How hard to get into UCB as an international student?

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

<p>I'm a Chinese student studying at the UK, i applied to the UCB and UCLA in economics major. I just checked the admission statistics of ucb, i think its kind of impossible for a non-california citizen studying at an outside-US univerity to be admitted by berkeley or ucla in economics major. Moreover, i guess there are several things would siginificantly decrease my chance to be adimited.</p>

<p>The first thing is the british grading system. In the UK universities, a result above 70 is regarded as the 'First Class' which is same as a 'A' in the American university grading system. My university provides a guideline states that an average result above 73 is equivalet to 4.0 in GPA for an american university. Im realy worrying that whether the admission officers of UCB and UCLA accept this. My grades were great, my average grade was about 87 and my class rank was 3rd out of 210 students(do they care about this?)</p>

<p>The second thing is the stupid coursework system of my uni. In my uni, students take four courses in one whole academic year and only take exams at the end of every academic year(every june). Though every course goes in-depth very much, I still only did four courses last year. So I only have the grades of the four courses and I surely did not fulfill the prereqs in the eyes of admission officers.</p>

<p>The third thing is that I dont know the reputation of my uni in the US. My current university is London School of Economics and Political Science. If you're studying economics or social science, you should know it. But if you are majoring in engineering or physics, you probably never heard about it. The fact is that it has the best economics department in the UK. As far as I know, all applications are not evaluated by departments. So I'm afraid the admission officers are not familiar with my university and underestimate the value of my grades.</p>

<p>My ECs and awards are fairly good. The champion of 100,000 meters race in city's sports game when i was in China. President of student union in high school, runner-up in the mathematics olympic competition of china, founder and player of boxing club in high school, second prize in the China Adolescents Science & Technology Innovation Contest, part time job since high school, internship at Ministry of Commerce of China etc. My language is good enough, IELTS 8.0 and GRE 1430(800+630).</p>

<p>I dont know how my personal statement is. I spent most attention on the first part(630 words). I personally think it is good. A PHD from Yale and a teacher in my uni viewed it and they all said that it is good. I did not know how to write the second part, so I think it is only ok. </p>

<p>I really want to go to california because the life in london is boring and expensive and the weather is terrible. I'm new here, I just want to know do i have a good chance to be admitted by UCB or UCLA? I would greatly appreciate any feedback!</p>

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<p>California residents get priority first. Than comes US residents. Also your ECs won’t mean very much because it’s hard to prove you did all those things in China. For econ, I don’t know how many international students transfer to UCB or UCLA but I’m guessing it’s very few thanks to California’s Master Plan for Education…which gives priority to California Community College students. Cheers.</p>

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<p>Hi keepwalking, I’m basically in the same boat as you are, I go to uni in the UK but I’m a California resident so I’m not sure what my chances are either. I tried to explain the grading system as best I could on my application, and hopefully they’ll have someone who’s dealt with it before and understands it.</p>

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<p>I think both berkeley and UCLA are taking steps towards increasing the amount of international students who attend because international students pay higher fees, and hence give more money to the school. Pretty sure berkeley already started this by accepting only a tiny amount of transfers. UCLA chancelor gene block has been talking about this too.</p>

<p>the whole ‘getting in is almost impossible if you’re not a CR’ thing is changing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the UCs (or at least the top ones like LA and Berks, maybe SD) make the move to try to abandon state funding and become private unis. Although california presumably wants to avoid this, if the budget doesn’t get solved soon they may not have a choice. I know at least that the anderson school of management is taking steps toward trying to fund itself so it won’t be limited by the university.</p>

<p>but i (heavily) digress. Overall, your options are probably significantly better now for berkeley than they were even two years ago.</p>

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<p>really? I think most of the international students who got admitted to berkeley are from california community colleges, at least from a domestic colleges…</p>

<p>Maybe, you should look into a semester abroad. LSE is pretty well known, I bet they have some programmes with some college on the east coast</p>