I think you need to decide what type of college experience you are looking for?
Berkeley will be much more diverse both culturally and financially, has better overall weather than St Louis, the SF Bay Area is one of the world’s great cities/area, and if you want to work in northern CA, it helps to go to the state’s public flagship, big school spirit and D1 sports, world renowned reputation.
Washu will have a much smaller student body, less politically active, smaller classes, great dorms, large percentage of wealthy students with 85% from OOS, some people like the Midwest, some don’t.
Again, totally different experiences, there is no right answer just depends on what you are looking for out of 4 years of college?