Well, Cal Poly SLO is right where I am. It has a better engineering program that Ponoma has. Especially in the Electrical Engineering field. I know the head of the EE department here, his name is dennis derkison. I would absolutely recommend this college, it is very hands on based and you will receive much more employable skills than the other universities. Though if you are more interested in theory of everything, I would recommend UCLA or UCSD. Also, SLO is a very beautiful and friendly area. It is surrounded by mountains. I go to the community college here that is only like 5 minutes away from Cal Poly. Also, the research opportunities here are amazing. Since there are no Ph.D student here, the professors really focus on their undergraduate student. If you get into Berkeley for EECS, I would recommend that over anything else though.