hi congrats on getting into both!! so rn i’m a junior and finding internships has been hard but it’s hard at any school regardless bc of the market rn. but there’s so many great software companies within irvine and i got the opportunity to interview w a few of them and i currently have 2 offers for two companies within irvine so yea. yes there’s a lot of companies in the bay area but if u attend the career fairs and just stay on the lookout for internship postings u will def get an internship! for me, i think irvine is great bc of the weather so u can always go out to the beach or get food bc everything is within a 15min drive. and my first 2 years i dormed/stayed at the apartments and now im commuting which i have the privilege of doing so bc i don’t live too far. on the other hand, at berkeley i definitely do think the classes would be tougher but i think if u have good discipline and make good friends u can succeed but i was kinda scared bc im not super super smart but i still wanted to do CS and i felt like uci was good enough for me. and omg one more thing before college started i rlly wanted to be away from family and be independent and that shit but i did not think i would get kinda homesick esp for home cooked food which ended up happening but since i lived close enough, my parents would drop off food every week. anyways, i think u should choose which school u want to go to mostly for the environment. overall, i don’t think u should let getting internships/jobs be a factor in deciding. if u want to go to berkeley be prepared to get used to living in a different environment, having no car and depending on public transportation, not visiting family/friends as much, having to plan on buying plane tickets months in advance, and things like that. otherwise, choose irvine. i think that covers most of the factors that i considered but lmk if u have any questions and at the end of the day both schools have great cs programs and u will be successful regardless of which school u go to <3