" You won’t find a lot of Stanford admits who turned it down to go to Berkeley…" … actually I know a couple of people who did, for financial reasons. In-state for Berkeley is vastly cheaper than Stanford.
On another note, if location is everything, I’m surprised Irvine doesn’t get a bump from that (or maybe it does). Near the beach AND not too far from Disneyland :-). If I were moving to CA from the midwest for undergrad and location was my top factor, I think I’d go there or UCSD.
The admit rate of berkeley is lower than the admit rate of UCLA.
Berkeley’s average hs gpa and the standardized test scores (SAT and ACT) are considerably higher than UCLA’s for both of the applicants’ data and admitted students’ data. Meaning, Berkeley is much harder/tougher school to get into than UCLA.
When I was applying to university, I didn’t really consider UCLA as my top choice. I know it’s a good school. But for someone who’s got better stats, more talented, and more self-driven, Ivy League material and such, UCLA is considred only as a fall back school.
However, I was an OOS applicant. 