Well from what I gathered, the material covered at either will be quite similar. I think the main difference between the two is if you were looking to get a PhD. definitely go to Berkeley hands down. For simply the MS, I think Stanford is generally smaller class sizes and a little more one-on-one attention in terms of teaching. That is the impression I got. Since I was in the CEM visitation program (DCI is in the civil department - it basically allows ppl to take some of the structural classes and construction classes from either program), I did not see what was going on for the actual structural program. How did it look?
I heard about financial aid at Stanford about two days before the visitation day.
I am also thinking about University of Washington. They seem to have a decent program. It all seemed like a good program but not many people could tell me much about it in relation to Berkeley, etc. Anyone have advice about Udub?