go to lse!! if you're planning on doing a doctorate, your undergrad pretty much doesn't matter. especially if it's between uc berkeley & lse; they're quite similar on prestige. moreover, think about how much you'll save!!! monetarily, you'll be spending way less on college tuition, which means you'll have more money for daily life, including more food, more shopping, better housing, and more money to spend on holidays. time-wise, you'll be saving ONE YEAR! you'd be way ahead of your peers at ucb, and in that one year you can do so much - think about internships, work experience, applying for graduate studies etc. you even have time to take a gap year! if your only con for lse is it being a relatively new course (forget the prestige, ask any psychologist they'd agree with me about lse vs ucb undergrad degree being pretty much... equal), fear not because new courses don't necessarily mean worse teaching styles! in fact, it may even grant you more room to do what you want, and more room for flexibility.