<p>Assume that the applicant lives in California.</p>
<p>Please consider the fact that UCB's EECS has a ~12% admission rate.</p>
<p>I know they're both hard, but which is slightly harder?</p>
<p>i think Columbia might be harder simply because the competition in berkeley's EECS applicants pool isn't as strong as Columbia's. A very large number of even semi-decent students in california will apply to Berkeley even if they have very little chance of getting. One reason is the fact that all UCs use the same application, so might as well apply for a lot of them. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, i think a lot of Columbia applicants apply because they think they have a decent shot.</p>
<p>For example (this is WAY exaggerated, btw)</p>
<p>Say 10 people apply to berkeley and 10 apply to columbia</p>
<p>Say berkeley will accept 1 and columbia will accept 2. A quick look at the data will show that berkeley is tougher to get into.</p>
<p>However, Berkeley's pool might have 5 or 6 who had no chance at all and only applied because they already filled out other UC's forms and it's a nice dream school (something that I see everywhere around me). </p>
<p>On the other hand, all of columbia's applicants might be pretty decently qualified students.</p>
<p>When I look around me at my friends (i live in san francisco), a vast majority of them applied to berkeley regardless of their ability.</p>