Top of the mornin'

<p>Now that we've got that out of the way, on to business.</p>

<p>I'm a 19 year old student from Dublin, Ireland and I've got my heart set on Berkeley. I'm currently in University College Dublin, studying a physics course. However I've realised that this isn't the college for me. In fact I know it's time to leave the country. </p>

<p>I've always wanted to go to college in America, but with the pressure of exams and other activities the past few years, I never had a chance to follow it up. Now that I'm in college however, I've decided that there's no point in sticking with something that in all honesty I'm only doing because of convenience. </p>

<p>I do realise however that there are bound to be certain difficulties in applying for UC Berkeley, some of which being that I haven't done the SAT's, as they aren't practiced in Ireland; and the fact that I don't have any grades stored from the past few years as in 'high school' in this country, continuous assesment plays no part in getting into college, and exam/homework grades are not recorded.</p>

<p>I was wondering if I had any chance of getting into the college with the below credentials:</p>

<p>Junior Certificate ( State Exam students in Ireland take at 14/15 ) : Maths(A), History(A), Civic,Social and Political Education(A), English(B), French(B), Geography(B), Religious Studies(B), Business and Economics(C), Irish(C).</p>

<p>Leaving Certificate ( State Exam students in Ireland take at 17/18 which decides which college we get into) : English(B+), Maths(C+), History(C+), History Research Project(A+), French(C), Physics(C), Classical Studies(C-). </p>

<p>Now I know those aren't the best results in the world, but as far as I know, the Leaving Cert is much more difficult than the SATS, at least in regards to the amount of content you're required to know. The leaving cert is less about intelligence and more about one's ability to cram as much info into your head for the exams, which all take place at the end of our final year, and then forget it all once we're finished. Crazy I know :).</p>

<p>Anyway, other accademic achievements worth noting are: </p>

<p>-Special Award for Excellence in Maths ( Got that in my final year of Junior School. I think that's the equivalent of Junior High in the states ).
-I was in a special advanced class the same year, where myself and 4 other students from the school were chosen to study abstract subjects such as Latin and Philosophy.
-I'll also be finishing this year of college in Ireland and will present these results to Berkeley. I haven't gotten anything below 85 % yet, though the year had only recently started so fingers crossed.</p>

<p>Other things that may be of use:</p>

<p>-I was a volunteer 2-star Private in Ireland's RDF ( Reserve Defence Force) for around 18 months.
-I put in around 50 hours of communittee service during my fourth year of High School.
-I've been playing guitar since I was 10 and I've been in two pretty good bands. I'll send in a sample track as a special talent thingy if it helps.
-I was on my school's rugby team for about 6 years.
-I was also on a golf team at my club.
-I set up and ran an irish teen forum for two years that had over 2,500 members.</p>

<p>Now that we've got all the background info out of the way, I'd like to ask a few questions.</p>

<p>1) Is the above enough to get me into the college if I write a '*****in' personal essay.
2) Should I do the SATs? There is an exam centre in Dublin for students who want to study in America.
3) Are international students usally welcomed in Berkeley?
4) Does anyone know if there's many irish students in the college?
5) Which dorms are considered the best. I was looking at Bowles because of the architecture but was a little put off by the all-male thing.
6) Any advice on which fraternaties are good? I suppose I'm getting a little ahead of myself there :P</p>

<p>Any other advice or tips would be great.</p>

<p>Cheers, Lep.</p>

<p>1) I'll say yes. Berkeley knows that Ireland has completely different requirements and exams. Write a convincing essay and you should stand a good chance.
2) Yes. There's no point in not taking it.
3) Yes. We have a ton of international students.
4) --- I don't know.
5) I can direct you to my thread, haha. <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/483827-housing-preferences.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/483827-housing-preferences.html&lt;/a>
6) <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/478207-frat-sorority-tiers.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/478207-frat-sorority-tiers.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Hope you get in! :-)</p>

<p>Actually the best plan would be to go to a California community college and try to transfer from there. Start from scratch, do a full two year schedule, and then try to transfer. I think that would work best rather than try to apply as a transfer student from your current university. You can't apply as a freshman since you already started another university.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses guys. </p>

<p>Just realised a little snag with the SATS. I wouldn't be able to take them till December/January but the Berkeley website says the deadline for applications is 30th of November. </p>

<p>I wasn't really planning to transfer to Berkeley from my current college, but rather, as you said start from scratch. However, would it not be possible to simply drop out of my current college either during this year or after the year's ended and start in the freshman year in UCB?
Maybe I'd have to ring Berkeley to ask about that.</p>

<p>Lep.</p>

<p>Freshmen are ONLY those students who have not matriculated (ie, started an official term) at a university after high school graduation. Once you've enrolled in college as a full-time student, you will no longer be a freshman.</p>

<p>That's about the extent of my knowledge, though. You might want to see if you can talk to/email someone in admissions so you can ask about your specific circumstances. I'm sure it's come up before, but I can't say that it'd be common by any stretch of the imagination.</p>

<p>You can't start fresh. It's too late. You can only apply as a transfer, either directly from your university, or by going to a us community college for a while and then trying to transfer from there. I would recommend the latter.</p>

<p>Well I looked into it a bit more and while you're correct that I can't technically apply as a freshman, I can still start from first year in Berkeley after completing my college year here and transferring. Really I don't see any difference in being considered a freshman or not, I'd still be able to everything they could, or have I misunderstood something?</p>

<p>
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Really I don't see any difference in being considered a freshman or not, I'd still be able to everything they could, or have I misunderstood something?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The admissions process is different. You need to be a junior to be accepted as a transfer, with all your prerequisites met for your major, etc. It is a completely different admission process from the freshman admission process. Go to the UC Transfers board on here and take a look.</p>

<p>It's a different admissions process, and you have less time. You're guaranteed 8 semesters or 130 units as a freshman admit, but only 4 semesters or 130 units as a transfer. While you can take anything Cal has to offer once you're here, with the limited time you'd have left as a transfer admit you would do better focusing on what you need in order to graduate.</p>