Hi, I just heard I got into UC Berkeley for the upcoming Fall Semester! I think I’ve got a pretty good idea on the logistics of applying for a visa, health insurance, etc. Do you have any tips on the American/UC/Berkeley college system/life for someone not familiar with it? What are the biggest pitfalls? What do you wish foreign students knew before/while attending Berkeley?
So, I was eavesdropping on some future international GSIs learning more about English and undergraduate life, and they didn’t know anything about like sororities/frats, or English that much. Where are you at baseline-wise? Country of origin might also be nice to know.
I’ll go look for some people for you. I know 2 French people, 5 South of US people, a few Chinese Taiwanese Hong Kong people, 1 Portugese person, 1 Lebanese, 1 Saudi Arabian, a whole lot of British people, etc.
Thanks for the reply! My English is fine since I attended an American international school for a while. Only some colloquial terms might be new since I do not converse in English a lot anymore other than study stuff. I know the basic premise of sororities/fraternities since I’m Dutch and a member of the Dutch equivalent. Other than that most of my knowledge is probably based on conversations with American students and media/clichés like the recent admission scandal, unaffordable tuition and how college sports are huge for some reason.
If you have a chance to live in the International House (I-house), go for it. It’s a fantastic experience, you’ll meet friends from all over the world there (I met my husband there as well as other friends I’m still in touch with nearly 30 years later). Although you might not be eligible depending on whether you are coming in as a freshmen or an upperclassman or a grad student (I think you need to be at least a junior).
Ah, sorry for not clarifying. I’ll be a senior next year. Yeah, I’ve heard more positive stuff about I-House, will definitely look into it. Thanks!
I house does prefer Junior/Senior exchange students and they don’t have that many dutch people, so you should be able to get in. Otherwise you can end up living in the dorms which is at least easier than trying to find off campus housing.
The only advice I got so far was to do your visa on time because a British guy says he almost didn’t.
Yes, I’ve heard about that. I will apply for a visa as soon as I get the I-20 form. Do you know if it’s easy to rent a car at 21 and secure housing in the Co Ops/I-House/dorms?
Uc Berkeley has arrangements with enterprise, mostly so they actually rent to people under 21. Also, gig cars are really popular, but they’re cheaper on weekdays so keep that in mind. Ubers?
IHouse prefers exchange students, but I did have one Japanese exchange student friend who lived in the dorms because in his case it was easier to get into the dorms than iHouse, so apply to both just in case. Coops are mostly filled up by now, but you could apply to them too if you want. I think exchange students have priority?
Price level it goes Coops (~$9000/year), dorms (15000-21000), then iHouse is most expensive, generally costing over ($17,000-22,000). iHouse has better food. Clark Kerr dorm has large rooms. Coops are cheap.
so some things in general about the USA and California that you may not know about, or in most cases might know about but never thought about it.
- no grocery stores close by, especially if you're going to be at I-House.
- instead of 15 minutes late, all classes start 10 minutes late ("Berkeley time")
- health insurance at Berkeley will cost you $250 a month.
- no straws in California restaurants unless you ask for it. Probably doesn't apply to fast-food restaurants
- we don't have high speed trains, but for going to San Francisco and Oakland the local BART train is ok.
- we have pretty late hours that stores open, 7 days a week
- football is American football...futbol is soccer.
- yep, Americans are not multilingual, many of them speak only one language, English.
- no smoking in any restaurant, or pretty much anywhere in an enclosure.
- for milk and gasoline, we go by gallons. Gas is around $4 a gallon, so divide by 3.8 to get liters. This one takes some getting used to.
- we use inches, feet, yards and miles instead of centimeters, meters, and kilometers. Pretty easy to calculate in your head though.
- we use Fahrenheit for temperature instead of Celsius. Pretty easy to calculate.
Thank you! Would you recommend either Coops/dorms/I-House over the other? I assume it’s all going to be as good as one makes it?
Ah, yes, I knew most of these American habits due to holiday trips etc. Especially unit conversion is going to take some time to get used to, I reckon. Concerning Berkeley time, if a class is scheduled to start at, say, 14:00, it actually starts at 14:10 or would it be scheduled for 14:10 already?
traditional dorms for the most part are usually inhabited mainly by freshmen. Occasionally sophomores. There is some university housing that is more for upperclassmen and graduate students though such as International House.
Classes officially is listed as starting at :00 or :30, but in actually classes start at :10 or :40.