I'm an admitted international student! Please explain some things to me!!!

Ukrainininian
Sun, 29 Mar 2015 14:33:05 +0000

Hello guys! I’m unbelievably happy to be admitted to UC Berkeley Class of 2019!!! Now that the admissions part is over for me I’m trying to figure out the best way to succeed in my future education.

First of all, I got in College of L&S. I’m 100% sure I will be majoring in Computer Science.

1. As I understand most of the US students coming to Cal already have multiple credits (from AP classes, IB, etc). I come from a regular Ukrainian school and didn’t have the ability to get any credits/units. What’s the best way for me to keep up with other students?

2. I heard about some summer program called Freshman Edge. Will it help me? Is it worth taking? What should I do to make sure I graduate in 4 years, and generally do everything I can towards graduating in time?

3. I read that there are many degree requirements (classes that I must take). I have also heard that you can satisfy some of the requirements by exams. Exams I have taken are SAT (CR 550( pretty bad sub-score, I know), M 750, W 750), Math II 750, Physics 680, TOEFL iBT 103. Can these help me in any way? Again, I don’t have any AP or IB credits to satisfy these reqs.

4. For Foreign Language requirement: my first language is Russian. Is there any way I can use this to satisfy the requirement? Maybe some type of exam?

Sorry if some of these questions are too dumb. I was trying to google everything/search on CC but there are so much information that it’s too hard to understand anything. Plus most of the explanations are oriented on US students that are familiar with the credit/unit system…

I’m just trying to take it smart, so that I don’t waste time or have to take too many boring classes.

Thanks in advance !!!