<p>UC Berkeley is probably my second or third top choice, but after reading this I'm not so sure:</p>
<p>Financial Aid and Scholarships</p>
<p>In general, UC Berkeley does not have scholarships or financial aid available to entering undergraduate students who are not citizens or permanent residents of the United States. International applicants are encouraged to explore scholarship opportunities from private sources.</p>
<p>I'm an international, and financial aid is very important for me...should I just stop working on my application? :(</p>
<p>I think I have relatively good stats. 2030 on my first SAT (took it again yesterday, expecting a 2200 or so hopefully). A total of 7 APs this year + junior year (I wasn’t in the american system before that). I’m an A student (GPA: 4.5W/4.0-3.9UW) and have some good ECs.</p>
<p>Exactly how much can scolarships help me compared to financial aid? And do I get informed about scolarships before attending the uni? Or do I have to wait until I’m there?</p>
<p>Forget Berkeley…even if CA wasn’t in a crisis, the UCs haven’t given FA to int’ls.</p>
<p>Not only do they NOT give FA to int’ls, the VERY few int’ls that get merit, don’t get enough to cover the $50k to go there. A 2200 is not going to be high enough for one of those few mid-sized merit scholarships anyway. </p>
<p>What other schools are you applying to?</p>
<p>How much can your family contribute?</p>
<p>Are you applying to ANY safety schools that will give an Int’ls big merit for stats?</p>
<p>I hate to tell you this, but we are US citizens, but out of state, and Berkeley offered my son no financial aid. Our EFC is $25K but to attend Berkeley it would have cost over $50K per year. Needless to say, he didn’t go there.
He had a 2360 on the SATs and took 12 AP courses. GPA was 92%</p>
<p>*we are US citizens, but out of state, and Berkeley offered my son no financial aid. *</p>
<p>That’s about right. Berkeley really only helps the low income residents of Calif. They don’t really help those who are beyond Pell and Cal Grants - even if you’re a resident.</p>
<p>*Our EFC is $25K but to attend Berkeley it would have cost over $50K per year. *</p>
<p>OOS publics charge OOS fees for a reason. It wouldn’t make much sense to charge that much and then just cover it with need-based aid. If they were to do that, they may as well get rid of the OOS cost.</p>
<p>Thanks for everything. I guess I’ll just scratch Berkeley, UCSD and UCLA off my list of colleges…It’s a shame, I really had my eyes on Berkeley.</p>
<p>If you’re actually willing to take a risk and work, there might be a chance for Berkeley. All you need to do is move to California one (1) year before the year you plan to attend school and work to support yourself independently with that time period. Your parents can come to if you don’t have the funds. Once you establish in-state residency, attend a community college for 2 years and achieve an associates degree, which can be used for Guaranteed Admissions to any 4-year public in California like UCSD or UC-Berkeley. Its a lot of work and there is a risk that you might not have the academic chops to pull it off, but if you really care about this school you will find a way to make it work.</p>
<p>Obviously, she would have to go through the process of becoming a legal permanent resident. This isn’t something that is supposed to be easy; the best things in life are not easily obtained. It’s hard for kids to understand that because our instant-gratification culture, but I feel like it’s an important one to bring home since it’s so applicable to this situation.</p>
<p>*If you’re actually willing to take a risk and work, there might be a chance for Berkeley. All you need to do is move to California one (1) year before the year you plan to attend school and work to support yourself independently with that time period. Your parents can come to if you don’t have the funds. </p>
<p>Once you establish in-state residency, attend a community college for 2 years and achieve an associates degree, which can be used for Guaranteed Admissions to any 4-year public in California like UCSD or UC-Berkeley.*</p>
<p>Right…his whole family is just going to wait years to immigrate, uproot their lives, find work in Calif (somehow), get green cards for FA purposes, and establish residency for instate rates, then go to a CC for two years, and then go to Berkeley.</p>
<p>Uh…I think he wants to go to Berkeley before he’s 30.</p>
<p>If he’s not willing to be realistic about his prospects of attending and affording this school without going into penury, then he might as well stay home and attend one of his home country’s schools. My advice is targeted towards driven individuals who are willing to cope with delayed gratification in order to achieve serious, realistic goals. I don’t really have time to work with people who think that there is a quick fix to college, work, or life.</p>
<p>OP – If you ever need some advice, feel free to PM me or anyone else here. Pretty much all of the regulars on this forum are either financial aid professionals or parents who have gone through this process at least once before and have the experience needed to guide you, or both. It’s better to ask questions now than to make a mistake and end up stranded with nowhere to go at the end of next summer.</p>
<p>^?? how is he going to get permanent resident status?</p>
<p>OP has the option to go to other schools, some of which he actually have a shot of getting merit scholarships, why waste time trying something that won’t even work?</p>
<p>OP, you’re an intl, you should be able to pay, and don’t expect much from schools in the US, especially public schools.</p>
<p>Very few US universities are need-blind when it comes to financial aid to international students. Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Williams come to mind, but with the financial meltdown, even that isn’t confirmed.</p>
<p>Bedouin: There is no such thing as guaranteed admission to UCB or UCLA. The TAG (Transfer Agreement Guarantee) is only for UCD, UCI, UCM, UCR, UCSC, UCSB, and UCSD if your CCC has an agreement with your UC of choice. UCLA and UCB use TAP (Transfer Alliance Program) which is not a guarantee, but offers different benefits that can and often do increase one’s chances of being admitted.</p>
<p>Also, even if the OP were able to somehow magically gain US residency status and California residency status for tuition purposes in such a short amount of time as you suggest, the OP would not be eligible for the bulk of FA monies available to California residents. One of the main criteria is to have graduated from a California high school as a California resident to receive Cal Grant. The UCs rely very heavily on Cal Grant as one year is worth $10,302 right now (for tuition fees only).</p>
<p>OP: The UCs can barely afford to pay for residents. You’re not going to get any money from these schools. We’re cutting programs left and right along with gapped FA packages even for residents. There’s just no money especially if you were not a California resident before you graduated high school. Look elsewhere unless you can afford the $50k+ a year ):</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice Bedouin, but this is extremely unrealistic. I do want to attend Berkeley, but I also have a lot of other more easily financially accessible colleges that are just as good.</p>