Just want some Berkeley too!

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Hi, I'm faf,</p>

<p>I'm a french canadian from Quebec who'm, long story short, hates french, hates snow, hates Quebec. I have been playing basketball in school's since I'm 9 and, recently, the coach I had for 3 years and a half (also the one I felt the closest to, the one who made me grow the most through basketball) died in a car accident. Since that moment, I dropped basketball and found a new source of motivation : berkeley. I still play basketball here and there, but its nothing competitive. as of now, I'm focusing only on my grades so I could move away from this place and find a spark of life-enjoyment in an american college, where I think I would fit the most and be the happiest.</p>

<p>So, my primary goal was just to get a scholarship for my last college year, but I just can't take it anymore. Every day in here adds up and I can't enjoy **** or find any form of fun. I just want to move to an american college as soon as possible. So heres some questions I wanted to ask for long :</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Of course im an "out of state" and "out of country" applicant, and I was wondering ; what are the fees for living in california and berkeley and studying at berkeley (also consider I really would just try to pay the bare minimum; have a small living place, always buy food/clothes/anything in sales, etc). I just want an idea, to know if I would need more like 15 000$ a year, 30 000$ a year or anything to live and study at berkeley.</p></li>
<li><p>What is the minimal age requirement to apply at an american college? I currently am 17 and turning 18 this summer, and I wasn't sure if I could even apply next year due to age/knowledge requirements.</p></li>
<li><p>Is it really that much harder to get into UC berkeley if I'm not from UC or if I'm from Canada?</p></li>
<li><p>Are there any kind of scholarships I could compete for so I could help the financial issue?</p></li>
<li><p>If, by example, I would apply for a loan to take care of mostly all my college payments, would the draw back be too big for it to be something I should consider? what I mean is that I wouldn't want to end up with a 100 000$ dept + 20 000$ of interests to pay when I'm done with college.</p></li>
<li><p>I think I want to study into civil ingeenering, and I had many questions in mind concerning just that. Is it hard to get in civil ingeenering at berkeley when compared to other of programs? If yes, what kind of marks do I need for it? Also, here in Quebec, civil engineers are really needed (as in : as soon as your available you get a job): is it similar in USA or is it hard to find a civil engineer job in the United-States?</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Thats all I can think of right now... Thanks for reading and possibly answering if you are willing to, I really need some form of concrete motivation to keep going, so thats why I though I needed to finally decide to ask my questions on CC.</p>

2

<p>sorry to hear about your coach…let’s give this a try</p>

<p>1) I have no idea, you would be a good applicant to FASA (or something like that that means financial aid) but I’m not sure how Canadian applicants work. You should call the UC Berkeley financial aid offices.</p>

<p>2) You’re age is fine</p>

<p>3) As much as it sucks, yes, CA residents have priority.</p>

<p>4) Yes there are scholarships. But look at other options as well because the “full ride” scholarships are especially difficult to obtain and the small ones only help to a certain extent.</p>

<p>5) I don’t know anything about loans. Financial aid officer is probably your best bet.</p>

<p>6) I have no idea. From what I understand of freshman applicants (im a transfer) most apply as undeclared in a particular college and end up choosing a major. for you the college would be engineering. I have no idea about the demand of CE in america.</p>

<p>You didn’t mention your GPA/Standardized Test Scores or grade level (12?). sorry I couldn’t be of more help…</p>

3

<p>1) [UC</a> Berkeley Financial Aid Office Cost of Attendance](<a href=“http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/home/cost.htm]UC”>http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/home/cost.htm) Cost comes out to$46K a year, though you could probably find cheaper housing/budget better for it to come out at ~$42K a year.</p>

<p>2) age is fine. i don’t think there is anything about how old you have to be.</p>

<p>3) yes it is harder to get in if you’re international, but you probably have better chances now since UC is looking for more money from OOS/internationals.</p>

<p>4) you probably won’t be eligible for the financial need scholarships offered by UC berkeley b/c you are international, but if you’re really competitive in terms of grades/SAT/etc. you could get Regents’ scholarship. you can apply to many scholarships outside of the university since there are a ton out there. </p>

<p>5) look at the cost of attendance and see how much you can afford to pay and how much you will need to take a loan for. i would say anything above $50K is unreasonable, where you go for undergrad doesn’t really matter (depends on what field you plan to enter i guess) and there are great schools elsewhere that probably cost less - weigh your options against Canadian schools and other private universities that offer financial aid to international students (e.g., Princeton). </p>

<p>6) you can apply for civil engineering, from what i’ve heard, getting into college of engineering (which holds all engineering departments) is more competitive in general than say college of letters & sciences (holds all the humanities, biology, physical science, etc. departments) or college of natural sciences/college of environmental design, etc. you would be needing almost perfect grades (close to all A’s), and SAT score of 2100+, and pretty good extracurriculars.</p>

<p>7) i also have no idea about demand of civ eng in America.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the quick answer, still looking for more info though if people want to help ;)</p>

<p>About my GPA and other scores, grade, etc : Quebec uses a different grading system and scores also are different. In here, we have 5 years of high school, then 2 years of “cegep” (which is kind of like a between-highschool-and-college transition school), and finally college. So yea, I think according to your system, I am grade… 12? And I also think thats the last grade in USA, but thats just the thing : we have one additional (and useless if you ask me) school year in here, for about no reasons. Also one of the many reasons I wan’t to leave my place and jump into the real thing ;).</p>

<p>For the scores : we don’t use A/B/C/D/E/F system, we use percentage. As of now, I think my overall percentage is 87% and I aim to get it past the 90% mark before the end of the semester.</p>

<p>Standardized Test Scores : I’m sorry, I don’t even know what this is. But I’m curious, so let me know. If your talking about the oh-so-famous “SAT”, then I haven’t taken it yet. I think I’m taking it next month, or maybe in 2 months.</p>

<hr>

<p>Well I though I could show you all what my “me folder” looks like, so maybe if ya’ll could also take the time to help me with a “chance thread” I could have a better idea of how hard/harder do I need to work.</p>

<p>As of now, this semester :
Maths : 89% (will go down to about 87%, I really messed up my last test… bleh)
Physics : 87% (pretty stable, should be easy to get to 90% till the end of semester)
Chemestry : 80% (class I hate the most and understands the least. But hey, I think I can bring it up to atleast 85%)
gym : 92% (pretty confident I can keep it at 92% or more)
Philosophy : 89% (you guys don’t have that class I think, but it counts just like a regular class here. Will most likely go up to atleast 92%)
French : 70% (last exam was stupid. I usually am one of the best in my french classes. I will try to bring it up to atleast 80%, most likely more).
English : not a class I have this semester, but I will be in the strongest possible english class next semester. I have always been in the strongest possible english programs at my schools (ELA, aka "English Language Arts or advanced english class, during my whole high school) and last year my final score in english class was 98%.</p>

<p>Average : 88%, expecting 90% or more at the end of the semester.
GPA : well I don’t know… I just hoped someone else who knows the percentage system could evaluate if this is strong enough.</p>

<p>SAT : not taken yet, and absolutely no idea what to expect.</p>

<p>ECS:

  • Been playing basketball for 8 years, 5 years during high school, I had 3 different AA “cegeps” (equivalent to NCAA division 2 in USA I guess…?) teams that wanted to recruit me, but decided not to play this year for reasons mentioned in the original post. Will play again next semester or next year, unless I get into Berkeley of course ;).
  • I have been the captain of my basketball teams during 5 of these 8 years of playing.
  • Been in my highschool’s competitive swimming team (1 year)
  • Have about 150+ hours of volonteering of scorekeeping basketball games of other teams at my highschool.
  • About 85-100 hours of community service
  • Been working as a lifeguard for 2 years and a half.
  • Have worked as a dish washer (1 summer)
  • Many awards in sports (won multiple city-wide basketball championships and other tournaments, about 10 individual basketball and other sports-related awards)
  • Many academic awards (including “most active and overall best student”, 2004-2005)</p>

<p>If anyone have the time, I would love to know what you think of this resume also.</p>

5

<p>@ stly : thanks for the answers, very straight forward and makes things much clearer in my head.</p>

<p>I’m still and always am looking for different opinions though! So shoot them answers if you want ;)</p>

6

<p>This is another angle for you to consider.
I don’t know how it works coming from another country but you might consider going to a CAlif. community college for 2 years working on your engineering classes and gaining residency. UCs must offer slots to resident community college students since they are unable to get a 4 year degree from the community college before they accept other out of state and out of country transfer students. From state to state, residency takes one year. You will have to check into international change and give up your Canadian residency to become a Calif one.</p>