Applying to Berkeley

Partner institutions must nominate students to participate in the exchange. Berkeley does not accept applications directly from individual students.

Deadline for Submission: All applications must be received in the IAS offices no later than April 1 for the following academic year, even if the student is only applying for one semester (ie. Either Fall or Spring semester). Please remember that Berkeley does not accept applications directly from individual students. The applications must be forwarded to Berkeley by the partner institution.

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Eligibility: IAS administered exchanges are designed for graduate students and, on very rare occasions, advanced undergraduates, whose status is equivalent to US graduate students, in some the European educational systems. Students participating in the program must do so at the graduate level at Berkeley. Undergraduate courses are not open to exchange students. Graduate courses are numbered 200 to 299; undergraduate courses, 1 to 199. At Berkeley a full course load for graduate students is between 8 and 12 units per semester. Most of Berkeley courses are 2, 3, or 4 units per semester. If the applicant's primary interest is coming to Berkeley to conduct research related to writing his/her dissertation, it is not necessary to take a full course load.

Please be aware that not all courses listed in a department's curriculum are offered every semester. Student demand and faculty availability has a great effect on determining what courses are offered.

Often courses are listed as 2xx A or 2xx B. This indicates that the courses are part of a series. Please read the course description carefully to see if course A is a prerequisite to course B. This is not always the case and can reflect a logical division of related material.

Some courses are listed several times during a specific semester. This does not indicate that the various offerings have different content. If there is a great demand for a specific course it is offered several times in one semester.

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Berkeley's Academic Schedule: At Berkeley the academic year is comprised of the Fall and Spring Semesters. The Fall Semester is the first semester, and begins the third week of August and ends the second week of December. The Spring Semester begins the third week in January and ends the second week of May. Please refer to http://opa.vcbf.berkeley.edu/AcademicCalendar/calendar.cfm for the specific dates of the academic year.

Berkeley does hold a Summer Session http://summer.berkeley.edu/ . However, Summer Session classes are not included in the exchange program. Anyone who meets the basic requirements may apply for Summer Session courses independently.

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