Student Report
University of California, Berkeley.
Fall 2014
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
We received information about our acceptence to the exchange program at UC Berkeley,
early in the spring. But, we didn’t recive our acceptance letters from UC Berkeley before
May. This came through BI´s International Offices. With our acceptance came some practical
information, such as a map of campus and our schedual at school. After this, BI forwarded emails from UC Berkely regarding more practical information. We found this information
useful, and it explained what we should prepare, and deadlines before leaving Norway and so
on. There was also a information meating at BI Oslo in June, with previous exhange students
telling us about their experience.
We didn´t really have any difficulties before we left for UC Berkeley. There was a couple of
Facebook pages made, where all the exchange students going to UC Berkeley could ask each
other question if they needed help. Our guidance at UC Berkeley, Chris Chang did also
answer gladely if we were insecure and needed help.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
After being accepted from UC Berkeley we had to apply for a US VISA.
When applying for out VISA, we first had to go through an application online. To be able to
fill out this application you first have to receive some documents (i-20) from UC Berkeley
and you also have to take a photo with special measurements to upload on your application.
When filling out the application online you also pay for the VISA, wich was around
2000NOK.
In order to get an American VISA you have to go to an interview on the US embassy. You
book your appointment online while filling out the applicaton. There can be a long wait to get
an appointment, so I would recommend everyone to apply as soon as they get the documents
from UC Berkeley. Since the US embassy is located in Oslo, you have to remember that there
are travelling costs for students from other cities.
When you are at the embassy, they take your passport for a few weeks so don’t plan I holiday
a week after your appointment. After they have reviewed your application, they send your
passport including your VISA back to you by mail. I think this took about 2 weeks.
Travel
When travelling to Berkeley, we took a direct plane from Oslo to San Fransisco which was
about 10 hours. The time difference from Norway is 9 hours, so it takes a few days to get over
the jetlag. From both airports (Oakland and SF international) there is a public transport “train”
called BART that can take you to Berkeley. The Bart takes around 1 hour from SF
international and 30 minutes from Oakland.
Housing
BI does not provide housing, but they provides information of the different alternatives.
We had heard from earlier students that have lived in Berkeley, where it was good to live.
It is smart to find a house/apartment before you come to Berkeley. We found our apartment
before we arrived and this made the prosses much easier. The apartments vary a lot when it
comes to standards. Library Gardens and Gaia buidling is where most of the BI students live.
We lived in Gaia building and our apartment had a very good standard and an amazing roof
toop. The leases last from 5-12 months and you are responsible to find someone to take over
your lease when you leave
Costs
It is expensive to live in Berkeley. Most of the students therefore chose to share rooms.
We paid around 750 dollar( NOK (5200) per person per month for housing including
furniture, electricity, water and garbage. You have to pay a deposit on the apartments, but you
will get this deposit refunded back at the end of your lease. Books and Iclicker are required
for some of your classes. The books and Iclicker was not not so expensice and some of the
readings are online articles. You can chose to rent the Iclicker and also return some of the
books and get some money refund. Food is in quite cheap and it is therefore common to go
out and eat. Transportation is cheap also, and to travel you can use the BART. We did also
Use Uber( a cheaper taxi).
Culture and language
All the readings and classes are held in English. I felt that it was easy to understand the
professors in the classes, but it was demanding sometimes to do the readings to every class
because of some difficult English words. But in total, I did not have any big language
problems at Berkeley. It was fun to use the language, and I believe that my English is much
better know that when I first arrived. The courses that BI makes us take here at Berkeley are
almost just with Norwegians, so I did not feel any language problems with other students in
my class. The americans that we got to know and hang out with in our recreation time were
easy to communicate with, and they were also interested in learning some Norwegian words
and sentences. Because we have to talk English every day, you can easily improve your
English through this semester which is the hole point with going to an English speaking
country.
San Francisco and Berkeley are close to many interesting places that you can experience
while studying at UC Berkeley. We moved to Berkeley in the end of July and went on a
roadtrip for three weeks. We rented the car in San Francisco and we travelled to Carmel,
Santa Barbara, LA, San Diego, Sedona, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. It was an amazing trip
that I will recommend to students. We took a flight back to Berkeley from Las Vegas. It is
expensive to travel with domestick flights in the US and Spirit, United and Delta got many
cheap tickets. There are other possibilities as well, like Lake Tahoe which are popular in the
summer or in the winter and Sonoma wine county which is the center of the state´s wine
industry.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Please describe:
The University of California Berkeley is located in Berkeley, on San Francisco Bay. It is a
premier public university with 36,204 students as of Fall 2013 including 25,951
undergraduates and 10,253 pursuing graduate degrees. Undergraduate degrees equivalent
bachelors degrees, and graduate degrees equivalent master degrees. The University is also
offering PhD degrees, but the qualifications must meet their high standards. The University is
offering 130 academic departments. The Sociology department we were enrolled in, is ranked
number one worldwide. The campus is beautiful, but very big. Therefore they use something
called Berkeley time, whereas all classes start 10 minutes after they actually would have
started. The University have 31 libraries, 3 main libraries 18 subject-specialty libraries, and
11 affiliated libraries.
Course registration
Before arriving the international office at BI release information about choosing classes at UC
Berkeley, an which classes we can chose from. All students from BI, will be enrolled in the
sociology department. The process of choosing classes had to be done again online, with
instructions through mail from the extension office at Berkeley. This process was somewhat
difficult, but manageable. The classes listed online did not get automatically approved, and
the professors take fore granted that if you want to attend their classes, class participation and
signing up for their classes the two first weeks are necessary to be enrolled. This period also
contained the time where it was possible to add or drop classes.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special events/holidays:
August 12th
August 19th
December 4th
December 8-19th
Gamdays, Columbus day, Labor day,
Thanksgiving
Arrival
The introduction week was well organized. We had the first meeting with all the Norwegian
exchange students and the professor that’s started the extension program at UC Berkeley. In
this meeting we got all the information we needs regarding how to ass and drop a class and
how to apply for the different classes and also general information about campus and about
Berkeley. We was introduced to the peer mentors and after the meeting we where divided into
groups with the different peer mentors and talked with them and we could ask questions etc.
After that we went to Pappy´s grill where we got free food and was able to get to know the
peer mentors and also the other Norwegian exchange students. The rest of the week the peer
mentor arranged a scavenger hunt around campus and other activities to get to know the area
better.
The International Office
We received emails about important information such as visa application and steps we needed
to take before we could leave for UC Berkeley. They held us up to date about deadlines and
provided quick responses if we had any questions.
Promoting BI and Norway
None of us were involved in promoting exchange to Norway.
Social activities
The first day of school we were thrown a welcome to Berkeley party at a local restaurant/bar.
The sociology department provided food and drinks and we had a great time getting to know
the other Norwegian exchange students. We were also introduced to our peer mentors, which
were students at UC Berkeley that volunteered to be mentors for us exchange students. They
arranged different activities for the us throughout the whole semester such as sightseeing
trips, thanksgiving dinner, and pumpkin carving for Halloween. These activities were a very
good way for the students to get to know each as well as the American culture.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
At Berkeley the classes take place in an auditorium. In general a class lasts for three hours,
compared to Norway it is not normal to have many breaks. The Professor decided when it is
suitable to have a brake, usually halfway in the class for about 10 min. As a student you get
weekly readings which are du to the next week. The Professor talks about the readings in
class. In classes the Professor may as questions to the student, her it develops a discussion on
topics that are important. They uses a formal language, you will always name your professor
as “Professor”. Also, the Professors host “office hours” normally once a week. Her the student
can come an ask questions about exams or the curriculum.
In Berkeley the workload is more evenly distributed throughout the semester compared to
Norway. There is not a final exam that counts 100 % of your grade, there are tests evenly
distributed throughout the semester. Attendance also counts as a part of your grade her in
Berkeley. There are severals due testes throughout the a month. Half trough the semester there
are midterms. Midterms usually counts about 30 % of your hole grade. At the end of the
semester the students have finals which also counts about 30 %. The rest of the grads are
evaluated on essays or other smaller testes.
Course materials
The course materials depends on which class you take. For us, we were allocated a the articles
of Professors online so we did not have to buy curriculum. Much of the readings was awarded
online. However, in we needed to buy a book in one of four class. Which was new to us was
that in one class we needed to have an iClicker. This device was used to count participant in
the classroom. The Professor asked a question and we had four different answers to choose. In
this way, the Professor was able to see whom were in the class. In every class we went to the
Professors also used a powerpoint. The course material was even to the one we have in
Norway.
Exams
The lectures were well organized and summarized the course materials well so the exams
were based on a combination of lectures and course materials.
How was the course evaluated (include all that apply)?
 Final exam: there where different forms of finals depending on which course you took.
The finals where either a final paper/essay or a in class exam (written)
 Mid-term exam: the midterms where also different depending on the different courses. We
had one take- home assignment and one in-class exam (written).
 In-class quizzes: in Organization behavior and strategy we had cases throughout the
semester. The professor said that if she saw that people stopped coming to her class she
would have unannounced quizzes.
 Small assignments and/or papers: we had small assignments and also some bigger
assignments in every class. The smaller assignments where often based on that weeks
reading and lecture material and the bigger assignments where based on more course
material.
 Presentations: we only had one class where we had a small presentation about our partners
research paper, but none of the other classes had any form of presentations.
 Group work: we had some cases that solved together in groups of both international
students and Americans that where taking the same course. We also worked in groups
when we presented another students research paper in the writing seminar class.
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Class attendance: all of the classes demanded class participation and they took attendance
in every class. Attendance was about 20% of the grade and you could have 2 days off
without it affecting your grade.
Class participation/debates: in some classes there was more discussions than in other but
there was always room for questions in the different courses. In one class, innovation and
entrepreneurship we had an iClicker that randomly chose three names that had to answer a
question that was on the power point. It was not a problem to pass the question to another
or just say you did not know the answer.
Activities outside of the classroom: We had no classes where there where activities
outside the classroom.
Library and technology
UC Berkeley has a lot of different librarys that are open to all students with a library card
(costs about 15$). With this card you get access to all the libraries, and also UC Berkeleys
proxy server which includes huge amounts of academic articles that you can use for your
studies.
On the UC Berkeley campus you also have internet access everywhere as long as you have a
Calnet ID. This is free of charge and something you register in the first week. Wifi is then
provided in all parts of campus (cafes, gym, libraries etc.).
Description of courses
Please list below all the courses you took while on exchange. Your comments are useful for
BI and for future exchange students, include information on the qacadmic level, challenges,
relevance to your studies, if the course was practical/theoretical, any enrolment issues, etc.
Course code & name
SOC 167
Master/
Bachelor
Bacholer
SOC 119S
SOC 121
SOC194
Bacholer
Bacholer
Bachelor
Exam form
Prerequisites
Home: 3
questions that
need to be
answerd
Home: essay
In-class exam
Home exam;
deliver final
paper
None
Approved
as
Elective
None
None
None
Mandatory
Mandatory
Mandatory
Comments
Final note:
As a business students, we found some of the required courses to be irrelevant for our carrer.
However, they gave us a new point of view on several subjects. The courses are structured in
a different way here in the US. Instead of having one final exam that counts 100% like in
Norway, you are given several assignments throughout the semester. Also, attendance counts
about 20% of your total grade.
The American culture is very interesting. We would say it is exactly as in the movies. The
typical American is polite, including and open for bulding new relations. Also, Norwegians
are very well appreciated here.
Social
Due to the huge amount of Norwegian students, it is easily to connect with other peers.
However, we find this to have ambigiouos effects. Since there are so many norwegians, you
will most likely end up in a norwegian ”group” were you are comfortable and can speak your
native language, which is a great support to have. That said, our peer mentors only arranged
events for ”the norwegians”. We would like this process to be more international. In that way,
we could more easily get in touch with students with different nationalities.