What might bring one to turn down UC Berkeley for USC?

The Honors program at UCS would give you much smaller classes and far more faculty attention than you’d get in your lower-division classes at Cal. Berkeley is an excellent school, but there’s a lot of competition for resources - difficulty getting into classes, housing crunch, lots of being taught by grad students. For similar $ I would consider the Thematic Option Honors Program a better value and educational experience. At Berkeley you’d be paying for the name but waiting in line for UCB to deliver on its reputation. JMHO.