U-verse (includes cable like mine), does not require a land phone line DSL (requires a land phone) DSL Direct (does not require a land phone)- you probably want this.
Get Comcast ($46/month). Their customer service is awful but it's much faster & more reliable than DSL. Since the difference is only $20 or so, I'd highly recommend Comcast or a similar cable service (but Comcast is doing monopoly in the bay area). Apparently, Verizon FiOS is the fastest residential service so check their website to see the availability. I don't personally recommend AT&T but then I've never used them so I might be biased.
But the difference is almost negligible compared to the tuition! But then if you're staying all day at school, Berkeley has a pretty decent internet connection.
DSL is a best-effort technology, and the speed is never guaranteed. You can get 100Kbps connection for your supposedly 12Mbps connection, and your ISP is not responsible for it. That's why I never recommend DSL for anyone.