<p>"UCLA: Mandatory fees=$8,109.50
USC: Mandatory fees=$32,008
8,109.50 times four =32,438"</p>
<p>Ah, but being a wealthy private school that is quite generous with need-based aid (unlike cash-strapped UCLA) along with merit aid, very few USC students pay the full $32k tuition. I only pay $11k (not including merit aid)... in other words, USC picks up $21k of the tab simply because they've determined through various financial formulas that I'm unable to pay it. In fact, had I decided to go to UCLA, I may have ended up paying more. And indeed I do know some students who made their USC-UCLA decision based on USC being cheaper for their specific circumstances.</p>
<p>So really, you can't say USC costs 4x more than UCLA. They are apples and oranges as far as costs are concerned.</p>
<p>I would think a Berkeley student would have more sense than that.</p>