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How would going to UC Berkeley as an exchange student affect my chances?

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jeremy

Joined: 30 Oct 2009
Posts: 2
How would going to UC Berkeley as an exchange student affect my chances?
Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:07 PM
Hello,

I will be starting my third year at law school (in Scandinavia) next year and this is when people usually study abroad for at least 6 months.

One student from our university is accepted to UC Berkeley every year, and I was thinking of going for that one spot. However, my long-term plan/dream is applying to Harvard for L.L.M.

Therefore I would like to know if going to UC Berkeley would (positively or negatively) affect my chances of later on getting in to Harvard?
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ChiefWiggum'sSon


Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 109
How would going to UC Berkeley as an exchange student affect my chances?
Sat Oct 31, 2009 02:59 PM
Hi Jeremy,

Clearly, going to almost any university abroad for some time won't reduce your chances. On the contrary, in doing so you give people, eg in Harvard's admission office, the oportunity to think of you as a proactive and interested person. As getting admitted to Berkeley for some months might not be that tough and competitive, it will, on the contrary, not mean that it will help you substantially, especially when compared with certainly more important factors like grades, ranking, publications and other 'usual suspects'. Summing up, it won't harm you, you would gain valuable personal experience, you could state it in your CV forever (looks nice), but it won't put you above other candidates with better grades, rankings, publications etc.

Best
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jeremy

Joined: 30 Oct 2009
Posts: 2
How would going to UC Berkeley as an exchange student affect my chances?
Sat Oct 31, 2009 04:48 PM
Hey,

and many thanks for sharing your thoughts! I just realised that I should propably rephrase my question..

I have already decided that I will study somewhere abroad next year, but do you think that Berkeley would be a better choice than going to France or Australia (for example) in view of my later plans for a L.L.M in the USA?

As for my grades, so far I' ve got 5/5 (that is the scale used in our University) from every course I' ve taken. I do however realise that this will propably change/ take a lot more especially during the last year of law school.
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pedrinus

Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 183
How would going to UC Berkeley as an exchange student affect my chances?
Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:00 AM
I don't think it will harm your chances on the contrary.

In terms of law school Berkeley Law is in the same stance as Harvard Law. In fact the acceptance rate in Berkeley is lower than Harvard Law.

I would personally prefer to stick with Berkeley Law.
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Santa


Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Posts: 403
How would going to UC Berkeley as an exchange student affect my chances?
Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:41 AM
I don't think it will harm your chances on the contrary.

In terms of law school Berkeley Law is in the same stance as Harvard Law. In fact the acceptance rate in Berkeley is lower than Harvard Law.

I would personally prefer to stick with Berkeley Law.

Even if your statement about admissions percentage is true, you cannot put Berkeley on par with Harvard. Only reason for even remotely thinking about preferring Berkeley is if your interest is in IP or Antitrust.
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