Haven't read any other posts
But San Jose and San Fran are the 2 best places to party..the great thing about san jose is you can walk from bar to bar, you dont have to worry about cabbing it...sf, there are some bar hopping areas however you may have to cab if you wanna hit up multiple places in one night
BART will get you to San Fran, but it closes around midnight, so if you plan on partying late, BART probably wont take you back to Berk.
If you want to go shopping you can visit Union Square in San Fran, Stoneridge mall in Pleasanton is pretty nice, same with Santana Row in San Jose (Rich shops like gucci, louis etc.)..Santana Row has a decent night life too, it's where most of the 49ers live and chill (Vernon Davis, Frank Gore, Patrick Willis etc)
If you lookin for outlets, Livermore just built some brand new premium outlets, i haven't peeped but i hear there are over 300 stores..Livermore is about a 40 minute drive from Berkeley..Great Mall in Milpitas has some decent priced stores as well