I’m a first year Regents and Chancellor’s scholar at UCB and want to help answer your questions about the scholarship (all answers are my own thoughts). Below is answers to some of the things I wanted to know last year.
- What is the Regents and Chancellor's Scholarship?
The Regents and Chancellor's Scholarship (everyone just calls it Regents) is a merit based scholarship offered to top incoming freshman and transfer students.
- What are it's benefits?
--Scholarship: offers a minimum of 2,500 per academic year and will cover up to the full cost of attendance without loans or work study based off of need (students with and without need are considered for the scholarship and applying for aid will not impact you)
–Priority Registration: You register even before seniors and will get your first choice courses, professors and sections. This is an awesome perk at a school as large as UCB
–Guaranteed housing for 4 years: Berkeley has a housing crisis so having access to campus housing is really nice. Officially you don’t get priority when it comes to assignments, but unofficially regents get their top choices (a lot of regents live in the mini suites their first year). Sophomore regents tend to move into the campus apartments (Martinez or Channing Bowditch)
–Faculty Mentor: You get assigned a mentor based off of your intended major and a form you fill out near the start of school. Mentors are hit or miss. Some of my friends have great relationships with theirs while I barely talk to mine (different academic interests). There’s also chances for informal mentorship as many regents events include mixing with faculty
–Membership in Regents and Chancellors Scholars Association: There are a bunch of committees and positions within RCSA. I’ve not gotten particularly involved with it, but have enjoyed the social aspect and attended some of the events. RCSA has a lot of professional development and volunteer opportunities including running TedX Berkeley and sponsoring career fairs. My favorite thing from RCSA has been my peer mentorship family
–Research Opportunities: There’s a stipend for independent research and you’re put on the mailing list for other research opportunities. Cal wants its regents scholars to do research and win fellowships
–Resume Boost: It’s helpful to be regents when applying to things
–Regents specific financial aid officer: Regents scholars have their own point person in the financial aid office which is great for getting your questions answered and skipping the regular financial aid lines (your aid will disburse faster too)
- What are my chances of getting the scholarship after being selected as a candidate?
I think it's about 40%. My understanding is Cal admits 2000 top candidates early and that about 1000 of those are asked to interview for the scholarship. Then Cal names about 400 scholars with the expectation that around 200 scholars will enroll
- What's the interview like?
Interviews are with faculty from the discipline you're interested in (I was an intended history major and interviewed w/a French Prof since we were both humanities). Questions and experience vary pretty widely between interviewers and are often an informal conversation with opportunities to ask questions. I found the questions evolved based on my answers and that they were more thought provoking than most other college interviews. Make sure to dress professionally for the interview and send your interviewer a thank you after. I updated my interviewer on my decision to attend Cal and many scholars see talk to their interviewers at RCSA events
- Should I do ROHP? When?
You should definitely do ROHP. It's a free overnight run by members of the RCSA outreach committee and a great chance to see Cal and interact with current and prospective scholars. Your host is matched to you by major, so you'll be able to ask them lots of questions. My ROHP experience was a big reason I chose to attend Cal. I did ROHP during the Berkeley interview weekend because I wanted to tour campus. There is a date after scholarship decisions are released that is only open to actual recipients. Cal will fly certain students out for ROHP (out of state, low in-come)
- How is regents picked?
I have no idea. I keep wondering how I was chosen especially when I see how accomplished and wonderful my Berkeley peers are. I have found that scholars seem to have strong communication skills and genuine passions. Regents scholars represent the university at certain events so the school wants people who can be spokesman? I do know major doesn't matter, but that regents are heavily STEM, Business, and Poli Sci. This is likely because those programs require higher GPA and test scores for admittance and thus more of their students are top within the applicant pool
If you have other questions feel free to comment and I or someone else will try to answer them (I’m a student so all answers are my own thoughts and my responsiveness will vary due to coursework).
Thanks for posting.
How many are OOS? Are most scholars in-state?
Do they use financial need as a criteria?
Are you saying an applicant can be admitted early without being invited to Regent interview?
@bogeyorpar an applicant can be admitted early without being invited to interview for regents. Berkeley believes that by telling top candidates early in the cycle they can attract more of them. The admissions letter for early admits says something along the lines of Berkeley wants to give select applicants more time to visit campus and invasion themselves as Golden Bears. IDK exact amount of OOS selected as regents, but believe it’s roughly 50 scholars per year who are attending as OOS regents. There’s a specific ROHP for OOS and I think Cal flies students out for that. Regents is a merit scholarship. Financial need affects the amount of your award, but not your chance of receiving it. Anecdotally, I know of multiple scholars with EFCs of 0 and who’s parents had EFCs greater than the cost of Berkeley with several in between the two extremes
Hey, thank you for posting this. When do the interviews come out?
@whitball2022 Last year they came out Friday, Feb. 10 so I’d guess Feb. 9
@hbrunner thank you so much
Hi. @hbrunner, What is the maximum amount of Regent scholarship(merit not need-based)? Has Berkeley ever offered full tuition merit scholarship to an OOS applicant?
Than you for taking the time answering questions.
@TimeUpJunior The amount you receive for regents beyond the minimum depends on need (there aren’t levels within regents). An in-state student without need receives $2500 a year (10,000 total). I think OOS regents receive the difference between OOS and in-state tuition as their base scholarship, but I’m not too familiar with that as I’m an in-state student. Both in-state and OOS regents can receive full tuition if their need is in-line with that level of aid
I had always thought Regents were given to kids who had very high stats, but to my surprise when we did an official tour of Berkeley, a great tour was given by this guy who received Regents scholarship. He said he did not have good GPA or test scores at all but was from a low income family but he still received one. However, he gave a great tour and was a credit to Berkeley I am sure. But really, how Regents are chosen is a mystery to me.
Great info @hbrunner.
I wonder for an admitted EECS major looking to take some business classes in Haas, if Priority Registration for RC Scholars takes precedence over Haas Majors? Or are Haas classes completely out of reach for RC Scholars?
Here is from Haas web site:
"Enrollment demands make it impossible to accommodate everyone who wants to take Undergraduate Business courses. If you are wait listed for a Business class you should also attend a back-up course.
On a space available basis, the Undergraduate Program Office enrolls Haas majors first in Business courses, regardless of wait list position, followed by non-Haas students starting from the beginning of the wait list. Priority for enrollment in undergraduate Business courses is as follows:
Undergraduate Haas Majors
All other eligible undergraduates on the wait lists (generally juniors and seniors)
Graduate students
Eligible Concurrent Enrollment and cross registration students"
Can you give us specific ideas of what you & interviewer spoke of?
I am an OOS student and got invited to fly in and do my interview for Regents. Is this a good sign that I will receive the scholarship?
I don’t think it’s a sign one way or the other. There’s an overnight stay program and interview day for OOS regent candidates (I’m guessing your invite is for it) and I would recommend going. It’s a great chance to see the campus and meet other prospective scholars, plus I think interviewing improves your chances over those who do the paper review. I actually did my ROHP with the OOS people last year because I had already planned to be in Berkeley that night and the event was the same as the in-state program except for the panel which was mostly OOS scholars who could speak to the OOS experience
Is ROHP for OOS? I just signed up and I’m from Cali.
Hi, do any of you know of international applicants who are Regent scholars? Do they join the ROHP for OOS? Thanks.
@collegefind1234 ROHP is for all regents candidates. There is one date that’s tailored to OOS students (it says when you sign up/I’m not even sure it’s offered to in-state as a choice). There is also a date in April that is only for people who get the scholarship. I really recommend doing ROHP if you can it helped push me toward Cal
@hbrunner - thank you: I just signed up!
My son is a Regents scholar at Berkeley (EECS ‘21, also got Regents for UCLA CSE). We live in SolCal so he did the interview locally. He said the interviewer didn’t ask technical questions, he’s not there to test you. He did have my son’s application and asked about his classes and extracurricular activities, and some personal questions, like what’s your favorite book.
Good luck everyone!
@hbrunner you said that the scholarship covers up to a student’s need. Does that mean that the scholarship award will be greater if a student were to pick a more expensive housing or meal plan or less if say the student already has health insurance and doesn’t need the university to provide it?