[mtviewdave]

Whether or not a trip to the SF Bay Area would be helpful or you is hard to say. But two weeks strikes me as a very long time just for the Bay Area. A day at Berkeley, a day at Stanford, a day or two hanging out at some startups, maybe going to a meetup or two. A week strikes me as plenty.

If you want to stay more than a week (and having done SFO<->SYD myself, I can understand if you would), you should think about visiting other cities.

If you're staying in San Francisco, you can get to either school, or anywhere in San Francisco proper, without a car. But a car starts to become necessary for anything beyond that. Note that many car rental companies won't rent to someone younger than 25, and those that do, will generally charge extra. And I suspect a lack of an American driver's license would further restrict your options.