UC Berkeley announced that it will begin accepting two recommendation letters from its freshmen applicants beginning this fall.
UC Berkeley undergraduate admissions has not welcomed recommendations since it opened its doors in 1868, yet admission criteria to the UCs (and Berkeley) have been in the throes of change over the last years.
As applications surged into the UC System, Janet Napolitano, the UC System president, announced a plan to raise UC tuition at a 5% annual clip over the next five years.
The tuition hike is scheduled for the 2015-2016 term, raising tuition by $612, and will take tuition from the current $12,192 to $15,563 in 2019-2020. Out of state tuition would rise to $36,828 next year and ascend to $44,766 by 2019-2020.
The UC proposal breaks with the 4-year budget deal that has annually increased state funding in return for a tuition freeze. State funding has increased 5% in each of the past two years.
Napolitano has several reasons for the proposed tuition increase and believes the tuition hike is essential to maintaining the quality of a UC education.
For the first time in recent history, the UC Admissions site goes live on the same day as the Common Application: August 1st.
If you're going to be a senior next year, it might not be a bad idea to celebrate by writing the first draft of your UC Personal Statement now. As the websites at most the UC campuses advise, applicants should take ample time to brainstorm, write, revise and burnish their essays. It is essential to do as good a job as possible on the personal statements as they are key components in the UC selection process at most of the campuses.
On November 1st, the University of California began accepting applications for fall 2014. This column contains a number of frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding the application timeline and details, selecting majors, submitting test scores and the UC Personal Statements. Although many of the answers can be found on the UC Admissions site, most applicants have little time to scour a 45 page PDF to unearth them. I, on the other hand, run into many of these every day.