@Mastodon97 I really do hate the weather. It’s literally my dream to work in California.
But then again Irvine isn’t nearly as prestigious as Wisconsin. 
I get the impulsive need.Trust me. Your best, bet unless you are too far along, is a community college in CA. I know it isn’t glamorous but it can assure you entry to UCB. Unless you have a strong GPA and can apply straight as a freshman. They take a higher number of int’l as freshmen.
@lindyk8 Wait what. International students can attend California Community colleges?
Yes they can. Many do. You will have to pay OOS tuition, but it isn’t very high. And then, I don’t know your age but you may be able to have CA residency by the time you transfer, if you are separate from your parents (you might be too young). And then you would transfer as a CCC transfer, whether you’re a resident or not. 94% acceptance, baby!
A HUGE number of international go to De Anza community college in the bay area. High transfer rate to UCB.
http://www.deanza.edu/
@lindyk8 Yeah I am just 17 right now. Going to be 18 this month. So if I join a California Community college, I am guaranteed an admission at either UCLA/UCSD/UCB given that I do well?
The way it works as a CCC transfer student, you can TAG one of these campuses: Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Riverside and Merced. (San Diego had TAG until about last year.) Assuming you fulfill the requirements (minimum units, certain GPA which is low, and the general ed classes) you are guaranteed. UCLA has TAP, which gives you priority. Only certain CCCs have TAP but De Anza does. Basically, you take six honors classes.
Frankly, as long as you have a good GPA you can get in to any UC, including Berkeley, without any of those programs. As you are international, I assume you are majoring in STEM, probably engineering, math, or econ, maybe business. 
All of those, except math, are impacted, which means you need to get around a 3.8, but it is totally doable. UCLA might be a little lower if you can TAP the major, because they really do give you a break there.
De Anza international page. They do major international recruiting. Focus is STEM.
http://www.deanza.edu/international/
Plus, it seems you can meet them OVERSEAS:
http://www.deanza.edu/international/tschedule.html
@derprage I wouldn’t say that it’s guaranteed but it’s extremely high. For UCLA CC transfers has 30% acceptance rate and UCB has 23% acceptance rate. Also the figure that @lindyk8 quoted is wrong. I think he/she misspoke because the 94% number is just how many of the accepted transfers are CC students, not the acceptance rate.
@lindyk8 Wow thanks! I will really think about all of this!
I can’t believe how helpful you are.
I love you.
Thank you!
@Mastodon97 Yeah… Well. This is certainly an option. I am pretty sure I can get a 3.8+ GPA no doubt, and if that means I can secure a spot in UCLA/UCB, it’s worth it.
94% of ADMITTED transfer students to UCB are from a CCC. That means 94% of spaces go to the CCC students. Re applicants, a lot are just tossed out right away because they don’t have the minimum qualifications. You have an agenda Mastadon and that’s fine, because obviously you are an OOS student.
I think the time has come to stop listening to mastodon because he’s trying to shove the OOS down everyone’s throat. I’m not going to keep arguing to value of OOS over CCC. It just ain’t the way to go if you can avoid it. Even the UCs say it over and over.
@lindyk8 Yep. They clearly mention that they give first priority to CCC students.
Plus, you save a lot of money.
@lindyk8
Whoa! When did I start shoving OOS down everyone’s throats??? In fact, in my first posts on this thread I talked about how the UC’s value CCC students over anything else! I was just simply talking about about UC Irvine and Wisconsin because those are the ones that @derprage brought up. No need to get stingy I’m just trying to help.
Ah sorry. It just seemed like every time there was a comment that CCC was a better route than OOS I had to hear how it was all relative. Trying to find stats on CCC admits vs OOS admits and parse out the numbers, etc. I get where you were coming from statistically, but it doesn’t change the dynamic that much and I was interpreting (wrongly, I guess) that you were pro-OOS. Sorry again. 
I mean, really, I did misinterpret… 
@lindyk8
haha it’s ok. And I definitely know the huge advantage there is to attending an CCC to transfer into a UC as opposed to an OOS school however derprage didn’t even bring up CCC as an option and since he/she wants prestige I didn’t think that he/she would want it.
@Mastodon97 I don’t think so either haha but if it means that I get to go to UCLA/UCB/UCSD, then obviously it sounds very lucrative.