UC how much more selective for international students?

nick_scheu
Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:38:04 +0000

Will you be applying as a freshman or a transfer?

A lot of international students attend California Community Colleges first. This has two advantages: it gives them priority consideration when applying to UCs (including Berkeley and UCLA), and it also saves a heck of a lot on tuition because CCCs are so much less expensive than UCs (even paying non-resident tuition).

If you’re applying as a freshman it will be a bit more challenging, but it’s easier now than it was a few years ago. Because non-resident students pay so much more, UCs have been expanding their enrollment. Essentially what they’re doing is keeping in-state admission numbers (that is, the number of admits) static, but letting in more out-of-state students. The idea is that the out-of-state students subsidize the in-state students.

Anyway, if you’re looking for advice, I’d do two years at a California Community College. You’ll have more advantages than just cost and priority admissions to UC. For instance, lower division classes at CCCs are often much smaller than at UC.

Take a look at Math 1A and 1B (lower-division calculus) at Berkeley: 200 students and 400 students, respectively. At Citrus College (one of the two I attended), the comparable classes each have just 40 students. Going the CCC route affords you the best of both worlds.