I was accepted to a bunch of schools and have narrowed it down to UCLA and the Dual BA Program between UC Berkeley and Sciences Po in France. Financially they are about the same for me. I’m not sure about my major, but something in the humanities or social sciences and I am considering grad school/law school. I’ll list some pros and cons:
UCLA:
Pros:
- dream school since pretty much my entire family went
- study abroad for 1 year somewhere OR study abroad one semester somewhere & another semester somewhere else
- can take lots of exploratory classes to figure out what i want to major in
- lots of school spirit & super good sports
- amazing social scene
- nice area/safe
- can maybe bring my car
- get to see my family/dogs more lol
Cons:
- too close to home (about 15 miles/30 min away) so i’m worried i wont be as independent or grow as much as i would with my other option
- triple dorms would kinda suck
- communications major and some others are super competitive
- not a lot of advising/kind of on my own
- covid restrictions - possibility of not being on campus in the fall or not getting a dorm
UC Berkeley Sciences Po Dual Degree:
I would spend 2 years at Sciences Po in Reims, France (the campus with the Euro-American focus) and take social science based classes there and learn french. I would then spend the remaining 2 years at UC Berkeley where I can major in whatever and will graduate in 4 years with a degree from both.
Pros:
- study abroad for 2 years (fully immerse myself in the culture/language, i don’t speak french tho but i will learn lolz)
- multiple degrees/majors/minors so i could major in multiple different areas instead of just choosing one because i’m interested in a lot of different things
- very unique/stand out program. i think it can help me stand out for jobs and grad school and overall be an awesome experience
- will help me become more independent/grow
- i like the activism culture at Berkeley and feel like i would learn a lot
- i would be with a group of about 30-40 people in the dual degree with our own advisor & i’ve been assigned a mentor so i would have a lot of support
Cons:
- Berkeley’s competitiveness, grade deflation, imposter syndrome
- clubs can be competitive/really hard to get into, not as amazing of a social scene
- worried about campus safety
- restarting my junior year, maybe won’t be able to get lots of leadership positions if i’m not there all 4 years
- not great sports teams but still good school spirit
- wouldn’t really be able to take exploratory classes before declaring my major
- covid restrictions - if anything happened my parents wouldn’t be able to visit because of covid restrictions, the biggest thing i’m looking forward to is traveling and the restrictions may prevent that
I don’t know much, but that Po Dual thing at Berkeley looks sick ngl. But if you don’t choose Berkeley I have a better chance of getting off the waitlist 
JKJK Congrats on both your acceptances, you will 100% succeed with either choice! :)))
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Regarding the SP/UCB program, note that http://sciencespo.berkeley.edu/academics/ucberkeley lists the UCB majors that are most easily combined with the SP courses.
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Not the same program, but I often hear that students in the St. Andrews and William & Mary program wish they had stayed at one school for the whole time.
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First, congratulations! Those are really tough admits generally, and this year especially.
More specifically about the Sciences Po degree:
- you’d need to learn some French before you go so that you can manage daily life, shopping, taking the bus, etc.
(memrize, etc., I can give you some references if you want)
- your first year will be very structured:
Semester 1: 4 courses + 1 math course (elementary stats, stats, or calc-based stats) + French A1 + (optional) Spanish + (optional) “Sports”
Euro-American Programme, Semester 1 - Google Drive
You’d have Languages: French A1, plus if you wanted to continue with Spanish and “Sports”, meaning college activities (strongly recommended).
Semester 2:
SCIENCES PO - Course Directory
2 mandatory courses, 1 courses in stats applied to social science (2 levels), 1 course in Humanities with an added seminar linked to it (lots of seminar choices), another seminar, a community service project, French A2, Art workshop (Theater/drama, Creative writing, Visual Arts, Music practice, Film&Cinema…) including field trips.
Year 2: you choose 1 of 3 tracks and continue French
Year 3, your classmates go back to UCB with you and you’ll be the leader 
https://www.sciencespo.fr/college/en.html
Some possible advantages:
smaller campus for freshman year; small-ish classes not huge lectures with 300 students; it’s about 1h from Paris so cool trips ahoy (and you have 2-week breaks every 7 or 8 weeks, roughly 4 or 5 per year); cheaper housing, possibly ways to save on room&board; international environment; you’ll become bilingual; you’ll make friends from all over the world; right when you get tired of the small campus you move back to UCB and its HUGE campus/city, but since you’re an upper level student you entirely skipped the huge intro lectures.
Possible disadvantages:
French professors aren’t warm and fuzzy, they come and teach and leave; you’ll have to master a very specific way of drafting your papers (it can be useful but it’ll be tough at first to follow the format); very structured 1st year; you don’t know French so it’ll be confusing at first; mostly only matches social science majors, not appropriate for STEM students.
Will you be vaccinated?
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UCLA is the better option due to Covid concerns that could adversely affect your study abroad.
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Thanks so much for your response! Yes I am vaccinated and if I am going to do the Berkeley program I plan on taking a community college French class over summer. I also plan to major in the humanities/social sciences so nothing STEM related :))