No, they no longer plan on this. Every student will be offered an on campus seat after the bill was passed.
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Less than 48 hours left now! Wishing all applicants the best of luck! UCB is awesome.
May The Force Be With You!
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Berkeley has offered January Start for many years. I don’t believe recent legislation will change that.
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Are there any stats on how common this is?
Wondering if January start/FPF will be with the WL admitted students.
This is fpf if you are wondering. My oldest son is a soph at Cal. Got in off the waitlist. Was offered FPF for the fall or spring start. They said no guarantee a space would be available for the spring so we had to do fpf.
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I heard people on reddit saying that the internal transfer to CS in L&S will be closed, is it true?
No indication that this will be happening anytime soon. Is there a source quoted? UCB had posted a story about changing the way they might admit CS BA students were some would be automatically admitted instead of going through the competitive secondary admission.
https://www.dailycal.org/2021/02/18/uc-berkeley-computer-science-proposes-major-declaration-process/
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I think this is a smart idea for a lot of reasons as outlined in that article:
- Major certainty fosters collaboration and disincentivizes a cut-throat mindset
- Better mental health for students and parents
- Far diverse class since holistic review will determine who gets in rather than the hard GPA cut-offs
Most competitive CS programs will eventually switch to a direct admit format.
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How is FPF different from regular admission?
So, it is marketed as a smaller, more focused transitional first semester to ease in Freshman to the big college experience. It is run directly through UC Berkeley Extension, and you take classes that are not on the main campus. (Classes are in the UC Berkeley Extension building on University Ave close to campus). You still live in the dorms ets, and there is a small fee for the program as well.
This is all true, however the reality of it is that it’s more of a way for Cal to accept more students without overcrowding main campus lectures. FPF is generally offered to everyone, but it may be the only option available to you if you are admitted from the waitlist. My son had to do it his freshman year (WL Admit). It was all remote anyway, so it was fine.
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This is similar to the reasoning that UCSD used when they moved to the CS lottery. It sounds like UCSD may be doing away with that in the future.
Sounds like it worked out for your son! Do you see any potential downsides to it in a non shutdown year?
I know several students who were spring admits and were very happy and successful at Berkeley. I also know many students who declined January Start and thrived at other UCs.
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Well, the downside is that you aren’t on campus for classes, and you have a limited course selection. Mostly Breadth requirements and not much else.
Upside is the small cohort of kids that you will be hanging out with. Smaller class sizes. Even though it was UC Extension, the professors were VERY good (says my son,)
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Just messing around and was wondering if the last year withdraw application portal astrology remains true? When I click withdraw application it brings me to a screen that allows me to select a box that says something like are you sure you want to withdraw your application. Does everyone have this?
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Nevermind this I found the portal astrology thread.
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what is the exact wording do you see?
“I am no longer interested in attending UC Berkeley and wish to withdraw my application”
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So, do you mind posting over there what the astrology was 
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Those are amazing stats - what do you think it was? If kids with credentials that weren’t at that level made it in, do you think it was the essays? I’m sorry about the rejection - and hope he makes it into UCB.