Michigan grad here, living in SoCal. This doesn’t seem difficult to me–go to UCSC.
Michigan is great in everything, but for the reasons you laid out, Santa Cruz seems an easy choice.
Ann Arbor is terrific. The classic college town. However, the weather sucks. It’s not so much cold as it is gloomy. I grew up in the Midwest and my first year or two was brutal. You really won’t see the sun much because of the lake effect cloudiness and snow from December through April. No kidding. And I went to Minnesota for my MBA. Much colder, but at least I saw the sun a lot more. To me, for seasonal disorder, it’s up there with Seattle or Oregon, and you have the cold, which makes it worse.
Ann Arbor as I mentioned has a lot going for it. Outside of A2, you have Detroit which is one hour away, Windsor Ontario, also an hour, Chicago which is 3.5-4 hours away, and Toronto which is 5. In Santa Cruz, you have SF which is 1.5 hours away, LA at 5 hours, Yosemite, and Sacramento, Napa Valley, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, all not far. Which one sounds better?
If you are majoring in CS, what place is better than one that is 45 minutes from Silicon Valley? Sure, Michigan may have a better international reputation, but the UCs are no slouch either, and if you look at the original list of Public Ivies, the UC system was in there. And the alumni network is overblown. The only schools where the alumni network is so strong to help get you a job that aren’t Ivies are Notre Dame and USC. Michigan is so big, and there are so many grads out there, that I doubt it skews employment in your favor.
Now comes the cost. Michigan is $55K for upper division tuition RIGHT NOW, but it is likely for the upcoming year to be at least $57-58K. Count on it being at least $60K the following year. Then there are living expenses, which adds another $15K-$16K. And Detroit is not cheap to fly to. So you can go to Michigan for $150K for two years, or a UC for $65K…hmmm…not even close. Save your money for grad school.
If you were out of state for a UC and didn’t care about the weather, pick Michigan. Considering your situation, I’d pick UCSC.