Berkeley on Green Honor Roll

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, we're mentioning the fact that UC Berkeley is ranked by Princeton Review as one of the top 15 Green Colleges. Among our green achievements:

•  The university’s primary food service operator was the first in the country to receive organic certification, and organic salad bars are now a staple at campus dining facilities.
• Student projects have reduced energy consumption by over 8.5 million kWh and water usage by 3 million gallons. UC Berkeley publicly reports its sustainability metrics each year.

 

SIR Deadline May 1 and other news

Just a reminder to all newly admitted students: The deadline to Submit your Intent to Register (SIR) is May 1. You can SIR via myBerkeleyApplication.

 

In other news:

• Tens of thousands turned out for the 2010 open house. Click here to check out the scenes of Cal Day.
• UC Berkeley Engineering professor Daniel Kammen was appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to serve as a new type of adviser on clean energy issues for countries in the Western Hemisphere. 

 

Cal Day is Saturday, April 17

All new and prospective students, parents, and community: Please come to Cal Day, our annual Open House!

Trisha, our student blogger, lists a couple of really good reasons to visit. Plus, you can check out faculty lectures, campus tours, free museums, and Pac-10 competitions in baseball and tennis.

And, if still you need more reasons, check out the full list of Cal Day events here>>

See you there!

12,900 Admits for Fall 2010

The 12,915 students who were offered admission to the freshman 2010-2011 class include California residents and out-of-state and international students.

More than 50,000 students – the highest on record – applied.  More than 70 percent are California residents.

The admission rate for the combined fall 2010 and spring 2011 class, including state and non-resident applicants, was 25.6 percent.

Click here for news story>>

Snapshot: College of Letters & Science

•  Berkeley's largest college, offering more than 80 departmental majors
• L&S faculty includes 9 of the 20 Nobel Prizes on the campus (including 4 current faculty members), 2 out of 3 Pulitzer Prizes, and 11 out of 15 MacArthur “Genius” Awards
• Hours: Weekdays 9am-4pm (Wed. 1-4 pm)
  
  Location: 113 Campbell Hall
• What to check out: Discovery courses 
• Video: College of Letters & Science

Ask Admissions!

If you have a burning question for Admissions or our student bloggers, post them here as comments. We will address them in future posts!

Undergraduate Research: Yes, You Can!

Admisions gets a lot of questions along the lines of "What is the value of an education at Berkeley?" Tough to quantify such a subjective and complex experience!

One aspect that sheds a little light on the answer to that question is Berkeley's renown as a research university. This is not true only for graduates; undergraduates also have many research opportunities.

Here is what one student had to say about undergraduate research at Cal:

"When I was in high school, I had no idea of what research actually meant beyond lab coats and safety goggles; I didn't know what pipetting or other lab techniques were. After my first semester here I decided to try URAP and was invited for the initial interview with Professor Harland...What surprised me the most is how often Dr. Harland is actually there - he is almost always in the lab. In fact it is very rare that he is not. I can talk to him anytime I get results and I talk to him almost everyday. That really surprised me is how accessible and nice he was. It also surprised me how Mustafa is still very involved and I can always ask him for help. Also, the next International Xenopus Conference will be held in Germany this September and Mustafa (a fellow undergrad) and Dr. Harland are both going to attend. Mustafa asked me to write an abstract for our project and so I sent it to him and he submitted it. What surprised me the most was that he put me as the first author on it. Mustafa will be presenting for us and I am very excited."

Dipankan Bhattacharya, URAP Apprentice in Professor Richard Harland's Lab, Molecular and Cell Biology

Find out more about opportunities in undergraduate research by visiting the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program website.

Bill Gates Visiting and More News

Here are some recent news items about UC Berkeley:

Staples Names UC Berkeley Among Finalists in Global Search for Next Green Office Product

Nova Special ("Hunting the Edge of Space") to Feature Berkeley Astronomy Professor

Bill Gates to Address Berkeley Students on Giving Back