If you want to be a software engineer, UCB probably has the most renowned CS program of all the schools you mentioned. At Cal the only differences between L&S

If you want to be a software engineer, UCB probably has the most renowned CS program of all the schools you mentioned. At Cal the only differences between L&S CS and EECS are lower division classes. L&S CS and EECS students at Cal take the same upper div classes, and most of the same lower div classes (only differences are the non CS GenEd's and eecs has to take ee20n and ee40 but L&S doesn't). I think the perceived value between a UCB CS degree and another school's CS degree (regardless of BS or BA) will be much greater than the perceived difference between a BS or a BA. And if you ever run into anyone who claims there's a major difference between a BA and a BS @ Cal, just point out that a Berkeley physics degree is only a BA as well. EDIT: just realized I didn't give you an opinion. Here it is: Go to the most difficult program where you are reasonably sure that you can still get at least a 3.5 GPA. No, GPA isn't everything, but it is a lot, because people tend to use it to weed people out when there are too many applicants for something, especially right after undergrad or for grad school. Some schools have grade inflation. Others, like berkeley, have an active policy against grade inflation: [1]. Yes, you can still get a good job with a 2.1x GPA from one of those schools (or, at least, I managed to), but it's much harder than if you have a GPA > 3. [1]: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Policies/ugrad.grading.shtml http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Policies/ugrad.grading.shtml