwestern? Cornell? He also has USC…
Cornell kids do love their hockey 
Go BIG RED
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For UCB, take a look at the size of the CS classes…some can get quite large (1,000 students). Also see if you can find graduation rate/time for just CS majors, you might have to call and ask that. Both 4 and 6 year grad rates for a given class can be found on the schools’ common data sets, or websites.
I agree with momofsenior…based on your S’s list of important qualities, UMichigan strikes me as the best fit, by far.
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I would say that go for GTech/UMich. They have many internship and research opportunities and co-op and better than Cornell and northwestern in engineering and science(ranked higher)
Northwestern students do support their athletic teams–especially football & basketball.
Soccer & lacrosse are popular.
Since Northwestern is located in a Chicago suburb, students have access to a lot of professional sports events as well.
CS majors do well in the job market regardless of school attended.
Research as much as you can. However, don’t let the happiness factor alter your decision at all. Not saying that happiness doesn’t matter. Happiness is very subjective in these regards. Many people are happy at some institutions and many just wanna escape. However, some have the worst freshman year and then procees to have the best time of their life in the later years. UC Berkeley is a very good institution and it has an insane international rep. Once again, not saying that should be you priority but it matters a lot, no matter what people say. All the schools he got into are amazing. Also figure out what your style is. I mean, I prefer to be close to home, because I want to be near family. However, that also made me very lazy and unproductive. That is just me though. See what your son wants. If money is a very very big issues, and I meam insane issues, then its a completely different argument. But if its even hardly affordable, go for it.
Thank you all for your replies… please any other input is always welcome
Having had many relatives both attend and play D1 sports at Cal (UC Berkeley), it’s not exactly a hot bed of sports culture. In fact, the exact opposite.
The “big two” sports, football and basketball, have had relatively less-than-stellar teams for a couple decades now, maybe with a couple or few outlier teams like when Jason Kidd played basketball and Aaron Rodgers played football. Long time ago.
Pick Cal for its CS, but not because of its “sports culture” (or lack thereof). 
For Cal, did he get in to EECS or L&S?
CS through L&S isn’t guaranteed. And yes, the Cal CS classes tend to be massive. Though Cal CS grads tend to do very well because it is in the Bay Area. Then again, CS grads from all these schools would do very well. I would choose a school where he is sure of being able to major in CS.
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FWIW, I have a D that attends Michigan (STEM, not CS), belongs to a sorority, and is a big sports fan. We live in CA, but she really wanted the B1G sports experience.
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For Berkeley it’s the College of Letters and Science… thanks for the heads up!
He would need to get certain grades in certain massive CS classes to be a CS major at Cal, then. The requirements don’t seem extremely difficult but I read that a good portion of the students who try (possible up to half or more) don’t manage it. What may make it difficult is that the student body at Cal tends to be high quality. Also, obviously such an environment doesn’t really foster collaboration or happiness (and does foster competition and stress).
I would choose one of the other fine programs he has available. The privates would have some smaller classes, though with CS being popular now, a lot of their CS classes would be big these days too.
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The Computer Research Association just revealed 2021 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award Recipients. Here are results for the schools mentioned in this thread:
Berkeley
2 awardees, 1 finalist, and 1 honorable mention
Northwestern
4 honorable mentions
Cornell
2 finalists, 2 honorable mentions
UMich
2 honorable mentions
GaTech
None
Rankings are based on faculty research output and reputation and while high rankings in turn may attract the brightest students interested in the field, it doesn’t necessarily translate to success for any given individual. It also doesn’t necessarily translate to more resources allocated to undergraduates. That said, Berkeley is probably the one that offers the greatest breath and depth in the field; but if the spot is not guaranteed like one poster pointed out, it could be a risky choice. I’d get more info on what the odds are before making any decision.
I am biased but honestly, I am not surprised by the strong showing of Northwestern even though it’s not ranked as high as others. Northwestern has over $3.5M dedicated just for undergraduate research every year (according to “Live From Northwestern: It’s Undergraduate Research!” within the “Northwestern Admissions” channel on YouTube).
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Cornell is smaller than UM and UCB, has a fraternity/sorority culture, is really big into school sports around hockey. It’s also part of the Ivy League which can help you in job connections. Is he in CS in the Arts and Sciences at Cornell or Engineering? Both are very strong and the Data Science major if he decides to switch is #1 in the country with a huge grant given to it recently. Also Bill and Melinda Gates gave a new building for Comp Sci at Cornell.
3.3 GPA in CS 61A, 61B, 70 is needed to declare the L&S CS major. About half of the students in those courses (not graded on a curve) earn B+ or higher grades.